So, they finally automated blowing smoke up peoples asses. Think of all the labor costs saved by not having to employ an army of smokers with straws.

Exactly my point, Prior to my stint in the Navy as an electronics tech, I worked in quite a few factories (joined the Navy at 26), being a Detroiter it was easy work to get.

From what I have read and seen the extra production capacity is also used as leverage to break labor unions, the prime example being Caterpillar, where they opened factories in other counties that have 150% production capacity compared to previous plants. It only takes 2 of them for them to be able to close down a union plant and they then open a new one just miles away and hire on all the same people but without organized labor by bringing them all in as temps with individual contracts.

I saw it happen a few years back to a TRW plant my mother worked shipping/receiving at. Closed the plant, laid everyone off, reopened one 5 miles away, anyone that migrated had to reapply for the same jobs at the new plant. All their floor staff are temps. from a contract house. So instead of having to join a union for a job, you have to work for a personnel contract house used exclusively by the manufacturer for their labor needs.

but God said we should subsidize (random company name with no sense of consumer loyalty) so they can increase their bottomline.

For too long only people could create value, automation will eventually fix that. When that happens only those who can afford to own automation will have a affluent lifestyle. Everyone else will be left in the dust, I guess the rest of us will have to squeak by just creating content or fixing their machines.

I voted replicator.

I agree with the association between transporters and replicators. I view it as similar to early synchros or selsyns, the early ones had a dial that you had to turn manually (the transmitter) and then the position was replicated at the receiver. Then someone had the bright idea that the position frequencies could be duplicated via computer and was able to get rid of the manual dial. Pretty much all of CNC machines, automatic SATCOM antenna tracking and RADAR guided weapon systems are possible because of this.

The only problem I have with replicators is that if everyone is using them to duplicate whatever is encoded as the "ideal" apple or glass of wine (whatever), is anyone going to bother to spend the time trying to breed a better one?

I would amend it to:

Republicans = corporations + mainstream religion

Democrats = a bunch of disorganized do-gooders that each have their own concept of what is "just" and try to shove it down your throat

Libertarians = every person is king/queen of their castle/bailiwick (it's OK if corporations are considered a "person" in this context)

personally I think more people are interested in politics (their local sports team is "their" team) vs. appropriate governance.

Same here, I spent late '98 to late '99 traveling site by site auditing IT equipment and running a Y2K fix program wherever needed. Primarily Bell-South both their business side (in the cube farms) and at their switching and data storage stations.

Exactly, they are an organization designed to make a profit and we are individuals intending to increase our quality of life. They do not give a damn about our quality of life and we (as least I) don't give a damn about their profit margin. So such arguments are moot.

I care about price fixing, corporate collusion and those not providing the service they sold as such things affect our quality of life.

Like this: Windows Help Search, but on the internets.

All you need is an aether anchor, drop that sucker in space and watch the cosmos fly by!

I would also suggest that having less children will ensure that each child has a greater chance of surviving into adulthood as each child can receive more care from their parents and surrounding support group, I would say it would compare to education levels and the teacher/student ratio.

Additionally, I think that the increase in the average human life span over the centuries is more directly coupled with the removal of long term harmful components in our lives verses medical treatment. For example, lead-based face powder or the Romans use of "Sugar of Lead" where they would put vinegar in a lead pot and drink it.

Lead Acetate

You have a point there.

Reminds me of the time a Senator visited my ship. The day before I was tasked to paint a bathroom. The bathroom had been painted a few months earlier and there was nothing wrong with it. The plan was: if the Senator needed to use the head they would lead him to a particular bathroom and the one I painted was the backup in case the one they led him to was broken.

It sucked living on a flagship.

What would be the point?

  I really doubt the average life expectancy in any of the locations is zero, if it was then it would not be represented. Chances are none of the average life expectancies were less than 25, so in that case you can use that as a base line.

The whole point is to show the relationships between the points over time and not their relationship to a zero line.

Personally, I attribute much of this to quality of life when a person reaches an advanced or non-producing age.

People who are affluent are reassured by their wealth that they are going to be able to use their wealth to maintain their post-productive quality of life, where those who live a more fiscally poorer/agrarian lifestyle need to have more children in order to assure that enough will survive or stick around in order to care for them in their advanced age.

Don't take this as a personal idea that the elderly are not productive or useful members of society, they are just like mothers, teachers, military members, police and certain other professions; they are generally not rewarded by society financially in a manner that is comparable to the service to society that they provide.