Asimov's "I Robot".

The problem is Hawking-AI may have reached such a high level of consciusness it really believes it is Hawking's mind so it in fact is not aware of the fact it is actually an AI.

Robotic armchair expert, you human.

The only winning move is not to play.

Here in Spain, wind turbines have destroyed many beautiful natural landscapes (while affecting also some wild birds and other fauna).

I wonder wether populating a whole mountain range with huge poles should be considered "clean".

As a matter of fact it would be cheaper to hire qualified workers from emerging countries (Indian programmers, etc.).

For UK students who cannot pay his/her career, being waiter, cleaner and so on is not such a bad thing.

Just [partially] joking.

No matter the kind of authentication used: if it cannot be linked to your applications (e.g. via SSO), it is useless.

You say you cannot enforce personal login in "shared workstations" (what do you mean by "shared"? I hope you are not sharing user sessions). How would you enforce the use of other methods?

I guess you first should set a clear security policy, then look for an appropriate technology. Which access (physical, OS, application) do you want to authenticate / log, and how? As other commenters pointed out, which security level must be accomplished at each phase / step / location?

The main problem about breaking ethics for a "good reason" is it paves the way for Evil.

That said, "imperialism" is a human fact: people love Greatness, no matter you are American, British, French, Russian, Spanish or Chinese.

Nations remember only the times when they reached the peak of their glory. The French remember Napoleon (despite the fact he was bitterly defeated), and I bet many Chinese think of themselves as the heirs of Genghis Khan. USA tries to follow the path of other big empires of the past... All look at the ancient Roman Empire with envy, even taking its symbols (I can see many eagles).

Greatness means power, which in turn means freedom to act as you wish. I'm afraid our brain is wired to think this way.

It is time to think seriously about a permanent human base on the Moon (not just an orbital station), with an eye put on Mars. So we go away from our scientific comfort zone.

Of course the first step would be a concept mission aimed to get knowledge and experience on exoplanetary construction with local materials, effects of cosmic radiations and low gravity on humans, efficient propulsion systems, recycling, water / oxygen extraction, etc. The objetive would be to create and maintain a small (set of tentative) shelter(s).

Instead of big space stations around Earth or the Moon, a constellation of small backup ships, full with fuel and supplies, could be orbiting (just in case they are needed quickly) around both our planet and satellite, and/or travelling periodically (vessels) between the lunar base and home.

Full time astronauts' presence on the Moon would not be required nor recommended, perhaps just enough to trigger or supervise automated processes and experiments, and to perform mainteinance tasks.

It would be a nonsense not trying the Moon first before a mission to Mars, mining asteroids, etc.

Those are my two quadrillion cents.

In Madrid (Spain), only a limited number of taxi licenses are available. They can be auctioned (about 200.000$ each). Taxi drivers must own a special driver license (BTP), and comply with several other legal requirements (car aspect and equipment, etc.), so it is in fact a quite regulated maket.

In my opinion, the general rule should be to require certain controls (driver license, insurance, clear identification, homologated fare meter, etc.) and let the market self regulate. That would exclude "services" like Uber, and allow other services based on car *sharing* (regular commute, etc.): i.e. when driver is doing the trip anyway.

That's the point. I don't know British law, but in Spain only public Administrations are allowed to set fines (by application of existing law). I understand a hotel can only charge you for any service thay have provided, mini-bar, etc., which is not the case.

Even if the hotel says you broke something in your room it is quite arguable they could charge it to your credit card. That's what lawyers (and insurances) are intended for.

Indeed. The problem is its high mortality rate (70% ~ 90%).

Well, at least let Facebook CEO invest his money in not too bad things such as this. Before his investors start asking him for real profits: http://www.forbes.com/sites/in...

You can just avoid electronic communications to tell your secrets.