A computer program does exactly as it is told to do, nothing more and nothing less -- in much the same way that you can't blame your gun for shooting someone as it has no will of it's own. When a certain level of complexity is reached, the creator of a machine or program can reasonably argue that a bad result was not malice but merely negligence, and with yet higher level of complexity that it was neither malice nor negligence. Besides this, there can be hardware faults and operating conditions in which case the blame could go to the manufacturer or the operator or the admin.

As for a child's malicious actions, they could fit in any of those categories (malice, negligence, or merely-a-human) in terms of their parents' blame. And as for software, you might not want to hold the authors of Notepad accountable for a ransom note created using Notepad, but you probably want to hold the creators of CryptoLocker responsible for ransom notes resulting from the use of CryptoLocker.

As for the topic of conversation, if it were up to me, whoever told the bot to buy random objects from the location with an especially large proportion of illegal items without checking their legality, was doing a bit more then negligence. They can't possibly expect to get away with this... and they better not be setting a precedent that drone strikes, insider trading, fraud, or whatever magically become legal when done by a bot.

That's not a bug, it's a feature!

Isn't this thing kind of like Netflix, but worse and more expensive?

how to churn your own butter
how to butcher your own chicken
how to grow your own food

Do you think us younguns don't know how to do that stuff? It just isn't practical to do so, not worth the cost of labor. Same with repairing gadgets, especially when the problem is a burnt out/corroded circuit board or a broken not-sold-at-stores component. People haven't changed much, merely circumstances (mass production, disposable items, and we're no longer in the Great Depression).

As for not knowing how to do something, that is a problem that only old people who don't know how to use the internet have. Us young people have the problem of not thinking it worth learning how to do something (either due to economies of specialization, or laziness). Also occasionally thinking we know more than we do.

That sounds like enough time to make a finger-sized colony ship using nano or biotechnology. At that point we could use something like a railgun to accelerate the ship and give it a gram of antimatter for the deceleration run. Failing that, we could make a citylike nuclear (or better fusion*) powered spaceship so travel times are not limited to one generation.

* A fusion-powered spaceship is one of the best type because venting the hydrogen plasma at fusion temperatures makes for a super-efficient engine. This would even be the case if we had to take a fission reactor to power it.

No wonder curiosity killed the cat.

Well you do need something to combat the minor but well-documented depression resulting from the low light levels around the Winter Solstice. Hence, Christmas Spirit, Holiday Cheer, or whatever. Ho ho ho.

Why do some people wait until New Years to make a resolution? You can make resolutions any day of the year, and you're probably more likely to keep them too.

Neil was clearly mocking one of our most sacred holidays, Santa Claus day, where we lie to children about an imaginary omniscient, near omnipotent, and briefly omnipresent being who rewards good and gives evil a reminder of fire. Santa Claus, of course, is based on the real historical character Saint Nicholas. The rewards are presents placed under a decorated evergreen tree (no relation to similar trees used to celebrate the winter solstice**) and preceded by about a month of winter-themed songs (also no relation to the solstice) whose purpose is definitely not to remind grownups that they must be extra materialistic for a while.

Christians, of course, insist that this holiday is a celebration of the birth of Christ, a very-real-and-definitely-not-made-up-this-time-we-swear omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent being who rewards good and punishes evil with eternal hellfire. Furthermore, he is so holy he can't forgive anyone without a human sacrifice, with the caveat that the sacrificed human must be entirely innocent. He is said to be very forgiving, though critics say he would die before he would forgive anyone of anything. This is also the historical figure Joshua*, who was miraculously conceived out of wedlock by the (hand?) of God and born from a virgin. Non-Catholic Christians frequently confuse the holiday (Christ's Mass) as being the anniversary of his birth. Christians celebrate Christmas in much the same way as non-believers, besides also going to church and getting upset at people who aren't Christmassy enough for them.

Anyhow, my point is that pretty much everyone disrespects Christmas, and it is extremely well-accepted to do so, at least in the traditional manner.

*Joshua, of course, is a more direct if less unique transliteration of the name, though if you prefer to transliterate first to Greek and then Latin you get Jesus.

** Grinches and cynics take note, it is advantageous to have celebrations around the time of the winter solstice to counteract the tendency toward depression caused by the record low light levels around this time.

That would be the Cybermen, although they tend to do those three simultaneously.

See also our Microsoft Borg icon.

Incidentally, the arctic is classified as a desert. There's very little precipitation, just like with any other desert.

I've been burned before, although as a kid and in a less developed country. You also need to protect your internet line.

I bet I know what these robots will be dressed up like for Halloween! They're already the right shape.

Exactly. When you're sued by your own students, you're quite screwed. Turns out not only are Harvard's students incompetent, but they also hate Harvard enough to sue. Why would anyone want to go there?

^ Proof that Americans still care about being first in some things.

I understand we also like being the "biggest fish in the pond", although I question the methods we use to achieve that status.