then they have nothing to worry about!

The consciousness of the future will not be like that of today, same as the consciousness of today is not like that of yesterday. But it may still call itself "human."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Counter point: Star Trek needed a universe in which they could tell not just one dystopian story, but a new one every week, by visiting a planet that went off the rails in one of the same ways we might.

Anyone willing to consider that 3D space is an illusion really needs to look into reading the new book Time Reborn by Lee Smolin.

If some inventors will "rest," then it's the promise of money that made them invent and patent in the first place. If you take away the patent, and therefore the promise of money, you won't even get the first invention out of the money-motivated. Especially if the patent-free economy is dominated with idea-stealing industrialists. Those motivated by other-than-money will keep inventing, patents or not.

is limit on the raw material. CO2 is a rare gas by comparison. O2=21% of the atmosphere, CO2 = 0.04%. It used to be the reverse, back before photosynthesis evolved.

TV is full of people doing something without "any good reason to do it other than the coolness factor." That phrase might describe the whole entertainment sector of the economy.

I wonder what the first presidential election will be like when candidates are from the facebook generation. Companies like google, facebook, maybe snapchat will have dirt on all the candidates. Google alone will have every search the candidates ever did. Viable candidates will be only those people who are uncommonly boring, or influential enough to squelch the dirt, or trade it for favors. Imagine the power google wields... in part because they gave away their operation system, which doubles as an information vacuum.

I guess law enforcement will just have to keep hiding their own law breaking from defense attorneys.

Bell's inequality proved quantum states are not determined before observation.

That article at slate did not address the possibility of the universe being such an isolated system. It seemed to be an angry rant by a physicist who was mad at other scientists for not sharing his views on the material world and consciousness.

My impression of the thought experiment was that it was actually asking the listener to consider questions like "if the universe is isolated, are we in superposition right now?" and "what is the relationship between consciousness and superposition?" At any rate, it has been fascinating to watch the moderation of your "simple resolution" post bounce between extremes.

At what physical size within an isolated system is the detector (be it a photon, an atom, a molecule, a geiger counter, a cat, or an experimenter opening a box) no longer allowed by physical laws be in a quantum superposition?

Since google maps already has a traffic layer that shows me the congestion along my route (and 2 alternate routes), why would one need or want a flying traffic drone?