It does sound like a modern art project to me.

computers will have human-level intelligence

There will be smart ones but most will be stupid when connected in groups together, and only perform short time calculations instead of working on a long term plan to raise the quality of all components for everyone?

Probably take someone suing them until this changes in the UK

Or anywhere else, actually.
I haven't had an update in a long time (Samsung S4) but I only checked when it was convenient as well. Now I've rooted it, and secured it more by installing a firewall, hosts list, and program permission tool on it through the F-Droid repository.
But the main thing is to not install every silly app from the store, especially whhile not checking latest reviews and permissions.

What about things that aren't super urgent that you need_now!

That's urgent then, isn't it? If it's not urgent you don't need it now.
And the same in a meeting, either the meeting pauses to get an answer, or it will be given later.

Was one of your co-workers deaf or hard of hearing? If so, the use of instant messaging for urgent things may have been an accommodation for your co-worker's disability, pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act or foreign counterparts.

Most were hard of hearing, but that had nothing to do with the health of their ears, and this wasn't a US company.

That's what I felt when the boss at a previous job wanted us to use instant messaging when there was already a phone for urgent things and email for non-urgent matters. I didn't want to be distracted by constant popups from another communication source.

I use two instant messaging clients now on my mobile, one I've used the longest for work/friends, and since last year another for chatting securely (read: keeping away from facebook/google) with my girl.
The mobile is set to silent and no vibration so it's not too distracting.

A browser is not an operating system!

They're like that guy who sits in a basement full of military archives and watches TV all day, only doing actual work for a couple minute once every week or month when someone comes to visit him.

Yeah, but he's really going to need them when he has to save America 500 years later with toilet water so it's better to have them and not need them than not having them in the first place.

t's for people that enjoy tinkering with computers rather than getting work done

I do like tinkering, but one of the advantages of using Limux/BSD is the lack of annoying disturbances while working.
No nagging about Windows updates or forced reboot, no nagging about the virus scanner doing anything, no nagging of programs needing updates (Adobe, Java, etc.), no nagging advertising (apparently), no nagging about no internet connection if the router or firewall reboots, etc.

My barebones desktop environment (by default totally blank with a clock in the bottom corner) provides me the setting to do what I want to do on the PC; use the programs I started without any distraction.

how the hell do you get sexual satisfaction out of swallowing somebody whole?

Welcome to human nature.
I guess this fetish is sort of like the one for asphyxiation. The thrill of getting close to death or dying.

Anything that can cause a physical reaction can also be a trigger for a sexual reaction when the link has established in the brain. It might be best for your sanity to not search for these things on internet.

Numbers have been nothing but logic for me.

Those five basic human needs are what I have found in reading and writing. There you deal with emotions and subjectivity.

And what protocols are used for those things?

Since HTTPS can't be cached and more and more multimedia is being used on weebsites (not to mention the increased size of pictures on some sites), the amount of data usage is getting higher every year. The cost of that would be too much if limits are kept the same as they are now.

I'm glad the girl got rescued, but whenever I hear these stories I always think, what now? It's not like the systemic problems that lead her down that path are just going to vanish...

But the hope is that each time such a story gets in the news it'll lead to something being done about it sooner. (but honestly, I doubt it looking at human nature)

What they didn't say was that they had to do it all over again after they realised someone had fed the 3D modelling software a copy of the Coneheads movie