It's maybe been useful motivation. The problem is, it's essentially the same definition as that of "the soul."

None of your examples are examples of "not thinking." They're examples of things that you think don't think.

The problem with that is it's entirely useless for extrapolating, as much as your prejudice would like you to think the opposite. It's also generally agreed that rocks don't do arithmetic, but if you arrange them in just the right way they're actually awfully good at it.

Funny, but the entire human population spends most of their time not "thinking."

From coordinating complex movements like walking through routines like driving to work to, yes, knee jerk reactions to most things, most of what our brains do is subconscious. Only the weird justifies the effort of actual executive control. Whatever it is that we call "conscious thought" is even rarer.

Einstein's theory of relativity was not based on scientific research.

Well, you can stop reading there. I don't necessarily agree with the thesis, but the supporting arguments seem to range from wrong to kind of dumb.

SSDs do automatic scrubbing, i.e. a sort-of self-refresh when powered. They do it only for cells that have gotten weak. No idea how long that takes though.

You should be able for force a full test cycle by either reading the full SSD or by running a long SMART self-test.

Depending on the data, that is a perfectly valid approach. Example: Root CA secret key. Make sure to use pigmented, non-acidic ink or laser.

Probably low-stability dye. CD-R can be made very cheaply.

It depends on the quality of the dye layer, the quality of the coating and other factors. For DVD recordables, same thing. The exception is DVD-RAM which use phase-change and can theoretically be archive-grade. But everything has to work for that. I tried with some and apparently disk and drive need to be matched for it to work well. At the time I tried, there were no current drives and disks with that information available.

It is a matter of luck. Better not depend on them. Some DVD-RAM were archive grade, but only when written with the right drives.

No. These tests confirm that SSDs need to do data scrubbing to be reliable and hence need to have power for longer-term storage. The wear is a secondary effect.

I most certainly never said such a stupid thing. SSDs are NOT long-term storage and neither are USB-sticks.

Anybody that did minimal research has known that for ages. SSDs do and need to do scrubbing, i.e. data refresh and for that they need to have power. If you want longer-term unpowered storage, use HDDs (but better stay away from the SMR trash). For long term storage use archive-grade tape or paper. Or stone tablets if it is low volume.

Looks like click bait or incompetence. Could be the latter.

The illusion of intelligence evaporates if you use these systems for more than a few minutes.

Using AI effectively requires, ironically, advanced thinking skills and abilities. It's not going to make stupid people as smart as smart people, it's going to make smart people smarter and stupid people stupider. If you can't outthink the AI, there's no place for you.

Oh? When I was a teen (no Internet), I spent a lot of time in the local library reading about countless things that interested me. You know what rarely saw there? Other teens. The problem with most people is not access to information. The problem is lack of interest in information.