No. Rather the contrary. Patents should be for well defined, actual inventions, not vague notions.

As far as Jerome Lemelson and the barcode patent are concerned, all the supporting technology was in place. We had computers. We had devices that read instructions and data from paper tape. We had devices that could sense light levels. Maybe he did put two and two together. I don't know.

My point, though, is this: Since patents only last 20 years, there's no point in patenting something that is 30 years out. You can't make any money on it. But Boeing is taking out patents. So, the only conclusion is that Boeing has stumbled onto an idea that will make fusion engines a practical reality before the patent runs out.

Since most flights board from the front of the plane, people should board back to front. First Class should be the last people being boarded.

You definitely won't have to share armrests with anybody, because there are no armrests at all.

Definitely! This way we get debris to the face rather than having it bounce off the backs of our seats.

So instead of mildly inconveniencing people, they now have to unbuckle, stand up, fold up their seat, and let you pass?

In the 1950s, we weren't 20 years from practical barcode technology. We had computers running off of punched paper tape. Barcodes werre not much of a stretch. Practical nuclear fusion reactors are well over 20 years away, especially a type light enough to power an airplane.

What's the point of filing now? Won't the patent expire long before we have a working engine?

... or maybe Boeing knows something about fusion engines that we don't.

I gather you've never lived in the country. Folk will be driving down them at 70 mph in their pickups.

Except we are getting more urban and less rural. That means busier roads in the cities, and quieter roads in the country.

Meh, they probably import their toilets from Northern hemisphere manufacturers.

Question, if I may: In left hand drive vehicles in North America, the gas pedal is closest to the center of the vehicle, operated by the right foot. What happens in right hand drive vehicles like those in the UK? Is the gas pedal still operated by the right foot, or are the controls reversed so that the gas pedal is operated by the left foot?

There were two things I liked about the VAX/VMS filesystem that I would port over. The first is version numbering. A file would start as filename.1 and the number would increment with each edit/save cycle.

The second thing would be logicals and overlayed directories. They worked like a stack of transparencies like the human anatomy entry in an encyclopedia. The base layer would be a read only version of the operating system. Above that would be a writable layer. Above that, for development users, would be test versions of new OS elements. Regular users wouldn't see these layers. Above that would be applications (read only) with a writeable layer above it.

The purpose of the writeable layer over the read only layer is to trap attempts to overwrite system files.

No such system exists.

Perhaps you want "to become" rather than "will be"?

Can warrants be challenged in a court of law?