Something like this could be nice for making an aftermarket automatic highway driving module. The freeway is an immersive 3D environment having numerous environmental variables.

I thought it might be better for privacy, as the one object using the connection could block the line of sight.

I've often thought connectorless optical data would be a nice docking technology for a water resistant smartphone.

because of all the robots. The nice thing is, we needn't be concerned about robot overlords. Our machines will make better slaves.

The price increase would be borne by both solar and non-solar customers, and in my opinion, it's the sort of thing that ought to appear on a ballot initiative. If the growth of solar power outpaces the increase in power consumption so that the utility actually has to decrease generating capacity, then another method (eg, a utility connection fee, or a higher price for the power returned back at nighttime) for paying for the infrastructure would be necessary. But, when people install solar on their home, they're buying infrastructure that they hope to use to improve their lives. If you have such a large majority of people understanding the value of infrastructure that they're buying if for themselves, then I don't think it will be too hard a sell to get them to pay for power grid infrastructure, especially since the price of power grid infrastructure alone would be significantly cheaper than the current price of power grid infrastructure + fuel for power generation, especially in Hawaii where they're bringing the fuel in a long distance on tankers.

Similarly, utilities have to increase capacity to deal with increasing population, but building the additional capacity costs money. Someone has to cover the cost of the new equipment. The thing is, they're utilities. They don't exist to make their investors wealthy. They exist to serve their customers.

I'm sure it's preferred by lots of people who make buildings in order to sell them for a profit. ICF construction makes a better building, and lots of people and entities who plan to occupy the building they're constructing prefer it, even for buildings under 5 stories in CA.

It wasn't hard to find. I knew scientists could figure this out.

Here's something I haven't understood about that. It's my understanding that the most common death for people's pets in the USA is now euthanasia. Someone is making a drug that causes mammals to die an easy death and is allowing large quantities of it to be used for that purpose. Since the objective is death, who cares if the drug hasn't passed the regulatory hurdles that would allow it to be used to treat humans? I'm opposed to the death penalty, but as a practical matter, being unable to figure out how to humanely kill people in 2015 seems idiotic.

Better construction methods are available, and the cost/benefit ratio on building a house that is better in consideration of the infrastructure aspects is much better than it is building a house that is better in consideration of the decoration aspects.

I was thinking about linked community micro-grids when I was thinking about a situation where an accommodation couldn't be reached with the larger supplier, and I have a feeling that extra personal local politics would spring up and be a total PITA in a situation like that. I've been on the sidelines of some of the politics relating to Blue Lake Hydro in Sitka, AK and it's nothing fun.

Mine's ~$300/year, when I hassle my landlord into reading the meter, and I don't buy natural gas.

Couldn't the giant utility have a giant flywheel into which they dump any excess power during peak times? Then customer overproduction isn't such an issue, and the entire community benefits from having one large energy storage instead of thousands of small ones. If Japan can magnetically levitate their trains, surely Hawaii could manage to lift a big flywheel.

what about a massive, hazardous flywheel?

http://www.google.com/loon/where/