And how, exactly, does one program a robot to be compassionate or empathetic?

Can emotion be reduced to a few simple formulas, some generic algorithms?

I'm not convinced.

Why would a streaming XBox make a steam machine irrelevant?

The $50 streaming device from Valve makes the XBox+App irrelevant: Steam Link Streaming Box

This is also a pretty small sample size. I would be hesitant to draw any conclusions.

They took data from just 3 towns - 2 with fracking and 1 without.

Show me data across, day, 100 towns or so, including rates before and after the fracking started, and you will have something interesting to talk about - especially if the increases all relate to very specific kinds of illnesses.

But just 3? Sorry. Not good enough.

Come on, now:

That bias shows up in recruiting, with companies drawing from the same top universities, where black and Hispanic graduates are still lagging behind other groups.

If I were running a business, then I would also want to hire people from the top universities. They're probably better educated and prepared. If I want to hire the best people that's where I would go. I don't run the universities, and I don't decide who applies to them. How is this in any way a bias problem from the companies in SV?

These SJW articles are getting weaker and more desperate by the minute.

The funny thing is that what she calls a "Gig Economy" is what America has been doing since its founding.

You, a person, learn skills. You make things. You do things. You serve. People give you money, goods, or services in exchange. This country was built on the concept of the lone inventor making it on his own, the person who bought a horse and carriage to ferry people around, the family that built a boat to move cargo up and down the river as they pleased.

What she is calling "new" is what we have been doing all along.

What regulated activity is without exploits, abuse, and scamming?

If you're trying to make a point, that's a poor way to do it.

I don't think there is anything wrong with a service like (the ever-so-popular example) Uber, or renting our a room, or renting out time on something you own, or providing a service on an on-demand basis. Is some regulation necessary? Probably. I imagine that some kind of insurance coverage would be a good idea, for example.

I just happen to know where Hillary comes from politically: Heavy handed government control and cronyism. I don't trust her, and I don't understand how anyone else can (except the insane who support her only because of her genitalia).

All you are thinking about is Uber - and that is where you are making your mistake.

...We need to figure out how to kill it with regulations so that my big corporate donors can sleep soundly at night.

His point still stands.

Advertisers are buying ad impressions for certain demographics. The advertisers are buying more ads for these jobs that target males.

It isn't Google doing this - they're just offering the advertising tools. It's the purchasers of the ads that are causing this to happen.

This is not complex.

And one might want to look at how the nastiness of Internet forums contributes to this as well. What happens when an entire society is constantly bombarded with the kind of crap we see every day?

So next time you decide to post some trolling bullcrap, remember that your behavior does, indeed, have a real effect on the other people involved.

Don't be a dick. It's not that hard and we're all better off.

Yeah, because I'm sure that everyone loves their local BMV. Everyone wants it to be fast and easy to deal with, but I will tell you a secret: in most places, the BMV sucks, everyone bitches about it, and it isn't getting better.

Shall I mention the VA or the IRS? I bet we all want those to be good too but, uh, yeah. They suck.

Government agencies, on the whole, are pretty shitty in part because they don't have to be good in order to stay in business.

That article needs to be updated with this H1-B situation.

I would do it myself, at least add a section with a few references and get it started, but every time I edit an article on Wikipedia my contributions are automatically reverted for some reason I cannot fathom. The Encyclopedia anyone can edit... Yeah right. I apparently need to be in some special club or something.

No, unions have nothing to do with being socialist or capitalist or communist. Nice trolling, though.

Unions can be good - and originally they were, here in the USA. They made sure workers had decent working conditions and weren't slaving away for pennies a day. In exchange, the union would ensure that the workers were qualified and doing their jobs and provided a pathway for technical training.

Unfortunately, they started to go too far, as these things often do. Today, too many of the USA's unions are money grabbing thug organizations that would rather burn a business to the ground than give up anything at all. Many unions are only interested in excessive compensation, keeping out competition / protectionism, and political activism.

Some unions are happy to let a business die rather than capitulate on ridiculous requests. The Hostess company is one example. The American automotive industry collapsed, in part, due to the unions. Did you know that in America, when vinyl records were used to play music on the radio, that the radio union created a position with the sole responsibility of putting the record on the turnstile? Nobody else was allowed to do that simple task of putting the record on and dropping the needle. If a sound engineer were to do it they would get in big trouble.

It's nearly impossible in some industries to fire someone because of the insane power the unions can wield - and the unions will always defend you, even if you're incompetent, have committed a serious crime, or whatever. After all, they want to ensure that there's a tradition of defending everybody no matter what, so that should the people at the top get in trouble for something legitimate...

That kind of behavior is why you see a growing anti-union sentiment in the USA. I don't know what it is like over in Europe - it may be that the unions over there are a lot more sensible.

It's very unfortunate. Unions, done properly, are an excellent thing, but greed is powerful and people are stupid. Here in the USA the unions have failed.

These days, because of the protection the Federal and State laws provide, official union organizations in general seem unnecessary. All the protections that unions fought hard for have become federal law. But, that doesn't mean a group of workers, who aren't in a legal "Union", can't just walk out anyway. If they're being abused, they should walk out and make their complaints known.

It wouldn't be a good, scary InfoWorld article without sensationalist bullcrap.

And if you ever find yourself there, or near any display of these wax sculptures, I highly recommend you take the time to see them. They are amazing works of art. If you have children with you, it can be a great history and cultural experience, too.