Finally! Portable holes, like in the old Warners Brothers cartoons!

The filter bubble is bringing 1984 to realization in ways that no one ever imagined.

I'm not sure if you're trying to be funny or if you're serious. But if you're serious, obviously the paper records from the 19th century were transcribed to digital form at some point.

Why do I think that? Because I've been programming for over thirty years and I've seen it done. No one today would probably design a table like that, but this is a government system, and some of those government databases are pretty old.

One scenario: some systems have tables that use a separate field for storing the century. Whoever wrote the query, sql statement, or whatever, left out the century, and there you have it. Probably not a Y2K problem, but more like a dumbass programmer problem.

Everyone knows the best programmer alive is Bill Brasky!.

Why would I want everyone in the entire corporation to know everything about me? It's just like when my company invited everyone to "like" them on FB a few years ago. Yeah, right, so they can keep tabs on everything I do outside of work. Outside of payroll, or my boss, all anyone needs to know about me at work is my name, my title, and perhaps a photograph.

I am skeptical of claims that people suffer from "digital readiness". I guarantee you they are perfectly capable of using the internet when it comes to porn. It's not like it requires years of schooling. Once someone has access to the internet there is no excuse for not becoming "digitally literate", other than a lack of motivation.

You are not odd.

Good point. I don't so much want something that will regulate my water. Watering is not a problem. But show me something that will pull weeds and tie up tomatoes, and I'm all in.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself. :-)

I agree we're at a turning. I'm not sure I'm convinced that democracy necessarily has to follow oligarchy, but that would be the best possibility. The bad thing is that there will be a period of instability in between, and that is worrisome.

That's along the lines of just what I was thinking. I feel like Hari Seldon in Asimov's Foundation series. You can see little signs that things are falling apart all over the place. For instance, I was in Lowes yesterday and I noticed they now sell booklets on how to raise chickens and goats. Apparently there are so many suburbanites doing this that they rate their own book sections. Last month I set a recliner and couch out at the curb for the monthly bulk-trash pickup. I left home for a few hours, and when I returned, I discovered two guys with an old pickup parked in front of my house tearing into the furniture to get the metal out of it (the springs, recliner base, etc). They didn't want the furniture, they just wanted the metal. They promised me they would not leave a mess, and they were good on their promise. They worked pretty hard to get the metal out, and I tried to imagine any situation whereby the metal would be worth more than earning wages at a minimum wage job. But then, there probably aren't as many minimum wage jobs to go around as I was thinking. I drive around at night and I see a lot of streetlamps out, and business signs that are only partially lit. Little signs of decay everywhere. And I live in a state that is "booming" with (supposedly) only 4% unemployment.

I don't know why anyone would want to hop in a car with someone of dubious character, who may or may not have proper insurance, who may or may not have a proper driver's licence, who might be driving a jalopy in any sort of condition, but hey, people hitchhike all the time so to each his own.

Meanwhile, Uber will do fine until the first woman gets raped by an Uber driver, or until the first few Uber drivers get robbed or killed.

This is not a surprise. Detroit makes it's money from marketing cars that are: a)"fun to drive" b)"tough" c)"stylish" d)"pretentious or class-conscious" e)some combination of the above. Safety, functionality, and reliability are boring (didn't Lee Iacocca once say, "safety doesn't sell"?).

This is unfortunate, because I think Detroit is missing out on a great opportunity. Somebody, somewhere is going to start making autonomous cars, and people will start buying them. Detroit will find itself playing catch-up, or get relegated to irrelevancy.

Personally, I think if autonomous cars can be proven to be safe and reliable, there will be a virtual tsunami of adoption by the buying public.