I don't know why we would underestimate the abilities of our future generations or more specifically the computers of the future. The ability to analyze the physical attributes and extract data doesn't really seem like a big deal. Then again, who cares, we only need something that will last for 3 years, right? :)

That's odd because I can rebuild my system in several hours sans my "full" game load-out.

While I don't support EA or DRM (and refuse to buy Warhead for that reason) I have been soaking up everything I can on the situation and have one correction to your statement... EA has clarified that they will release a patch to remove activation in the event that they take down an authentication server. Obviously this can be taken as a "we'll see" mentality but I thought I would post that they've addressed activation.