It shows us what the technology is capable of: Sure, "Can it scale?" and "Can production be automated?" are questions that must be answered before it is an everyday medicine at the hospital. But those questions also inform the next corporation what it needs to invent, to create a new medicine.

How are you measuring "size": By GDP?. So, it takes 3 Chinese workers to buy the same quantity (in dollars) as 1 US worker. The obvious answer is, Chinese workers are buying less, or the cost of merchandise, is less.

How are you measuring production? In dollar terms? That's GDP, which I explained. In, units produced? The problem there is, many factories don't exist in the USA: The quantity of item X produced in the USA, is zero. How are you resolving this? Simply ignore the workers that don't have a US equal: That certainly explains the 3 to 1 ratio.

Now, let's assume you are correct. What does that mean? Given, the "size" of the economy is similar, the GDP is similar, it means it takes 3 Chinese people to earn Z dollars and 1 US person to earn Z dollars. Why is that a problem? That depends on what China imports. The important CPUs are made in Japan/USA/EU: Anything with modern computing power costs a fortune, from Tvs to laptops. (Cell phones are excluded, strange!) How does China get around that: Internet cafes? Streaming services means a laptop can function as a small Tv. What else: Let's assume management costs 12% of revenue. Thus, a Chinese worker pays 4% to have a job, while a US worker pays 12%. Which country looks unproductive, now?

Nice factory you got there... Shame, if it burn't down:

The point isn't creating jobs, creating a local supply chain, or creating property that US billionaires can own. It's about creating leverage over content. To be precise, it's about creating back-doors, so the government can abuse its own people.

Terrible people have terrible children who bring other terrible people into their lives. That doesn't change because people are rich: It means the arsehole of the month isn't sleeping on momma's couch. That stops many problems that poor people have to suffer through.

Yep, just look at all the rich people caught committing fraud: D Trump, K Paxton, E Holmes, S Bankman-Fried, General Dynamics, the entire health insurance industry. You would think US people would realize that rich people are not better than them.

IIRC, news outlets were the first to use AI: Meta is demanding their AI slop to train its own AI. On the other side, copy-writers won't submit work so that Meta can steal it. Everything will become AI slop because everything is stolen.

I've said it multiple times, Web 2.0 is really "all your data are belong to us". Now, the big 7 are willing to steal from corporations.

People borrowed money to buy 'tulips' and the cost of borrowing, ability to sell tulips and size of the 'crop' may stack any negative effects and send people broke.

The usual middle-men may suffer another feedback loop that destroys the market and the ability to sell tulips and its accessory products.

A new derivative product may be worthless as it inherits all the problems of the original tulip and its market.

... I'm voting for "Tremulous Tarsier".

Driving upside-down is a "Men in Black" car but the crab-wise Minority Report car would be more useful. For that matter, the 1990s, where rear-wheel (15 degrees) steering was popular for 5 minutes, would be better.

The falling ability would be sort-of useful for Speed Racer. But the Tesla braked to a stop about 3 metres above the ground, then floated down.

The new Meta (Facebook/Instagram) web-site doesn't work with Firefox and other privacy-conscious browsers.

The arrival of AI web-site-scrapers has driven everybody to Google security, who in turn, is re-building web-sites so that only their privacy-removing browser (Chrome), works.

That's very true: Those judgements are a combination of "think of the children" and "I'm getting mine, fuck you" thinking.

/p. So, let's ask the important question: How many erroneous vehicle-stops at police gun-point, did the police do before Flock's cameras, arrived? How many police committed push-button stalking before Flock's never-stops-stalking database, arrived?

I suspect that Google will be pushing a 'social media' user interface, not a 'remember your score' UI. A whole cohort of like-minded people using the same applet to give their data to Google: It's "free e-mail" version 2.0.

Who will they buy equipment/uniforms from? Which suburb/town are they traveling to? Where will they eat/celebrate? Which hospital do they take injured children to? How much will it cost to re-paint the club-house? What are their fund-raising choices?

What happens when Gmail wants to send you an SMS to 'confirm' your log-in?

I haven't logged into my primary e-mail account (via web-browser) for years because of that. Thankfully, I saw the writing on the wall in 2013, and put TOTP on all other accounts. A few years ago, I bought a few fingerprint scanners (The memory 'battery' powers it for a few hours, only.) to use instead of passkey log-in. The passkey escrow system to compensate for a lost/destroyed phone, is not offered by Google or Microsoft.

With Android 17, the wi-fi button on the notification panel (drag-down from top of screen) no longer switches-off the wi-fi: It puts the wi-fi into a receive-only state, indicated by a black icon (which previously indicated "off").

To switch-off wi-fi, one must tap the right side of the wi-fi button and slide the wi-fi toggle to "off". The black icon will display a diagonal line through the wi-fi symbol.

Also, the Mobile Data button (data over the phone service) was moved to page 3 of the notification panel. It now displays a pop-up, demanding confirmation of the activation.

New 'shiny' and FoMO means people will continue buying a shitty product. That should be a Ferengi rule of acquisition.

The billionaires will merely demand a lower IPO price so they can re-sell to FoMO investors before the share price collapses, and still make an obscene profit.