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Comment Re:My prediction (Score 1) 179

You're on to something, but I think it's simply a case of chronological proximity bias. The problems we face today always *feel* like the most severe problems ever faced, but that is probably often just because they are the most prominent in our minds. I mean, look how many writers from the last century predicted widespread famine, because when you ran the numbers it just didn't seem possible. They thought it was the biggest problem humanity ever faced. Eventually we managed to overcome it and now it feels like a big nothing. Instead we have our own, new, biggest problems humanity has ever faced. Except they're not, not really. They just seem that way because we know that the other ones got solved, and we don't know yet how to solve the unsolved ones. And those writers, in turn, were probably overestimating the relative severity of that problem compared to other historical problems.

It's the same perspective problem that causes doomsdayism.

Comment Re:Thin edge of the wedge. (Score 1) 521

The point is that there is nothing that will be preventing you from doing whatever you want to the hardware you bought: hack it, wipe it, blend it, nobody will stop you. What you are actually complaining about is that the hardware you bought isn't exactly the hardware you want. But, it's a lot harder to blame other people for the poor purchasing decision you made.

Comment Re:Would not one have to spend energy... (Score 1) 222

I don't recall the specific physics principle, but it is something along the lines of 'particles below a certain size cannot be measured without affecting their behavior'.

It's the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. However, by reversing the polarity of the entangled particles and running them through the matrix field of a Heisenberg compensator, you get a controlled tachyon burst that counteracts entropy. At least, that's what I gathered from this write-up.

Comment Re:Look to Gene Kranz (Score 1) 432

You know, I'm not sure if there was an explicit dress code beyond "shirt and tie," or if it was simply a case of everybody following Kranz's lead. I'm fairly certain that engineers were originally expected to wear suits, but somewhere along the line that rule was relaxed and short sleeves permitted due to the heat generated by all the equipment.

Comment Re:Ok... (Score 1) 180

Or, if you want to get really crazy sci-fi, a kind of jet-powered "superbus" made out of lightweight materials like composites and aluminum, that travels above the roads and doesn't require any infrastructure between the start and end points at all! It could go much faster and could travel in direct routes, disregarding terrain altogether. Maybe someday...

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