The simulation part is correct, but they're just simulating your brain. Everyone and everything else is a construct of that.

I'm enjoying the implication that, when it comes to standardization, "at the last minute" can mean "two years earlier".

Let the flamewar begin...

640k should be enough for anyone.

So are you suggesting that the opportunity to create something that will deliver a return to your decendents is not an incentive to create? How many other fields of endeavour offer this kind of opportunity?

Necessary? doubtful, but to suggest that the current regime of life + 50 years does *not* provide an incentive is plain wrong.

It's not necessarily the "medicine", I regularly lose my sense of smell temporarily in the late stages of a cold these days. The loss of smell generally lingers for a week or so after the cold has gone.

Likewise:

Flying Cars
3D TV
Fusion Power

It's been shown on a number of occasions that creating airborne surveillance devices which look like animals simply invites predators to catch and destroy them.

http://gizmodo.com/359417/hawks-agree-wowwees-dragonfly-tastes-delicious