Comment ALMOST THERE... (Score 0) 80
Am I the only one that immediately thought of the bio-etheric laser from the spirits within?
Am I the only one that immediately thought of the bio-etheric laser from the spirits within?
Isn't it obvious? To act as a planetary booby-trap for the raptors who were once driven off of this planet. We can only assume that after escaping to the farthest reaches of space and developing a massive space fairing armada, they'd return every 20 million years or so to asses the habitability of their former world. When they return to find their world overrun with fleshy pink things, the fight will be vicious one. After our inevitable defeat, we'll lie in wait on the moon. Years will go by, but eventually, the raptors, satisfied that the world is theirs once again, will dismiss their fleet and and lower their guard. It's at this point that we'll unleash our trap, sterilizing the planet in a nuclear holocaust, so that centuries later, once the radiation has subsided and life returned, we might have earth for ourselves...
For another 20 million years.
You don't see this sort of thing in markets with real competition. Try to charge $100 on that bag of cheezie poofs, and the other guys will take your profits by charging $98 dollars a bag, you'll be forced to match them, and so on, until the prices are at the limits of profitability, and can't be lowered any further.
The bottom line is, software improvement is a one time cost, once its done, it's done.
Hardware solutions on the other hand, though cheaper outright, are reoccurring (you'll need keep upgrading that hardware as it becomes outdated) and scale up with demand (if you double your number of servers, you'll need to double this hardware as well)
This is why, except in cases were demand won't increase, or the extra hardware is unlikely to become outdated, software solutions tend to be the more economical choice.
Drive around to a couple of thrift stores or garage sales and pick up a couple interesting appliances he can take apart, give the boy a box of nuts and bolts and some tools and let him go to town.
YMMV, but when I was that age, returning home to find a new appliance on my workbench was like a tiny Christmas.
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.