he doesn't know anything about modern computing. He can't even demo his own products successfully, which shows he just doesn't give a damn. He was good at "business" of beating up other companies and Canoodling government and enterprise bosses.

He's also spend decades selling down to only a few percent of Microsoft ownership. He's still the "biggest" owner but not by much. He needs to "go away" and let the company do it's thing. His time is past. He should have got his nose out a decade ago and allowed Ballmer to fail hard. he's just a doddering old grandpa that won't let the sons run the family business correctly.

This is "Ghost in the Shell"stuff.

Can the Abstractions have their OWN abstractions? Would those be a copy of the ORIGINAL's consciousness, or an entirely NEW consciousness... Or something else,

In GitS the show several known kinds of this happening. Most obvious is the Major who extensively uses multiple memory backup cyberbrains until presumably the last piece of "meat" dies. The Tachikomas continuously extract and analyze data and modify their own THINKING as they go. They were able to inhabit a remote server and switch bodies at will. Presumably their code contained the keys to doing it again.

Then you had other events like Ryesomes on the network, servers that held a particular point of view even as users came and went.. Kind of like Slashdot. They also had "stand alone complex" in which the larger group of "people" created the same idea multiple times without people collaborating. In that respect, keeping memories and personality "alive" on the network could be a way for humans collective experience to continue even when the idea carrier dies.. To keep the "spark" of those ideas available for the future human race.

This is how the computer in Star Trek created characters for the holo deck.

Reconsider "creepy".

Came here just for this reference... It's surprisingly far down on the list.

This was EXACTLY what Zoe did to creat the original "cylon" AI's based on her dead friend. Further, it was what the Church of the One was going to use to offer people "eternal life."

Except all the avatars freaked out when they realized they were just copies of dead people. Only a handful could cope.

Tailia is the Cylon's god, not Zoe. That's why her little brother's ship was spared.

BINGO this!

Quinten should be going off on who stole his story and make them clean it up. Of course the sad thing on Hollywood is that the "staff" of rich people are probably the behest leakers because letting staff have access they shouldn't is par for the course.

Gawker has fought off Steve Jobs and Apple's lawyers... Quinten is just no match. Sorry kid. Cook seems to like pissing famous people off. And it is good for business and driving traffic. Kind of like the papparazzi, its their job to take pictures, and they score bigger if they get a picture if you hitting them.

But you cannot be pardoned until THE LAW has its way.

This entire case is about THE LAW. The NSA broke laws. Snowden broke laws back to tell the public about them.

At this point, you don't ask him to "apologize" and take some licks. The EXECUTIVE BRANCH screwed up... THEY don't get to fix it.

The proper course of action is to arrest him and for the DoJ to press what they got. Then the COURTS will look at EVIDENCE and decide if he qualifies for Whistleblower status. And the COURTS will decide what charges stick. And the COURTS will tell the Executive to pound sand.

Then the EVIDENCE will be legally on the books. Then a solid precedent will be set for reporting these types of crimes. THAT'S how FREEDOM works.

After ALL THAT, we can talk about pardons. Right now Snowden is not "wanted" for any listed CRIMES. So he cannot be "pardoned" for anything!

And Apple had been designing Mac for a year and a half before it came out. And mopping the floor with Apple 2. Dell "reassembling" things isn't close to Apple in 1984.

That's only needed because states and federal grants to universities directly have progressively gone down. In the 1960's and 1970's most STATE schools were less than 1/3 funded by student tuition. Now most undergrad programs are 1/2 or more funded by students directly... And they treat them like cattle. Sure the Feds graciously let you borrow the difference they didn't pay from bankers at 8%...the same people they gave tax cuts to, so they could cut funding to schools. The costs aren't Undergrad professors either.. Most schools use Teacher Assistants or part-time, no-benefits staff for undergrads classes... Paid barely livable per-class wages.

Maybe not starvation, but the upper echelons are openly talking about reopening "debtors prison", indenturing people for debts (like can't pay off your mortgage, not tanking a billion $ company), while aggressively making bankruptcy harder for individuals... But bailouts for the super wealthy.

They sit on millions and openly declared war years ago over thousands that the peasants owe them.

The 1% of working incomes is only about $300k or so. The falloff at the various IRS tax brackets represents about 80th and 90th percentiles ... If you make even $150k on your own you are at the 80th percentile for wages being paid... 8 of 10 people make less than YOU. people have no concept what "rich" means.

1% highest income in the USA is about $300k and up.

Too much traffic to drive your BMW... take the Google Bus to work.

Why do stupid regular people whine about stuff?

I' think I've run into that before, but I "vented" enough to satisfy them. I won't get "mad" at work under extreme duress... I'm a scream and throw shit across the room person when I'm really angry. I have meds and therapy for that for years to behave myself. Don't poke the Bear kids. I don't EVER want to do that at work unless its to defend myself from attack.

I do agree on the point that blowing interviews is a bit pretentious. But there are a lot of times an interviewer has clearly asked questions "over the line" or that identify this company as a terrible fit. At that point it TRUELY is better to have a plan to "now out gracefully" rehearsed so you don't continue the interview and throw your coffee at them!

I've had one where it was a group interview and felt like an ambush. It ws clear after 5 minutes I didn't want to be working there. It's like planing an "escape call" on a first date.

Not really, this is more of an Axes vs Swords type thing. Not a NEW or NOVEL form of punishment. If you told an Axe trained headsman to use a sword instead, you'd get a similar result the first few times. There's nothing to see here.