I don't care how good machines get there are certain 'service' jobs for humans that will always be in demand. ;)

Seriously though, I was thinking of MMOs recently and the market for them. For the most part the target market is people who've had their lives made easier by machines. I can't see a machine coming up with all that World of Warcraft is.

The day that machines can come up with Facebook or World of Warcraft or the iPad or a best selling novel is when we have to worry. Machines that invent or create art are problem

What I'd like is, if all appeals fail, an option to end ones life behind bars. Some people would take that option rather than being locked up for the rest of their life. I make the stipulation of 'all appeals fail' because as evidenced by all the exonerations from DNA many people are in prison innocently. There are many cases were someone is serving a life sentence and there was no physical evidence. No DNA to get them out of jail.

My father was one. He was given 30 years and died of cancer after 12 years. There was no physical evidence. Only the word of a 3 year old.

Back in December, I moved to Darnassus. I think it's the right place for me. It is very environmentally friendly. To quote a friend of mine "I love Darnassus... trees everywhere." I highly recommend moving there, Diane. That said, there are some horrible little neighbors to the south east. They say things like

"One word: plastics."

"Yes, I'm a gold digger... and copper and silver."

"If at first you don't succeed: blow it up again."

"Skip to step three: profit."

Needless to say these little annoying nats cause all sorts of environmental issues. Still, come to Darnassus for a small subscription fee.

I guess I'm contributing to the decline; however I want to have kids now. I had a vasectomy years ago when I was with a partner who didn't want kids. I've since then found someone that I want to have kids with, but 2 reversals later the odds are still not good. (pretty much nil because of low mobility) I'm the only child of an only child. If I ever can have kids, I probably will only have one. If something happens to me or if I have a kid, only to lose it, no one is going to care about our family tree. The family stories I tell will not live long after I die. Everything I care about and everything my ancestors cared about is going to be lost. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, but at an individual level, a family level, it hurts emotionally. You don't think it will when you are young, but the older I get the more it does. You look around at everything you have (physically or mentally) and want it to go on in some fashion.

I agree. I do not have a degree. I dropped out to put my exwife through college. I had a drive to succeed. The bonus of having two parents that went into law and my dad being a work-aholic by only sleeping for 4 hours while maintaining 3 jobs for 25 years (lawyer in the morning, pc repairmain in the afternoon, sleep for 4 hours, and then work a night shift at NASA working on mainframes.) I'm making decent money. My ex-wife however did get a degree and then did nothing with it.

One has to have the desire, the craving, to succeed. A degree will not give you that.

I found this article humorous

Basically make as much as someone with a Harvard degree, get paid to go to school and retire making 85% of your working income as a prison guard in CA.

No wonder CA has budget problems.....

Besides, for every success there are many that failed. People that don't conform are just another means to succeed. It is a gamble. If it works, great, but more likely than not, it won't work. Companies do want that sort of person, but they won't throw their entire budget at hiring them. They'll gamble in small doses.

gps and car wrecks Lets hope we weed out some of humanity when they blindly follow their tech. Seriously though lets view it like viruses. There is no single virus that will wipe out humanity. We've grown too large. No matter the change, some where people will be isolated from it. Our tech reliance isn't going to affect us on a species level. This is a cultural issue.

Yeah, I knew someone that had 3 daughters. He worked multiple jobs at a time all with the plan that he would live after he retired. Heck, he was up front with his wife that if she didn't want to enjoy retirement, that he would write from whatever scenic place he was at. He was a good person, but planned to enjoy tomorrow rather than today. He never took off sick because he planned on using his sick pay to help fund his retirement. He died at the age of 48 from colon cancer. His wife died at 49 from the same.

I'm from Houston and our Harris County Forensics Lab was infamous in the 90s for rigging DNA to fit the case. So call me skeptical of any dna being kept in a database. Garbage in and get garbage out. Also with the concept of chimera’s I question the use of DNA to exonerate anyone (from a crime or being a father.) If your arms can have different DNA, it all comes down to which arm the lab tech takes a sample.

I always thought it was interesting that when it comes to the economy at the federal level we help the largest electorate first and then sprinkle out economic help just enough to get buy in from other representatives.

There's no progressive economic incentives such as having large military bases or other major federal buildings (such as NASA) located in economically challenged regions.

When it comes time to vote on keeping the current budget, they want the states with the most reps to have a vested interest in keeping the status quo or increasing it. It doesn't matter if we'd save money elsewhere. It doesn't matter if it would do more economic benefit to have federal offices located somewhere else. All that matters is keeping the votes you have and possibly expanding it. Want to guess why NASA hasn't been hurt worse over the years? or why it has been a slow painful cutting? It has offices in most of the states.

So if you are from one of the major states, such as California, Texas, or New York, how likely are you to want to cause economic trouble for your state?

which makes me wish the Supreme Court hadn't also given companies the same rights as individual citizens. It is like they can have it both ways. At the heart a company is an idea and you can't throw an idea in jail. You can penalize it and put CEOs or more likely peons in jail, but you can't just close it down for yelling fire in a crowded theater.

Ruin enough people's lives and you will have lots of the wrong sort of people mad at you. This is how real revolutions begin.

Depends on how slowly it happens. If it happens slowly enough the next generation just assumes this is the way it is. The drug war has ruined tons of people's lives and we have neither won the war nor declared it legal.

one reason for a serial killer? ok...war. Personally during a war, I'd rather have the Dexter style serial killer on my side.

Many of these bad traits were useful to us during our evolution and are very valid on that basis alone.