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Comment Re:Replicator (Score 1) 633

Except the infrastructure for getting the replicators distributed to the populace exists in Star Trek. It doesn't exist in the capacity needed in the real world, and the mere existence of such a device would serve as a huge demotivation for those currently working to keep working to keep the current system afloat long enough for those replicators to be distributed in the first place.

Comment Re:Replicator (Score 1) 633

It wouldn't lead to hyperinflation as hyperinflation implies that the money actually still holds some sort of tangible value, albeit incredibly low. Instead we'd see a global economic shutdown overnight. People would simply stop working, period.

See, the problem is that replicators would have to be produced in quantity and be immediately available to the entire human populace. Otherwise people still have to be employed, to get the replicators distributed, but who would willingly do that for no pay if money is no longer worth anything because all known sources of wealth can be conjured up at the push of a button?

Of all the takes on how to introduce seemingly "magical" technologies to a human populace woefully unprepared for them, I think Stargate has the right idea: little bits at a time doled out by the government to private enterprises to reverse-engineer and market as a means of slowly transitioning the populace from a labor-based economy to an ideas-based economy. If production of material goods is entirely automated, all that's left for us to do is to design things to be produced (and used), which incidentally is one thing Star Trek got right with human society's focus appearing entirely concentrated on service in (or supporting) StarFleet, the Federation StarFleet being far more than simply a space navy, but that plus a coast guard and public works organization all wrapped into one.

Comment Re:Replicator (Score 1) 633

If implemented as it was in Star Trek, yes, it would. Not for a nanosecond would I trust humanity of today to get that right. But that's the nasty thing about Star Trek: in order for humanity to have gotten over itself, it took a near-extinction event such as a worldwide nuclear exchange after WW3 *PLUS* first contact with an alien civilization.

Comment Re:Hoodlums (Score 1) 423

Difference being every serviceperson has the implicit chance of getting shot at by enemy combatants. The only risk being taken here is the possibility of the 4chan party van showing up in front of someone's house.

Comment Re:hm (Score 1) 423

The difference being the Slashdot effect is a genuine attempt to access the site (only for the server to croak from the sudden zergrush) whereas a DDoS attack is a deliberate attempt to prevent everyone from accessing the site.

Comment Re:It is Not DDoS (Score 1) 423

With FOIA requests, don't we have to have some prior insight for the sake of specificity? That limits the range of the FOIA to things that have already been declassified for public consumption, since in principle, we should have no idea what to ask for if we haven't already been informed of it.

Comment Re:Is this acting responsibly? (Score 1) 469

Yet your previous post included the United States, making me figure you were referring to the joint military exercises. I had no idea the South conducted military exercises of their own immediately prior to the shelling.

Still, South Korea rattles its sabers (this is nothing new), Best Korea violates the armistice in retaliation, and you're more inclined to chastise South Korea for trolling the North? Please. Military exercises didn't kill anyone, the shelling did, so Best Korea can go fuck itself for all I care.

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