They're going to save $1B per year. Surely the cost of the system isn't free but I'm also sure the $1B/yr savings is factored into the cost. So when should my prescription drugs cost less?

Lost my well written post, but the short is the Nissan Leaf tripled it's range in 10 years, in the same time frame we say the rise of Tesla and the Model 3 has over 4x the range as the original Leaf (about 550 km now). So in 25 years you think it unfeasible to merely double the range of the Model 3? If nothing else, Tesla will slap another half ton of batteries in a special XR (extended range) Model 3 and break the 1k mark with current technology.

Where is the story there?

So, basically just like the early days of solar!

According to http://solarcellcentral.com/hi..., Bell Labs produced the first practical solar cell that operated at...6% efficiency. While I'll accept the 1/4 available potential, if this technology could grow at similar rates as solar then a dual purpose cell would eventually become cost effective as the bulk of solar installation expense is typically labor, and in theory, a dual use cell would require no more (or very little) additional labor. The average system is 1/3 material, 2/3 labor so there is a long hanging fruit to be grasped with a dual use cell.

This is a typical cycle. The old is disregarded by the new generation for the next big thing. Those on the bleeding edge can profit. But now in our corporate sponsored world, it is cheaper for the old vanguard to wait and just purchase the next big thing instead of trying to innovate. Of course, they wouldn't be buying it if they didn't think it was worth SIGNIFICANTLY more than they were paying (otherwise, how could they should 7% growth of income every year).

Black Ice!

I agree entirely with you. The fallacy is that one could change the school for the better in a short time. Many school districts have election cycles that would take 2 years to change...but unless you're the richest, most popular family in the district, good luck at overthrowing more than one or two of them. So realistically, it's more like 4 to 6 years to change a school board. Then those changes take 2 to 4 years to trickle through the system and give your 24 year old 9th grader the education he deserves. So why not just do what's best for your kid?

Yeah, many areas have great public schools, many have great private schools, but in most areas, you are stuck with whatever public school you are in-district for, but can easily switch out of a bad private school to a better one.

Do your best as a parent, you won't always be right, but at least you're trying.

Without the social safety net however, a fair portion of the 77% that were displaced would be suffering from hunger, common diseases and the like. There is a peak to the benefits of automation, and it varies by type of government. After that peak, you end up displacing too many workers that are unskilled for the higher tech jobs and over skilled to compete in the floor sweeping jobs (oops, Roomba got those too).

Automation will continue to destroy jobs, it is inevitable. The main jobs that are being "created" are service based, and most of these amount to trading a bit of money back and forth so Bob will mow your lawn and Jane cuts Bob's hair. But we're just trading money at the low levels doing stuff most people used to do but (despite automation) are "too busy"...yet somehow still find time to follow every move Honey Boo Boo makes and never misses an episode of Teen Mom.

My long but related example is the what I call the Three Box Theory. Imagine if you will, a box, about the size of an Central Air conditioner that provides virtually pollution free energy for an entire household and needs little/no maintenance. It is affordable. It is Box One...the Power Box. Technology? Who knows but given the level of tech advances we'll say very small pebble bed reactor just to put a name on it. If it works, it's the best thing since sliced bread as we reduce pollution and increase reliability, plus no more electric lines killing birds/causing cancer/signaling alien invaders...no need for most of the coal fired power plants (less pollution again), no 8000' coal trains delivering coal and spewing diesel exhaust, no one having to work in a dangerous occupation like mining. In almost every metric, its a winning deal, EXCEPT you wipe out all those jobs (lineman, miners, railroaders) that pay pretty well. Sure a few high tech jobs get created but a magnitude more are destroyed permanently. So now, everyone has virtually unlimited electricity, pollution is decreased but you end up with a lot of high end jobs being wiped out. Box Two is the Food Box, who cares the specifics of how it works (probably an small algae farm) but in the end, a family gets their entire nutrition needs from this box. While some will still like an apple versus the apple tasting paste the machine extrudes, you'll dramatically reduce the amount of farmland needed and food delivery infrastructure. No more farm cruelty, erosion or beets, but again, a lot of good jobs down the drain. Box Three, the FixIt Box, probably powered by nanobots, can repair or even do small scale building. Again, great for the consumer and terrible for the worker. While far fetched, who really would have guessed how far 3D printing would be 15 years ago, or tell the 1800's farmer that in 200 years, one man will farm 40 times what he does and produce 300 times the food. He'd think you were nuts that what he and his 11 kids did was 1/300th of what one man could do in 8 generations.

In the end, the future is bleak for the worker but really, can you hold technology back?

With this revelation, it seems more and more likely by the second that the attacks on Tor had nothing to do with pedophiles and everything to due with Snowden and the like.

You're already on track to the best solution. Charging $5-10 for an a useful application (which seems pretty fair to me depending on what it does) is a great deterrent. As others have said, there are those that would pirate it if it were 25 cents, those that would buy it at 100x it's list price (or not use it) and those in the middle who will pirate when the price to value ratio is out of skew or the price point is simply too high for their budgets.