I think we can really fuck with them. Chaff, deception traffic...

Let's get started on making more hay for their stacks, people! Hell. You'll run a client for SETI, why not run one to preserve your intelligent life, here on Earth!

It depends on what you need to do, and what you know about it.

If you are not willing to walk away from it, on short notice? Then buying nothing is wise.

The trick about big financing is that you don't own a house - a bank owns you. Your on their plantation.

If you didn't barter or pay cash, you are on Massah's rules, Massah's time.

Yes. Enjoy 15-30 years of BEARABLE slavery. But you OWN something... Just ask the taxman.

You have Stockholm syndrome - and don't recognize it. You should read about Edward Bernays, some time - before lashing out in pseudo-moral rage against a proposition who's arguments you fo not actually comprehend.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

The tyranny of location! Don't worry. They have a fix for that with TPP and TTIP. ;-)

One law to rule them all, one law to bind them...

Native speakers, yes. But whether you're in China or India or Spain the most popular second language is English. Functionally you're much better off because at almost any tourist destination you'll find somebody speaking English, while Mandarin is great if you go to China and pretty much useless everywhere else. English got presence in Europe (UK + EU really), North America (USA), Asia (India), Oceania (Australia) and Africa (several former colonies). I'm not going to argue the moral side of colonialism, just say that practically it's the only language with global reach.

Perhaps Lem comes off less morose in jzyk Polski

Lem was critical of Government, of official bureaucracy - whether public or private.

He never singled out the US as a specific target, and could be construed as subtly/subversively anti-authoritarian, in ways that were passable by the Communist governments of Poland and USSR.

The US is now no different than those. We just have Nike Fuel bands, and two cars in front of our debt-bondage. Whoops! I mean home.

Wow. Thanks for maintaining attention span. :-)

Governments and corporations are fictional persons. They have no "moral consciousness" of any kind, outside of rhetorical and ideological fantasy.

So, this will not be a question of moral or immoral use. It will be amoral, in the hands of those who have advanced themselves through manipulation of the aforementioned ideological rhetoric.

You continue to believe that there is hope for this modern, post-industrial society. But there is none. We as people have increased the sophistication of our tools and our reach - just as relentlessly as we have avoided the refinement of our own beings.

In the end you don't get Star Trek. You don't even get Starship Troopers. You get Scanner, Darkly And hope there is Valis.

"I still can't allow you and Cmdr. Poole to jeopardize this mission, Dave."

The quality of the English version is what it is. The quality of the non-English version is what it is plus all that was lost in translation, it's certainly not going to be better. The worst is when they move around on standard shortcuts, for example in MS Office all English versions has Ctrl-F as Find and Ctrl-B as Bold. In Norwegian Ctrl-F = Bold (Fet) and Ctrl-B is Find (Finn) and I absolutely hate it every time. And yet in the interest of sanity they do keep other English shortcuts like Ctrl-S = Save (Lagre), even though that makes no sense in Norwegian. Never mind that when you're working with code or databases there is no Norwegian C# nor SQL, so it all ends up rather Norwenglish when you try.

Don't get me wrong, I'm fond of my language when it comes to identity and culture. But when it comes to communication having global terminology and one way of doing it makes everything so much simpler. Yes, there's a whole lot of "English" speakers out there but any resemblance of a common tongue beats trying to use translators. It's something of a first world issue though as 16% of the world is still illiterate in their first language but I hope that in 100 years you could talk to at least half the world's population in one language.

Godism. Everything else falls short, and will end, sooner or later.

Try not stealing one since the US government doesn't own them and I think you'll find yourself in jail. Any takers who'd like to bet otherwise? I think in practice this is resolved already, what you bring back to Earth is yours. The fun parts would be that nobody has mining rights, if you find a big gold vein there's nothing stopping another country/company dropping a mining rig right next to yours.