There is quite a bit that is legitimate in criticizing the new trend of 400 layers of abstraction each adding their overhead for the sake of rapid development. Those old development models produced more stable and dramatically more efficient software. Nobody really denies that, they just argue that developer time is more valuable than computer time and improvements in hardware make up the difference in most use cases.

But what happens when hardware stops getting dramatically faster? We'll have to go back to making things more efficient to see gains and suddenly you'll have a great deal of respect for dad who could make a word processor with 90% of the functionality of word that weighed in under 1mb and ran smoothly on as little ram with a processor your smart phone could emulate 200 times over. There is a reason where the browser makers, the home of high level abstraction and high level languages, are finally all actually in agreement and collaborating and the thing that brings them together is making c/c++ compile to a uniform standard that all browsers can execute at near native performance.

The circle comes around, it always comes around.

"And the methods used have nothing to do with true cognition."

That's a bold assumption. The methods used for voice and image recognition certainly have a great deal to do with true cognition. It's certainly feasible that Google is playing with a true learning system and trying to teach and grow it rather than just throwing together another chat bot with scripts and trickery. Which isn't to say they've succeeded but just because none of the engines built to date have attained adult human level intelligence doesn't mean none of them are built on simple algorithms which could ultimately manifest complex behavior and awareness just like our own brains.

Knowing exactly how our own cognition manifests isn't a prerequisite to true cognition, a digital system could be completely unique in how it works and achieve true cognition.

"A lot of people will buy a car on a 3-5 year loan /w some kind of warranty and trade it in as soon as they pay it off before it starts to go to hell."

Except batteries aren't like motors. They don't suddenly go to hell 5yrs down the line, they gradually lose capacity. So when you go to trade in that car 5 years down the line and the easily measurable battery capacity is only 20% the trade in value is going to be pretty minimal.

"but everything since is in-line to hold up for > 10 years and easily 150k miles."

I'd expect that to work out about as well as well as the exact same battery technology does in your laptop or cell phone. Think halving capacity every 2-3yrs.

"Are you including the cost of a transmission replacement, or a new engine?"

10yrs down the line on a second or even third owner sure and combined they aren't as much as the battery pack in an EV which will run about 70% of the new sticker price. We are talking about vehicles that will require a repair that costs 70% of their original sticker price in 5yrs just for parts.

And in 5yrs when the battery won't hold enough charge to get down the block? These aren't actually viable until replacement batteries are affordable.

I believe that was poorly stated on the articles part. That was their previous assessment, they then determined a change was required to the manufacturing process. They've now developed the new manufacturing process and produced 10k batteries in their test lab as a proof of concept.

Are you including the cost of battery replacement?

All the cost of the vehicle lives in the batteries and those will work about as well as 5yr old laptop batteries in 5yrs. No I don't think losing $30k outright in 5yrs is affordable for most people.

"It also makes electric cars all that much more affordable."

Hopefully, because currently they aren't even in the ballpark of affordable.

They DID spin off a company and start filing patents.

"The process has received eight patents and has 75 additional patents under review; 24M has raised $50 million in financing from venture capital firms and a U.S. Department of Energy grant."

"but will it hold the same charge? ... works better in applications where space and weight (i.e. cars) are an issue."

I think you've answered your own question. Working better where space and weight are an issue means greater power density.

Some how I doubt the tattoo in the photo or video is going to reply "yes" in response to the question.

"Until there is a rational, scientific, empirically tested explanation of the placebo effect, you really need to admit that there are things going on in this reality that are outside the realm of science"

There is explanation of the placebo effect. Your brain is not just the bit in your head, every nerve in your body is composed of the same stuff and you have brain trendrils spread everywhere throughout the body all connected to the brain. Every cell in your body is controlled and regulated via chemical and electromagnetic signalling from your brain. Whether it is signalling the cells of a tumor not to reproduce and therefore die, correcting a pain sensory problem, or other ailment your brain is perfectly capable of healing most anything going wrong in the body. The placebo effect is no more or less than using a mirror to convince a phantom lost fist to unclench by creating the visual illusion of the hand back in place and opening and closing it. Nothing outside the realm of science is required. Fully utilizing the placebo effect IS beyond the current grasp of medical science though. Most medical science works by trying to avoid the placebo effect when it is probably the most powerful medical tool we have.

You have it backwards. You can't prove there is no magical all powerful sky fairy that uses it's powers to be undetectable. But believing in one without any evidence it exists fairly qualifies as a delusion. Billions of people believing in such qualifies as a mass delusion.

"give you reasonable grounds to get a search warrant"

Bringing someone in for questioning is one thing. Raiding a private home and ripping the funiture, walls, and floors apart leaving the resident with all financial responsibility and cleanup duty... that should be a MUCH higher bar and should require positive identification to count as reasonable.