I misread the headline as Kerbal instead of Kepler. I've been waiting for more planets to crash into.

I disagree. One of the implicit assumptions of the Drake equation is that systems that did have planets would have a high probability of configurations similar to ours. What has actually been found is that number of different planetary configurations is much greater than we ever imagined. The number of microstates in the partition function has gone up so the probability of finding any particular state has gone down.

Why would life be boring? If computers could make the big decisions, it would free up mental effort the same way mechanical machines freed up physical labor. People on one end of the spectrum could spend their time on leisure and recreation. People on the higher end of the spectrum could pursue intellectual and creative efforts.

And I'm pissed off that some dumb law prevents me from selling crack. How dare the government interfere with my profitable enterprise?

That's true. That's also not the point I was addressing. Besides, actual living on the street homelessness isn't a resource problem, its a mental health (including addiction) issue.

You are just inventing problems. If everyone has tons of free time to commit to artistic pursuits, like painting or cooking, then there's going to be so many pieces of art and fine meals that even these things will cease to be scarce.

It wasn't all that different than it is now aside from some of the technology advances.

You are dismissing a lot of important changes with that sentences. Washing machine, dryers, dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, central heating and AC: these are important time and laborsaving devices that were unheard of 100 years ago, but taken for granted today. Indoor plumbing and electricity were still rare in rural areas.

And don't even start with 200 years ago. Any lower-middle class American has a better quality of life than Napoleon did 200 years ago. In 1812, even king and emperors were literally wading through shit. The Palace of Versailles is a gilded tenement building.

What kind of barriers to entry on the ballot do you place that (a) prevent people from running just to exploit the lavish campaign fund and (b) don't require a large, well-financed campaign to achieve?

Because there's no story. Manna is an interesting thought experiment, but there's no characters, conflict or plot.

If you live in an apartment or condo, where are you going to put that drill press?

The big blockbuster movies are just advertisements for toys anyway. Sy-Fy quality movies don't sell merch the way that Disney/Pixar/Marvel/Star Wars movies do.

According to the second chart, the number global warming papers is growing exponentially each year! By the year 2100, our cities will be flooded with papers on global warming. Crops will fail because global warming papers will blot out the sun. We need to end global warming research now, before it's too late.

There is incentive to for small countries to cooperate in peaceful endeavors. The LHC is built by a cooperation between countries. The space program is increasingly moving the same direction.

You make that sound like its a bad thing. On Star Trek, the Borg are villains, but the only thing that might be considered evil is that their assimilation is involuntary. If joining the collective were a voluntary decision, then it might actually be a good deal.

The distances only seem insurmountable because of the limit of human life spans. If we could develop a way to extend our life span indefinitely, then taking a trip to another star might be an interesting 50,000 year vacation.