Errata:

"which also didn't for for those FDA-approved pacemakers" -> "which also didn't work for those FDA-approved pacemaker programmers"

We're talking a device which when it malfunctions, kills (or could kill) someone. And still the manufacturer didn't get the basics of security correct: using signed software updates.

How can we believe that IoT devices, which are manufactured with much less profit overhead, will be more secure? (Unless somehow regulated -- which also didn't for for those FDA-approved pacemakers).

How will we monitor the animals with face recognition 24/7 otherwise?

I have some fond memories of The President's Analyst but unfortunately I no longer remember it well enough to know if it was good enough to watch again.

Wow, it just occurred to me that TPC also has three letters (when I saw the movie, "three letter agency" was not in my lexicon).

Ooops, have to switch glasses now to check the lawn...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

But, but, then how will we fuel our self-driving flying cars?

Murphy strikes yet again!

Tony did it --- but now he's dead, too!

Be careful what you wish for! We're talking "knowledge of good and evil" here! :-)

In good Slashdot tradition, I posted before doing real research.

It seems that the material might have been designed to disperse the incoming energy via slow ablation, in similar fashion as spacecraft reentry heat shields work.

There are limits as to how well a non-moving object can survive this way, I think. Even if the shield absorbed all of the incoming energy, you still end up surrounded by a cloud of super-heated plasma. Anyone want to chime in?

nuclear blasts and lasers

There are limits as to how well ordinary matter can resist the ionization of its electrons. As far as I know, energetic enough photons of the correct frequencies can convert anything into plasma.

Good post. Yes, there are problems, which lead me to believe that the development of the moon will require decades in which only remotely controlled robots will be permanently stationed there.

Possible solutions to your problems are synthesizing the necessary atmosphere from the minerals there using sunlight as an energy source, and living far, far underground so that the overlying bedrock will sufficiently shield radiation.

Who needs it? Besides the obvious problems (and others you didn't mention) it is a large mass which is far enough outside Earth's gravitational well that using it for raw materials for further exploitation of space is attractive, yet it is very, very close to Earth compared to all the other large masses which have the same advantage. So close to Earth that almost-real-time remote control of robots is quite viable --- only 1.3 light-seconds away.

> it-was-only-a-matter-of-time dept.

Personally, I think it belongs in the dept. of it-is-only-a-matter-of-profits (or possibly it-is-only-a-matter-of-money, if you want to spin it with a double entendre).

See articles at

• https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.10378
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1709.05024
• https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.08395

Everyone whose phone number is a factor of an odd perfect number should be killed.

Your ability to refute with a comment containing interesting information is just... amazing!

Based on Wikipedia (so take it with a grain of salt), instead of YbCuO the real formula was YBaCuO. So yes, ytterbium became yttrium but not exactly as you claim.