Here's the rub: turning the combustion end products (CO2 and H2O) back into hydrocarbons takes more energy than burning the fuel produced, especially if you burn it to run a heat engine.

Built-in optical drives are done. But Apple still offers an external optical drive: https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MD564LL/A/apple-usb-superdrive

I got one of those in 2013 for my optical-drive-less MacBook Pro, and it still works fine on my Mac Studio. I don’t use it for much other than ripping the occasional CD, though.

I was a co-op with Kodak 1982-1984. My father worked there from the 1960s until a decade or two after I moved on. It was well understood that 6 megapixel sensors in digital cameras would cut the demand for photographic film in half. Electronics moved a bit faster than Kodak executives thought. Having invented the digital camera, they had no idea how to turn that into a profitable line of business. They tried, though, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak_DCS. Japanese camera companies did it a lot better, and Kodak struggled in the consumer market. And then Steve Jobs put a camera in the iPhone, and the market for inexpensive cameras for consumers crashed.

Xerox got compensation from Apple for that visit and Apple's use of what they saw, options on 100,000 shares of Apple stock at $10 per share. I believe Apple stock has split 28-to-1 since then; had Xerox held onto their stake, it would be worth $506,800,000 today. Pretty good return.

At the relevant time frames there were already 68020s shipped in Macs and soon 68030s.
Not at all.
In 1986, Apple released the Mac Plus, which came with 1 MB RAM, and with a lot of work and snipping a lead on a resistor, could be upgraded to 4 MB of RAM. I did a few of those once 1 MB SIMMs came down in price.
In 1987, Apple released the Mac II with a 68020, and the Mac SE, with a 68000.
In September 1988, Apple released the Mac IIx with a 68030.

The first release of LabView was October 1986, so in between the Mac Plus and the Mac II.

My brother got a two-year degree in Electronics Technology, then went on and graduated from a four-year program in Electrical Engineering. He is now listed as the primary inventor on a patent (that the company he works for owns). So an associates degree can be a stepping stone, especially for those who weren't engaged by their whole high-school experience.

The article is missing a vital statistic: how many 18-year-olds are there vs. 10 years ago? TFA says enrollment is down 10%. If the number of 18-year-olds dropped by 12%, then the percentage enrolling in college increased. Is this the case? I can't tell, because the article doesn't think it's important to say. It goes on to complain about students unable to efficiently ferret data out of a spreadsheet. Hmmm...

I’m a big fan of the gravitationally-confined thermonuclear reactor. Simple design, too. Lots of ways to convert the EM radiation it gives off into electricity.

It's easy. Set up your gravitationally-confined fusion reactor, and then use silicon-based collectors to convert emitted electromagnetic radiation into electricity.

The first, and best, thermonuclear reactor design is gravitational confinement. Proven success over the last 10 billion years or so.

And the Carbon Tax proposal, where the tax receipts are refunded per capita to the people, actually is a quite progressive tax. Lower-income folks would get more back than they pay. So that's another strike against your friend's argument.

I just set up Apple Savings, for my daily cash back. No fuss, no muss, done.
I was about to transfer money out of my Credit Union account, and decided to double-check the rates. My Credit Union Savings Account payed 4.29%, my Money Market Account payed 3.30%, and Apple would pay 4.15%. I'll watch those three rates for a month or two before I decide to move any money around.

Crescent Dunes is producing energy again, or at least was, as of the 2022 figures reported here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crescent_Dunes_Solar_Energy_Project

Nuclear costs are through the roof, we agree on that much.

Rape by the protagonist and its consequences is kinda key to the first Thomas Covanent trilogy. I’m not sure how well that would go over in today’s entertainment climate.

I forgot to add, an unexpected part of the price jump was changing out the heat sink from aluminum to copper, because the M1 Ultra generated that much more heat.