RSA hasn't been broken (publicly at least). There's a decent chance the NSA has broken it, but I'm not too concerned about them in this case.

It's not password protection, it's RSA encryption. That means it's a practical impossibility to break it directly with today's tech; you would need months on any top500 supercomputer to have even a chance at it.

That said, my original comment was after being a joke...

Or rather, I hope you concluded they are about as self-interested as said housecat. Until housecats prove as adroit at maximizing personal income and success, I'm going to maintain the 'Job Creators' are much smarter.

Not really. The truly stupid people think demand is completely inflexible.

I'm confused. How exactly did WW2 move money (or more usefully, wealth, as inflation/deflation happened a lot in that period of time) into the hands of the middle class? By destroying large amounts of infrastructure, property and capital? By killing off a sizable number of said middle class?

Wars are inherently destructive. Claiming they help the economy is the fallacy of the broken window.

While I agree with your general point, I'm not sure public libraries are truly necessary for prosperity, particularly these days. I'm an avid reader, and haven't been in a library in years. If government stopped wasting (a very tiny fraction of) my money on public libraries, I'd be able to afford (a fractional part of) an extra book to read!

That qualifies as one of those inventions that make you wonder why it had to be invented... The utility is quite obvious.

Yeah, trusting the Guardian to be responsible definitely does qualify as incompetence. But gross incompetence? You're taking things a bit too far...~

I think it's a tragedy that someone raised anywhere doesn't know what socialism is. I doubt growing up in an authoritarian country is likely to improve your chances of understanding it.

And that, my friend, is an ideology. Your ideology. That normative standard is nothing that can be derived from reality. I believe the parent might disagree with it. I would only agree for a very specific definition of 'works for the most'. Ideology is the lens we see the world through. For a healthy person, it's an autofocusing lens, continually changing your perceptions of the world, and being changed by them.

Ideology is for children. In fact, the point of a lot of education is to give them a decent one. Is accepting progress 'natural'? Is demanding rationality 'normal'? Is compassion for the downtrodden 'admirable'? Each of these judgments depends on ideology. I hope our kids will be taught to answer yes to each of these, and maintain that ideology throughout their lives.

The simplest, most straight-forward answer is that it's better designed to achieve it's goal. Both programs are primarily used to fight poverty; to, as you put it, keep people from "[being] forced onto the street".

But one of them is funded by regressive payroll taxes, and provides benefits on the basis of age. The other one is funded by a progressive income tax and provides benefits on the basis of need.

I know which one might be worth supporting, and it isn't the first one.

I'd be the first to admit that morals can conflict. But it's just that; a conflict. It is, by itself, immoral to break your word. It is also, sometimes, immoral to keep your word, when you have promised foolishly. In such a dilemma, an ethics and moral courage are questioned, as they must choose which principle to break.

But in the end the fact will remain that you spoke foolishly and were compelled to break faith by a stronger moral injunction.

I do hope you don't think these groups are very well aligned. Certainly most of the wealthy elite are taxpayers, but the converse is far from the truth.

Certainly. In fact, every time I access my banks website, it hands a complete, encrypted copy of my transaction log, identifying information, etc. to me. And to my ISP. And to their ISP. And to umpteen servers along the way. If anyone cares enough about encrypted banking data, it's trivial to intercept. Fortunately, I'm the only one with the decryption key.

What you don't seem to understand is that this the whole point of encryption; that you can use completely public channels for securely sharing private info. It's core to online banking, etc.

Whatever. My point had nothing to do with it being an 'AI' really; I was just using AI in the generic 'computer player of game' sense. Expert system is probably a better technical description.

No more pointless than the original activity. Coding AIs is its own form of entertainment, and if you enjoy that more than minesweeper (Who doesn't really? Minesweeper? Ugh!) you've successfully entertained yourself for a significant chunk of time. And maybe improved your coding skills a touch.