The finite state machine is the only model your digital computer can do

Actions of human can't be simulated with arbitrary precision (nor can animals nor the stock market nor the weather nor even something as simple as the path of an electron held in a potential well), your assertion that any physical thing can be simulated with arbitrary precision is laughable and naive in the extreme. You might want to research a concept known as quantum mechanics.

but what kind of samplers, there are many types geared to specific concerns. and even of the kind that "absorb everything" for later analysis who knows what they look for?

Human brains are not binary computers and there is no hope of a binary finite state machine becoming a concious entity. A bunch of relays (or pneumatic or hydraulic values for that matter0 is not self-concious, and no amount of them however interconnected will become conscious, self-aware, or have feelings. The stupidity and illogic of otherwise intelligent people believing that nonsense is amazing.

and that's $15 trillion *per year* worth of electricity.

And your 120GWp wind is only worth 33 GW continuous.

Averaged out, human civilization uses 15 TW continuously. Spending 60 billion total to have a way to produce a large chunk of that $15 trillion worth of power is chump change.

they DO show up in air samples, alternative coverage of this article mentioned Tasmania, Australia

carbon tet and other degreasers used to just seep into the soil in "cleaning pits", I know buildings where that went on for half the 20th century.

you are missing the fact that the presidents mentioned used their office as bully pulpit to push for those laws

halon and the old refrigerants certainly are NOT liquid at STP, you are blathering about carbon tet perhaps but this thread was about venting HVAC

such things are vented from old AC systems and fire suppression systems all the time, rather than properly pumped and destroyed

that is false, cargo ships cover the planet

doubt what, that there is sufficient energy to power a civilization that will have a peak number of humans around 2075 or so? And resources don't disappear either, metals and minerals and such are still around, even if in landfills or in some form it would take energy to reclaim.

No energy source makes more energy than is put in, and that's not a goal of any fusion project. Fusion fuel stores some energy that is released upon fusing (some mass is converted to energy). We merely would like to get the energy stored in a fusion fuel, without spending more energy heating or compressing the fuel to get it fusing than is in the fuel. Right now on earth we spend a hundred dollar bill on heating and compressing the fuel, and get back a penny of fusion energy, so to speak.

There are GUI tools in Linux desktops that do what "grep" does (which is NOT a Linux thing per se but is 40+ years old utility). There are sites on the net that list systems and devices that Just Work with Linux, there are system vendors that tout LInux compatibilty and even contribute kernel modules, drivers and programs just for Linux (my HP Officejet is fully supported in Linux, for example).

We do have a functioning fusion reactor. It has about four and a half billion years left worth of fuel. It pours more energy into the earth alone than a hundred civilizations could use, to say nothing of the untapped energy it pours elsewhere.