One would have to delude themselves to think the rate of technical progress has slowed, I would argue that it is advancing faster then most of us realize. Furthermore, every single "advancement" or "invention" is incremental, usually in many ways. Sure, many people want to turn the brains off and assume the implementation of the car or the airplane or computers just magically happened one day, or that the inventor was some super genius that was able to create something revolutionary out of thin air, but the fact is every single invention is made up of a tremendous amount of hard work and the piecing together of many existing technologies.

Pull your head out, we are living in amazing times.

Sprint allows this, and I think AT&T does as well. Don't know about the others. Elapsed time of my message? < 3 secs
"you know what to do" <beep>

And once the "god" database is complete, you will never have to lock anything again. Everything and everyone will be tracked...all time.

"In the mean time, I simply have utterly given up, I think we would need 3 or 4 generation of basic scientific education from the 1st grade onward to change the trend."

I too have been frustrated and felt like giving up when facing the human desire to believe. "If they could only **see**", I tell myself. It's just so damn frustrating and sad, especially when the person you are talking with is suffering needlessly. I have to remind myself that I was 40 or 41 before I even "allowed" myself to question my beliefs.

I grew up in bible churches and attended a private Christian high school. So it took many things and 4 or 5 years to bring me to where I am today. A poignant question from a friend that still professes to be Christian forced me to actually question my beliefs. Other contributing factors, in no particular order included a wife that supports me no matter what, signatures of various Slashdot members, the logic of Mark Davis (a right wing radio personality in the Dallas market), the study of statistics upon return to college in my 30s, my reading of Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World", and a strong desire to "understand".

I now jokingly call myself a rightwing conservative atheist, and I am more hopeful and optimistic than I was as a Christian. I also am very sympathetic to human beliefs in general, especially those centered on doing right and helping others.

The fallout of my conversion has been amazingly light to non-existent. My wife, who is one of the smartest people I know, has always had some doubts about religion but she never voiced them strongly for fear of getting into an irrational argument with her steadfastly believing husband. She joined me on much of this journey and our relationship is better than ever. All my long time friends are still Christians, and most still accept me despite my rejection of my former beliefs. I do have a couple of friends I'm afraid to tell for fear of loosing their friendships, but our friendships now suffer a little because of the secret. Another interesting result of my conversion was the need to actually grieve the death of my father from 35 year ago. All in all, this journey has had a very positive influence in my life.

I wrote all that so I could offer the possibility that it may not take 4 generations and that there may be more of us out here than any one of us realizes. Hold strong, there is hope.