a soul i still an important concept and good area of debate if we ever develop star trek style teleportation. if you strip away all the various religious crap, your "soul" is basically whatever makes you, "you". it is what is controlling your body, thinking your thoughts. there doesn't need to be any magical spirit involved in this concept.

when you come out of a star trek style teleporter is it actually you that comes out complete with your stream of consciousness? or is it just a really detailed copy that looks like you acts like you and thinks it is you and the previous you was destroyed and no longer exists? i don't know about you, but i definitely wouldn't ever voluntarily use a teleporter, except as a last resort. either it transfers the "soul" and everything is fine or what comes out is a very detailed duplicate that looks and thinks exactly like you. this duplicate since it has all your memories would think it had worked even if the original you ceased to exist. i am not really afraid of death but that also doesn't mean i want to cease existing. teleportation just seems too risky.

i think it is more clear if someone were to make an exact clone of you including your memories. this duplicate isn't you, you don't control it you don't hear it's thoughts. it may look like you and think like you but it isn't you.

i am pretty sure the gravity gets out...

But they do have your name. you do realize it is encoded on the magnetic strip? and most regular customers will live within a rather small radius of the business. so if they want your address they can take your name from your card and then look you up in an online phone book so they can send you ads next time farscape is on sale

i mostly agree that 200 accidental deaths of youths is nothing, but exactly what right do you think is being trampled?

Do you even know the purpose of the 2nd amendment? how do you plan to overthrow an oppressive government that now has the worlds best equiped standing army and has control of multi-million dollar war machines? you need to face it the 2nd amendment is outdated. Unless we the citizens can also own and operate our own tanks, fighter jets, and armed UAV's we really don't stand much of a chance.

i don't know, but you are certainly breaking several laws of physics to do it.

7) just like you always assume a gun is loaded with rule #2, don't ever assume the features of a "smart gun" will prevent it from firing unintentionally and so always treat it as a fully operational gun.

this page sites a 2002 study stating there were 214 unintentional deaths of children 0 to 19 in 1999. and 83 where they could not determine intent.

that doesn't sound like a very good idea...sure you can't destroy them, but couldn't you indefinitely imprison your foe in their own shield by just keeping some sort of high powered laser shining on it? or put it inside a magnetic field and pump plasma into it...like the shields from the article...

ISP's seems equally as greedy as the MPAA, do you really doubt they won't find a way to charge them for letting people download the movies?

did you forget about comcast and verizon charging netflix so they can stream faster to customers?

so...to paraphrase, what you are saying is that tax law is excessively more complex than it needs to be and should be simplified greatly.

i mean no offense to you, but taxes should be simple enough so that people like you aren't needed for the majority of people to complete their taxes. and for that matter tax software shouldn't be needed either.

since when has taxes ever had any relation to how much the government spends? (at least for the US)

never in my memory, they have been talking about the budget deficit since at least the 80's

every abandoned car on earth would have an alternator. just need to rig something to spin it and you have electricity, say make a windmill.

heck all the cars also have batteries i would have to imagine at least some of those would still work as well.

electricity wouldn't be too hard to get.

part of defending a network is understanding how it can be attacked. so you can develop countermeasures to mitigate the attacks.

so it helps when defending a network if you are also good at attacking one.

really what they are saying is that a universe could arise from fluctuations in a quantum vacuum.

which is basically the lowest known energy state of anything. and is about as close to "nothing" as we have ever found in nature.

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This is being developed for the millitary, it doesn't every really have to be commercially viable. it just has to be viable enough to allow extended operations while reducing need for resupply to be be considered viable.