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Comment Re:Pipe-dream Utopia (Score 1) 888

Folks, I don't have much more to say on the subject, except look around you. People gravitate towards hedonism. Hedonsim is the natural eventual outcome of all human governmental and/or economic systems-- It's the goal: A system where everyone is free to be what they want to be, unfettered by such trivial things as lack of resources... Ask yourselves, seriously, in the real world. If a child was presented with all he wanted, what would he do? He'd want to kill his parents, of course, those mean old people who wish to place restrictions on his behavior... But it doesn't matter. Resources and energy are in infinite supply. The kid can ignore all restrictions placed on his behavior. If he wants to disappear into the holosim, who are YOU to question his decision? So in a world where pure unfettered hedonism is possible, what would happen? I rest my case.

Comment Re:Pipe-dream Utopia (Score 1) 888

They worked because they had incentives to, whether personal or practical. Free everything would disincentivize work. I understand what you're saying about creativity, and agree there will always be a core group of exceptional people, but then that flies in the face of the socialist goal of equal outcomes, and those exceptional folks will be hated by everyone else, just like today. No matter how you slice it, 50% of the population will always be below average. The writers of Trek created a happy future where everyone has all they need and want and everyone loves each other, but they didn't really think things through. Read Dayworld. Or Harrison Bergeron.

Comment Pipe-dream Utopia (Score 4, Insightful) 888

ST's vision of the future economy (at least from TNG on; TOS wisely avoided touching on it but implied it was a form of Capitalism) is a pipe-dream Utopia. If food, shelter, and energy were in virtually unlimited supply no one would need to work, yes, but more importantly, no one would *want* to. Where would the goodies come from then? Automation? Okay then, the Machines rule the Federation. And no one would ever emerge out of their self-created kingdoms inside holodecks. The future would be more like Wall-E. There'd be no more invention, no more innovation, no more anything..... Just everyone plugged into their fantasies in their holo-simulators, a civilization of lotus-eaters. This is the sort of shit that would cause Captain Kirk to charge phasers. Rewatch "The Apple".

Comment And nothing of value was lost? (Score 1) 457

When I just wake up and read something that provokes me I really should get more awake before I post something snarky, but here goes... As far as my own experience on FB goes, if the kids leave, then fine. They don't have anything to say that interests me and in many cases they outright offend. It really makes me scared for the future of the human race sometimes. And as for FB itself and their revenues, what is the buying power of teenagers versus the buying power of their parents? That's right, not much (though they do spend what they have more freely). Now get off my lawn.

Comment Re:If you think Win 8 is crap (Score 4, Interesting) 829

I know of NO businesses that are just hankering with bated breath to use Windows 8. They would rather upgrade to 7. Home users are having it shoved down their throats with every new PC they buy and they hate it too. You can argue about all the new wonderful things it has under the hood, but the interface is shit. Don't say "It's fine once you get used to it," because it's a step backward in usability. Even after installing something like Classic Shell or Start8 the 'Modern' apps still run fullscreen. "But you can learn your way around that!" you cry. That's some helluvan arrogant attitude to have. The only reason M$ dumped the old menu/window-based interface is because they it would benefit THEM in some imagined convergence of the desktop and tablet, **not** to benefit users or create something more efficient. They were wrong.

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