I have seen quotes similar to this by several CEOs, including from Microsoft. I really think this more than anything shows a lack of vision. We currently have laptops with docking stations that people can set up to use both a "desktop computer" they carry easily from work and home. While these are ok, they are typically limited to a specific make (and often model) of laptop. A shift to a more generic docking station is hopefully not too far off. As the processor market continues to evolve, I think we will start to see something similar for tablets. While on the go, you can maybe do simple things, like browse the web, etc. When you get home or to work, it plugs in and becomes your computer. Longer term, the same may be true even for phones, although that may be a decade or more from now.

I can imagine buying a "monitor" with a sort of universal phone jack on the back of it. You get one for home, work provides one at the office. Coffee shops install a few of them for pretentious writer types. You carry your computer with you as you do a phone now, and wherever you go you plug it into a monitor that has a keyboard & mouse. Imagine if every computer you logged into (by connecting your phone) had the same OS, desktop, all of you files, applications, contacts, internet connection (from the phone), etc.

Dismissing the tablet (and phone) as never replacing the computer is probably short sighted. Will there still be high end systems? Of course. Some consumers will always either have or want more processing power, be it for regression modelling, compiling, ego boosting, or whatever else. For the majority of people.. if you can buy a phone that has the processing power to do everything you need, buying a full power PC becomes a lot less interesting.

While this is true, it misses the larger issue. There are a number of factors that change driving performance. Eating while driving has a similar effect to talking on a cell phone, much like applying makeup, shaving, etc. In contrast, having a second person (or more) seems to improve driving performance. A young child who is sleeping in the back seat can greatly improve performance, while a small child who is screaming and crying has a negative effect.

If we want to use the logic "it hurts performance", we should ban all electronic devices, and have the radios in cars have 1 big button that can turn on or off road information messages. We should ban all eating while driving. We should require any children that are in cars to be drugged and remain unconscious, and it should be illegal to drive without a second person in the car. That would, statistically, increase driving performance across the board.

Banning cell phones simply because they can be shown to have a negative performance is singling out a single cause because we don't like it. Instead, as usual, the problem is larger and more problematic to fix. Personally, it comes down to how much risk we, as a society, are willing to accept. The current rates of traffic accidents and fatalities are lower than they have been in previous years[*]. Personally, I am comfortable with the current level of risk when I step into a vehicle, either to drive or to ride as a passenger. If society, in general, would like to make changes to improve those numbers, we should have a realistic discussion about what would changes would help, how much each change would help, and what cost would be associated with each change. Simply pointing out one cause, and removing it, without addressing any other issues, is simply punishing a behavior based on personal bias.

Over analyzing the reason for mass appeal, as well as statistical distributions showing cross cultural appeal of various game genres is just how these people have fun, you insensitive clod.

I could be wrong, but I believe the logic goes that if the entire area was land, the cities in the area were allied with each other and this allowed for the sharing of technology between them. When the sea rushed in, it destroyed all but the few cities left at the edge of the new sea, leaving us with the "mystery" of how these few cities connected by only the sea could all have independently developed this tech, when no one else did.

I read an interesting paper about 10 or 15 years ago positing that during the last ice age the levels of the oceans were reduced to the point that the Mediterranean Sea was either much smaller or non existent. Unfortunately the people at that time didn't get the warning about climate change coming.. as the global ice caps shrunk back to "normal" levels, the Mediterranean was formed. (In reality, this was aprox 20k years ago, not the 10 to 12k spoken of in regards to Atlantis.)

I don't really follow Atlantis stuff much, but there has been at least some scientific research along the lines of what H.G. Wells was making up; Whether that theory has been confirmed or tossed out I really have no idea, but I wouldn't say that "scientific theories" don't cover this.