There may be millions of intelligent species out there, but they may be perfectly happy swimming in the ocean all day. Think about it for a minute. There's a potentially second intelligent species here on earth, but we don't give them a moment's thought because they didn't develop an opposable thumb and create tools.

And in hundreds of years, we've never learned to communicate with them on any level that counts. Which makes our chances of every making contact with "aliens" almost impossible.

If they landed in Central Park tomorrow, it might be decades before we could communicate with them because their brains may work in an entirely different way, and we have no frame of reference for communication. They, of course, may have a solution for that, but we sure don't. We're a very, very dumb species when you get right on it.

Lt Saavik: [to Kirk] On the test, sir. Will you tell me what you did? I would really like to know.
Dr Leonard McCoy: Lieutenant, you are looking at the only Starfleet cadet who ever beat the "No-Win" scenario.
Saavik: How?
James Kirk: I reprogrammed the simulation so that it was possible to save the ship.
Saavik: What?!
David: He cheated.
Kirk: Changed the conditions of the test. Got a commendation for original thinking. I don't like to lose.

Would be to get two bots to talk to each other and see where the conversation goes after two minutes -- my guess is that all the code is biased towards tricking actual people in a one-on-one "conversation".

But when a machine converses with another machine, all that code no longer has an effect, and pretty soon the two machines will be essentially babbling *at* each other without actually having a conversation. An outside observer will immediately recognize that both of them are machines.

For example, if they find bleach AND draino under the sink, you're also charged with "Chemical Weapons Possession" if they find candles and matches and charcoal, you have "bomb making materials". The spooks can get you for anything.

Tesla isn't just a car company, they are a technology firm. The *real* value of Tesla (hence the stock price) is in the technology they own and control.

If Teslas chargers become "the standard", then the rest of the world will likely have to license Tesla's other technology to be compatible. This is akin to; anyone can build an ARM-based chip, but you have to license that right from the ARM group, which makes their stock (currently) more valuable then Intels.

Tesla running gear may also become the defacto standard for electric cars, and once the price drops, near unbiquitous -- which will make Musk extremely wealthy. Tesla won't have to make cars anymore, simply license the tech to everyone else to build.

They then can pour that money into more R&D and build even better and better running gear which in turn, all other manufacturers will need to license to keep up with the competition.... Which of course, will keep them very wealthy.

"More than half of Americans -- 52 percent -- say they own stock, mostly as part of a mutual fund or retirement account, according to a Gallup survey conducted in April."

--- of course they do!
How else does that Hedge Fund manager and thousands like him, make those millions? From the millions of Americans who are suckers and believe that the market can work for them and make them money. In reality, they are working hard to make money for the fund manager!

Sure, he gives them something back, but like any other good pyramid scheme, the vast majority of the wealth goes into his own pocket. I can make you a statement account that shows you are making money in my fund -- but that doesn't mean you actually are. Just look at the number of class action lawsuits and tell me that this isn't a grey-area legal scam.

Of course the stock market is divorced from the real world. It's its own bubble, a game played by the upper 5% to enrich themselves and fuck everyone else. They don't care as long as they get their bonus.

You really think a hedge fund manager gives a crap about real-world value? The dude is making $15 million a year shuffling stocks around and skimming right off the top of everyone. He can buy a Ferrari every other week. That's your 'real world value' right there.

The elite don't care. They have burned up America, and were well paid by the taxpayers to do it. Now they are strip-mining what's left and when the country is a empty husk, ready to collapse into a third-world nation, they will get in their private jets, and fly off to their private, gated, guarded compound in Costa Rica or Belize, and live off the interest in their Bermuda bank accounts for the next 12 or 20 generations.

Riddle me this batman... UV light breaks down plastic, I've witnessed it every time I restore a car, or an old computer. All the plastic becomes brittle, breaks down, and eventually crumbles to plastic dust... Why doesn't this happen to the plastic in the ocean -- and everywhere else?

The NSA could admit that they break the law every day of the week, murder Americans on american soil, steal millions of dollars, destroy companies and even the entire economy, and do you know what will happen?

Absolutely nothing.

They believe they are above the law. And heck, most of the legislative branch believes they are above the law. The judicial and executive branches are more than willing to look the other way, so as a result, the NSA gets a free pass to do whatever they want.

Because.... national security... and boogyman terrorists... and something, something mumble mumble. Whatever the fear flavor of the week is. 1984 was an instruction manual.

Because Silverlight *NEVER* worked on the Mac under Chrome. Video would stutter, the audio wouldn't play, it was a useless mess that reminded you that the internet is a minefield of incompatible "standards" and brought me back to the old days of "it must be cool if it crashed my browser"!

Newsflash... Seattler's are the nation's least obese. Seattle City Council claims it was due to the lack of McDonalds in the area.

"there are a surprisingly number of"...

Surprisingly Number Of....
Let me think about that. Do you write goodly english?

I cannot imagine how this could ever be properly used in a sentence like that, but I'm sure some anonymous coward will tell me I'm wrong.

And did they figure out which gene makes Blondes so incredibly stupid?

Queue Julie Brown Song:
I took an IQ test and I failed it of course;
I can't spell VW but I drive a Porsche!
'Cause I'm a blonde, B-L-A-N-D,
'Cause I'm a blonde, don't you wish you were me!

I worked on that show. I personally know the producers. The problem with making that show a "kickstarter" is rights issues. Because the TV show is based on a computer-game, the TV show can't do anything without going through the rights holders (broderbund?), and that makes everything take longer.

The show was also a co-production between two powerful PBS stations, one in Boston and one in Pittsburgh, if I recall, and they could never agree on anything -- that's how the show came to be shot in New York, because it was in-between those two cities, so neither group could completely take control.

As for my contribution to the series, I designed the middle-game board, where stuff flipped over to reveal clues. I also developed a close friendship to "the chief" and was devastated when Lynn passed away suddenly.

You could program them that way if you want.

Check out any S&M/B&D club. The people there are all going "no please, no master", but it's all consensual because if they really want it to stop there's a safe-word, and when that's said, it really does stop.

With a robot, easy enough to program it to say no, and even resist slightly, but there's no safe-word, since after all, it's a robot.