The GP must be the database guy they hired for the Russian stock market.

And the extra money saved could go to such worthy causes as hiring more lawyers or programs that stimulate banker bonuses?

To many people here the only important thing that we do, apart from keeping things going, is to explore and understand more than we did before. None of this really costs that much compared to other things budget-wise (e.g. about a quarter of NASA's yearly budget is what the Walton's who own Walmart get for sitting on their asses ~$4B USD).

Space is the next frontier. Compare this to the times when sail ships were used to travel vast distances to map far away land masses. You could image people asking why would anyone sail for long times on perilous voyages only to map the southern skies or survey animal & plant populations. Now we enjoy the benefits of this in the Western world and surely we should venture forward again with our surplus prosperity, lest we become lazy and ignorant.

Of course! How do you solve the problem of identifying digital representations of cats? Imagine identifying a single cat in a box. Then 2 cats in a larger box, etc. and you can identify in such a way any arbitrary cat configuration in the universe via machine learning. Genius.

Err... except how do you tell if the cat is alive or dead?

But security can jump on you or hit you with something, etc. even if "unarmed." This robot seems pretty useless without some sort of human incapacitator.

As an aside, Daleks use static electricity to recharge when moving around.

According to the article the "solar powered" Mars rovers are also partially nuclear powered to keep the equipment warm when the sun stops shining (e.g. in the Martian winter).

Yeah. It happened last time Thor misplaced the hammer too.

Loki is to blame for all this.

With you so far.

Nooooooooo. Only on /. is it normal to be focused entirely on the clothes coming down a catwalk!

This argument is often raised, but Haiti and Cuba are countries that make you stop and think about it. Haiti received government support from the U.S. and it not doing well by any measure. Cuba has had an embargo with the U.S., Bay of Pigs, etc. and is doing relatively okay for it in comparison.

Now I like the U.S. and respect it for holding to its principles as a country, but there are a couple of supporting countries that have had their countries pretty well screwed over.

Is this really true though? A lot of what we know about Earth's formation, our moon's formation, our solar system's formation, etc. has only come to light in recent years. Earlier solar system equivalents would have faced a much higher risk of being blasted by blazars and O-type stars. This would wipe out life at any stage of development as we would know it. There are many other things like how the Earth got its water where the details of how it happened that need to be considered properly and time added for.

I'm postulating that the answer could be that the reason why we are the first is that all the other intelligent life that faces this problem in our neighborhood might meet humans later and not have to ask that question. Or, in other words, we may be first because we are first.

Maybe the reason why we haven't encountered alien civilizations is simply that we are the first in our region?

If you think about it you need a second generation start like our Sun because the first lot of Stars needed to go supernova to generate the heavier elements and compact our star system into something like it is now along a nice plane with larger gas giants and a "cloud" of water bearing asteroids circling far out. The earlier second generation stars also had a problem where earlier in our galaxies history there were more pulsars and O-type stars that could have killed life by sending jets of high energy radiation our way.

Next you have to wait for the planet to form and then get water from the stabilization of larger gas planet orbits bringing in the water bearing asteroids. Then you have to wait for the planet to cool, the water to seep down and create some sort of active continents with plate techtonics. Then you have to wait for the iron to settle in with the water, first life to start producing oxygen in the atmosphere, and evolution taking its long course to make something that can make useful technologies and contemplate the universe.

Could just be that we are the first (somewhat) intelligent life around.

Because they can sell new ones at 60$ a piece and pocket the 55+$ in profit every year or so, putting in code that tells if it is "genuine Apple" or not?

Then you can use your guns to shoot your neighbor's drones and all will be well.

Seriously though, this seems unlikely as drones are not even remotely mentioned in the US constitution.

Reading through the comments did no one else see that in the article the company that was focused on only recruited people with 15 years industry experience?! I suppose the owner wants people to work for 15 years without pay as an intern before getting a position at his company? Looks like there are just too many people for every decent job.