Hydroplaning and black ice I would expect them to be better than humans. We already have computers to handle this better than us - they are called ABS and traction control. Likewise, static obstacles like road debris and potholes I think they will be built to sense more reliably than humans: they can use radar and/or ultrasound as well as light. The difficulty is with moving objects, particularly those controlled by people (bad drivers, careless pedestrians, reckless cyclists), With less of a model of mind, they will either have to leave large safety margins (and hence go slower) or else take risks. Maybe they can get the risks down to where, given their superior senses and faster reactions, they will end up net safer than human drivers.

Bashar Assad is a trained ophthalmologist. So he can count as far as glasses strengths go.

My current IT department use month of arrival as the default password for a new account. So someone starting today would get a password of "Feb12". So every time they type it in, you get reminded of how long they haven't changed it. Certainly better than 12345.

Before Google, I used Altavista.

I am afraid that Google is a proof of the axiom that all power corrupts. While not seeing them as totally evil, the fact of being huge and rich has distorted their vision so that they cannot see the dark side of the things that they do, I think they still mean well, they think that they are "doing no evil". But their view is so distorted by the point that they are looking from that they have lost touch with what ordinary people think. They are so intent on open information that they cannot understand why people, quite honourably and innocently, want too keep some information private to themselves.

I don't see it as a breach of privacy if it only records the fact that I braked or swerved, not where I did it. It seems perfectly reasonable to me for my insurer to request (not demand) evidence of my ability in the area being insured. The request my age, number of years of driving experience, home address, where I store the car, previous claims record, all of which seem to me much more private than the fact that at some point I braked or swerved.

If they start reporting where I was when I drove badly, that is a totally different matter. But this seems to me information in a commercial context which is relevant to the commercial transaction being undertaken.

True, but all of these were created by the Gods, with their divine powers. Frankenstein was the first time the constructor of new technology was a man, and the premise was that this technology might become available to mankind in the near future. SF takes as its subject the hypothetically possible future of mankind (and others), and Frankenstein fits that mould (and, plausibly, created it). Mythology is about powers forever belonging to the Gods and beyond the reach of man. Of course, there is huge blurring of the boundary, which we may call Science Fantasy.

Definitely. We could make them work in factories, fed only on gamba grass, and exploit them while we live in luxury... What could possibly go wrong with ten-ton intelligent slaves?

Except that I don't think it would be too hard to control, or even wipe out, the elephants. They are not little critters that hide in holes, and they have a slow reproductive rate, unlike rabbits which breed...

No, they apply to any company which is using its size in the marketplace to force others out by means other than providing better goods and services. You don't even have to have 50% of the market, provided that you are dominant.

Looks like they have reinvented the inmos Transputer, from about 1984. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transputer . They alwaysintended to take that multicore, but never got that far. But it looks remarkably similar in intention.