You don't want... this is a question...well, it's like a horror movie when a character is standing in a dark room, hears a scary noise, and asks "Who's there?". It's one of those type of questions.

Because it is inefficient. In addition to higher energy bills, a less efficient architecture means shorter battery life in a mobile device, more noise in a desktop PC, and fewer servers per rack in a datacenter.

Did you ask it?

Because dragons are really cool.

Let's use a more practical example. If you wrote an elaborate version of ELIZA which produced output indistinguishable from a human, but which you knew was merely a algorithm operating deterministically on outside input with data structures and subroutines for emotions, concerns, thoughts, and motivations, would it be immoral for you to shut your program off? To delete any of its data? To rewrite it and make improvements to it?[1]

And if you know a Human is also a deterministic machine, do you feel any differently about it?

[1] I suppose you could ask your algorithm for permission first, but if it is deterministic, you could simply examine its state and design your query in a way you know the algorithm will respond 'yes'...but at that point, why bother asking?

Probably because the notion of consciousness as a physical, deterministic property is also messy, leading to conscious arrangements of gears and the ultimate conclusion that you are simply an automaton programmed to believe it is conscious, awake and self-determinate by an elaborate and pointless lie created through the cruelty and caprice of evolution.

My take is we're no better than ancient Greek philosophers arguing over the properties of atoms. We can debate it until we're blue in the face, but we simply don't have the technology or foundation of understanding to discern the truth. It is unfortunate that Humans have a deep need to believe they understand The Truth About Things no matter how little they really know, and this has led to millennia of dogma and persecution.

I'd guess because it's the only US state on the pacific coast with no sales tax.

I agree, albeit in the general sense. There's a group of mentally deranged humans that make the other 5% look bad.

Nice idea, but I can't afford to keep eating out this giraffe.

No, the "Your-Mom" hypothesis for gravitational discrepancy in the universe has already been debated at length by many of the world's foremost astrophysicists.

I'd say quite a few casual programmers use Javascript, though many of them surely do their best to ignore its functional aspects.

But you're right in that casual and beginning programmers, or experienced programmers when they're only throwing together something quick and dirty, may be drawn to more forgiving languages or the languages they were taught in school/university, and this would bias the projects written in those languages.

Statistics is hard. You can't simply use a random selection, or else you might conclude children with large feet have better reading skills.

Except this isn't a metal file, or even a generic CNC milling machine. It's explicitly built and marketed as a single-purpose tool.

From a legal perspective it's one thing if I make BitTorrent but quite another if I make "MetallicaShare - click a button, get your favorite Metallica songs!".

I'm not saying the device is illegal or should be banned, but he will almost certainly have the same liability as if he were selling the AR-15 lower receivers himself.

Geeks (and other people, but us more than normal) love to analyze things, and think we're remarkably clever when we find a loophole in specific wording.

If laws were enforced by djinn that would be a useful skill, but laws are enforced by judges who are supposed to evaluate the spirit behind a law and the intent of your actions, not merely the letter. And they hate when people get 'clever'.

I assure you, the argument "But I'm not selling an X, I'm selling a magic box that spits out X when you press a button" will not go over well with a judge.

You mean like household robots, or robots that serve some family function...or...oh.

This is why we need to give power back to the states!

Oh, wait, that didn't work.

Give it to the feds!

Honestly? They were pretty shit too.

Hail the king!

Ehh, he really made a mess of things last time.

Power to the corporations!

No, wait, that was a complete disaster.

We could try giving it to the people again, but let's face it: they're as selfish and shortsighted as the rest.

Okay, I'm open for suggestions at this point. Horses, maybe?