is that it makes the lunatic fringe much easier to locate.

Protecting privacy isn't the point. The point is that it's not Google's job to enforce the protection of your privacy - they're not hosting the breach - nor can Google stop what's happening on twitter / elsewhere on the web.

If google implemented some sort of magical context understanding blocking filter the people who cared would simply look for that gossip hit elsewhere and post it on twitter / whatever.

If anything this is more akin to the music industry insisting that ISPs should block what they want to block.

Apart from Hero's Quest / Quest for Glory
- which were great /shows his age

To be fair, I think a lot of geeks are quite forgiving of scifi because it's scifi. However imaginative the story, often it's just not that well done. On top of which the awards tend to be about acting i.e. it's hard to get a best picture nod without an actor/actress also, and it's hard to justify one of those when the protagonists spend their time in suits / cgi.

Look at the reception that Inception and LotR have received.

The problem is - so is the rest of the world. For now.

Assuming some smartypants doesn't press the big red button, America's world dominance will fade to nothing soon enough through Darwinian pressure to be an idiot, or (worse) pretend to be an idiot.

You're right and you're wrong.

The problem is the same as always - that change is hard.

What we need to do, if we can see the world going all Star Trek/The Culture, is to start thinking about letting go of ideas that get in the way. Start designing a path to get us from here to there as painlessly as possible. That is going to be difficult because the ideas we're going to have to leave behind are things like capitalism, market forces, getting ahead, money, the American Dream. I bet that ruffles a few feathers, but that's the point, isn't it? Moving from what you know is difficult - even if that's just baling hay.

Mass Effect 2 - I had no problem finishing, but then I mostly play games for the same reason I read a book or watch a movie - I want to be gripped and immersed in the story - and in the case of a game, challenged by the difficulty. If that doesn't happen boredom creeps in fast. If it does I keep playing until I have to stop. I dusted off Jedi Knight 2 about a week ago. I'd been playing for a while when I realized that if it had been a modern game I'd be near the end by now... and I still didn't even have any Force Powers. I'm pretty sure I'll finish it again. It'll take me longer than I did back in the day because life's just fuller, but I'll do it. On the other hand 'The Force Unleashed' is about as gripping as a butter vice... I can bash legions of stormtroopers about with my amazing powers... but meh...

Waiter: Evil, Google? Google: No, thanks. But my customers will might have a smidgeon.