They obviously need to decrypt the drugs before the dogs can detect them.

To give Customs something to do, obviously.

Not to mention, where the hell are people going to grow food?

- Dig huge caverns for agriculture?
- Use hydroponics, or manage to find or make some dirt-like growing medium?
- Construct massive gro-lights?
- Construct ginormous reactors to power the gro-lights, and the air conditioning, and the water pumps, etc ...

No thanks.

Or put another way, you make it more difficult for the Universe to cleanse itself of a rather nasty infestation of humans.

Speed boils down to cycles per second. Power is work over time. The megahertz myth is rooted in the ease with which the former mistakenly implies the latter. I've seen SPARC systems do more work than contemporary Intel systems, with the Intels running at a higher clock rate. Similarly, scoring high on one particular benchmark does not necessarily give a true indication of the actual power of this, or any other supercomputer.

Meh. Most of the computing world has confused speed for power for decades now, whether on the desktop, in the datacenter, or in most benchmarks. Any attempt to better quantify performance can only be a good thing. However, I share your skepticism of the timing.

Please don't smear and presume to speak for those whom you a) don't understand, and b) don't represent. There is no conflict in being libertarian and supporting causes like marijuana legalization and gay marriage that are traditionally "socially liberal" positions. Small, effective, efficient government that mostly stays out of people's lives does not conflict with these causes either, and in fact is the goal of true libertarians. Asking your friend why he does not consider himself a Republican (assuming you haven't already) might be enlightening.

Being socially liberal does not necessarily mean paying for all the world's wants. Libertarians generally speaking are concerned with the rights and liberties of individuals, and keeping the government's nose out of such affairs. For example, supporting gay marriage is perceived as a "socially liberal" stance, but in fact, it falls in the realm of individual rights, and the government should butt out (ie, accept the rights of couples to marry, refrain from passing quasi-religious laws interfering). As such, libertarians I know are generally supportive. Same with legalizing marijuana. Obviously not all libertarians agree on this, of course, but I would suggest looking out for the many so-called libertarians who are more like conservatives in libertarians' clothing.

You spelled "invertebrate" wrong.