My guess : See the world. Think about how far we've come in the last 40 years.

40 years ago, Pong was first released on home console. And now I'm using a device with orders of magnitude more computational power than all of the pong consoles ever created combined. I just asked this device where I should go for lunch. It gave me a few suggestions and helpfully drew me a map.

40 years ago, Voyager was still in the planning phases. It wouldn't be launched for another two years. And now, it's exited the heliosphere, and taken the most amazing Family Portrait ever captured.

And I can't begin to imagine how much better life is for women, minorities, homosexuals, or really anyone that's not a 'normal' white male, compared to 40 years ago

Given the option of dying at 80, or living to see what another 40 years might hold... well ...

It's transitive.

Cameras cause shorter yellows.
Shorter yellows cause accidents.
Ergo, cameras cause accidents

Of course, this presupposes a greedy and corrupt government that would willfully endanger their own people to earn a buck, which of course sounds completely ... uh ... well it actually sounds completely plausible. So yeah, let's go with that.

Do you think that the phone in your pocket is actually doing the voice recognition and translation?

Put your phone into airplane mode and try.

The actual voice recognition software is "in the cloud," if you'll excuse the jargon. Your phone just saves the snippet of voice as a sound file and sends that file back to the Apple/Google/MS servers to process.

The given reasons are to improve their recognition software. Every time you change a word that went through the process, the server learns a little more. Of course, there may be other reasons to take everything you've ever said into your phone and store it in a centralized database...

True. The cost becomes moot if we simply don't have the ability to fix anything

But we've done it in the past. Japan and Germany are looking quite nice these days, despite one of them getting nuked twice and the other going through a REALLY rough stretch post WWII. Of course, the US didn't single-handedly help those countries back onto their feet, but I don't see why we couldn't leverage some UN assistance in the matter.

I think you hit the nail on the head though, in defining "long term." For most lawmakers these days, "long term" is "the next election date." Anything that happens beyond that may as well not exist We need to be able to plan for 10, 25 or even 50 years out. Mexico is going to be our neighbor for a long long time. It would behoove us to help them out.

I'm not saying that we should bankroll them indefinitely. Just get the ball rolling.

But really, it's all hypothetical anyway. Considering the job we've done helping other countries around the world, I doubt we could actually improve our southern neighbors.

You assume the owners can actually see what's passing through their wires.

How's that working out so far?

If we're going to dump some money into the problem, we should target the root of the problem, not a symptom.

Initial investment. Probably.

Long term maintenance and upkeep: probably not.

It's a long and sordid tale, where those in power vehemently refuse to help Mexico build anything resembling a modern society. The reasons are numerous, but it mostly boils down to cheap labor.

Simply put: if Mexicans were allowed to come across legally, employers would have to pay them minimum wage. And if Mexico wasn't so shitty (especially the border towns) people wouldn't be leaving in droves.

If we really wanted to solve the whole immigration problem, securing the border isn't the proper answer. Notice the lack of emergency situation at the US's northern border, despite the lack of a fence to keep out the hockey-lovers (or to keep us Statesfolk out of Canada). Take the proposed Mexico fence budget (however much that is) and pour it into getting Mexico's infrastructure up to snuff. Spend some money weeding out corrupt policemen. Work some real campaign reform (lord knows we can't do it here.) Build some roads and hospitals. Help bring Mexico up to the same standards of living as the rest of the first world, and the immigration problem will solve itself.

cuz we broke.

Payday loans aren't intended to circumvent the normal processing period between banks. They're intended to bridge the gap between rent is due today, and I don't get paid till Friday.

Which is all good in theory... until the parliament/congress becomes more interesting with infighting and navel gazing than actually improving the country.

When was the last time that congress worked for the genuine benefit of the country, without a primary focus on how it will affect their reelection numbers?

The system, as it currently stands, is broken. Beyond broken. And if it takes an unconstitutional tyrant to get us back on the proper track, so be it. Perhaps a smidgen of anarchy is necessary to remind us why we chose order

If I uploaded your consciousness without your body, would you still consider it "you?" What if I could do it without destroying your body? If I could take a snapshot of your brain and upload a virtual copy of you into a game for my amusement, are you affected in any way?