All that's missing is establishing a People's Court and we're set.

(Please read the Wikipedia article before invoking Godwin)

The development of the USSR is an interesting one, and one that is a showcase of how good intentions are easily perverted into the most heinous reality, provided that power hungry megalomaniacs are allowed to rule. Sadly, it is the power hungry megalomaniac that WANTS to rule.

The USSR started as a hope for a "worker's paradise", and in Marx' theory, it sure is. People worked hard towards that goal because they were promised a glorious future, and they believed it. By and by, they noticed that nothing gets better, or that it does only for the few on top, and the rest was a tyranny that tried hard to keep up the status quo, i.e. the good life for the "party people" and the struggle for the rest, until it just couldn't be propped up anymore.

Now replace the promise of the glorious future for everyone with the promise that you, too, can be rich if you work hard, and by and by people noticing that working does not get you rich, and I wonder if I really imagine the parallels here.

Anyone in security will go "duh" when you tell him of the mutual exclusivity of security and freedom. Oddly, people seem to want to have their cake and eat it too, and pretend that it is somehow possible.

Personally, I'd prefer freedom. That entails responsibility, and the chance to be harmed. By definition. When I am allowed to do what I want, there is a chance that I will do something that is harmful to me. People tend to do things that are against their best interest all the time, because it is convenient, because it is fun or because it gives them pleasure. From fatty food to cigarettes to alcohol to other drugs, from veggin' away on the couch in front of the idiot box to pushing themselves into a burnout syndrome. If allowed, people will make "wrong" decisions, all the time, every day, throughout their lives.

But that is their RIGHT. Of course, they waive the right to complain about it. So I really don't get the smokers that have the audacity to sue if they get sick from smoking. Hell, I was a heavy smoker, and I knew bloody well that it is unhealthy and likely deadly. I accepted that risk because I enjoyed it. Suck it up and deal with it, you bought the good, you got the bad for free on top of it. That's what freedom is about, you have to make a decision and you, and you alone, will bear the fallout if it is the wrong decision.

Isn't that what Americans want? The freedom to choose?

The freedom to choose whether they want health insurance and what kind thereof caused a big shitstorm, with the whole mess being labeled "Obamacare". No problem there. But if you decided against it and you're having cancer, shut up and die. Don't come and beg me to save you.

But that's the point I don't get. The very same people that demand that "the man" stays out of their "business" are calling the loudest to "do something" against those terrrrrists and applaud every kind of action the government takes to rob more of our liberties.

What the hell is wrong with American people?

And people tell ME my tinfoil hat is getting too tight when I say that the USA soon just need to duplicate the S to be truthful...

Let's look up the definition of "dictatorship"...

A government controlled by one person, or a small group of people. In this form of government the power rests entirely on the person or group of people, and can be obtained by force or by inheritance. The dictator(s) may also take away much of its peoples' freedom.

Now, one may argue whether one has to get money by force or inheritance, but else...

This fact is no longer in evidence storage room.

C'mon, make up your mind. Respect the court or the fellow citizens, you can't have both.

Finally, we have a case for information being outlawed.

What, no jobs for ESPers? What kinda prejudiced quackery is that?

Just letting the government do this stuff without fighting is cowardly. Our grandfathers fought in WWII. We need to fight the fight at home. We need to fight this stuff. MAKE IT PUBLIC show that the U.S.A. is becoming worse the the old soviet union. We have secret laws and secret police. This is not how a democracy is supposed to work! The general populace can stay in denial if the news can be drowned out. I believe (hope) we, as a country, may wake up if these sorts of things make lots of noise.

I voted for Obama, and while I don't think the alternatives would have been any better, we need a new kind of president that will not defend these policies. Terrorism has hit every free state. It is a fact of life. We either deal with the risks of freedom or give it up to these evil bastards. (insert Franklin quote)

Get a national security letter, fight it.
Get a court order, challenge it in a higher court, rinse, repeat.
Call the ACLU
Donate to the ACLU
encrypt, encrypt, encrypt.

Ah, the source is Pew Research, not Forbes.

Now, we can debate the merits of Pew if you want, but I highly doubt that, because that would mean actually having an informed opinion about something, which clearly isnt important to the person that said 'consider your source' but got it fucking wrong.

So, either you fix this by making people suffer dementia, and forget things in order to avoid this "post death" era overload, or you end up with vegetables who have siezures.

So go ahead and forget things (which is not the same as dementia, BTW). It's not like you can remember every last second of your life anyway.

Sure, you could possibly find a way to liberate a brain from its bony prison, and gently loosen the neural fibers in a nutrient bath, to allow nueronal and axonal migration to continue, but then the patient isn't really human anymore, are they? Congratulations, your immortal person is a giant, energy hungry brain in a tank.

Or go one step further and do mind uploading, turning your into an AI (Virtual Human? Uploaded Biological? Evolved Intelligence?). It solves all these problems, with the added benefit that you are now in a form more suitable for taking on the challenge of space colonization. And should you need it, you can still use the old-fashioned human form, either in a virtual world or via a remote-controlled robot.

And surely humanity, if it's worth anything at all, is not dependent on flesh.

And then, you run out of resources, because neural tissue is absurdly energy hungry, (your existing brain consumes a full third of all calories consumed!)

Which amounts to 30 watts.

And space doesn't exactly have raw material in infinite abundance.

For all practical purposes it does.

There are other options. My lawyer said that it's still illegal and that the suggestion reminds him of Nazi Germany, but there are other options!

Given the quality of the average AI, you'll get ads for women's lingerie and directions to a nearby transvestite club, the product and a beasty porn page.

If the choice of stupid people wouldn't affect the choices I have, I'd agree with you.

For reference, see politics. Or (*shudder*) TV.