So you wnat to replace Comcast/AT&T/Verizon with the IRS?

Yes. And freedom goes with it. Now the mullahs, eastern kleptocrats and strongmen of the world will decide what YOU can see.

Has anyone read the book and checked the facts? It seems to be a fairly controversial topic and I wounder why the authors didn't do a peer reviewed paper instead of a book. Perhaps because it is more speculative than factual?

There are SO MANY layers of caching between the application layer and the physical disk it is not possible for most applications to know that they are actually writing to disk. This is simply one example of that. Additionally, crappy application layer code runs slowly. Yes, it makes a HUGE difference how you write your code even today in how quickly it executes. High level languages simply make it easier to write code which executes slowly for no apparent reason.

Subject says it all!

You've got your verbs mixed up... you said "prevent" when you really meant "prohibit". Laws don't prevent you from doing anything. Instead they define behavior which you "shall not" do and define penalties for violating that prohibition. The difference is important because prevention implies a mechanism to keep the prohibited action from occurring. That is not the case with laws.

First, a correction. Most "gun deaths" are not caused by "legal weapons" but by criminals shooting victims. The police and armed citizens rarely shoot people by comparison. The problems isn't "illegal guns" but instead criminals using weapons. Criminals also use weapons other than firearms. "Smart guns" haven't caught on because of a failure of the inventors to understand the role that firearms play for police and armed citizens. Firearms are safety equipment, similar in many respects to a fire extinguisher. In an emergency they are needed RIGHT NOW and must function WITHOUT FAIL, because if they do not function then human life is threatened. So far none of the biometric gizmos can provide that 100% guarantee. Simple as that.

Quite a simplistic analysis and one that basically ignores US designs being produced overseas as well as US companies with subsidiaries overseas. But apparently relevant enough for political purposes.