Absolutely. However, how many times in the course of human understanding have "well-understood laws of..." been completely turned upside down? It used to be a "well-understood law" that the Earth was flat. It also used to be a "well-understood law" that the universe orbited the Earth. Do you really think "Gee, wow, finally, we *really* know absolutely what is going on - no more surprises to be had! *We're* the ones who understand everything to it's utmost - no chance we might discover something else that will turn yet another scientific fact upside down!"?
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Why is the "supposed omnipotency of a deity" not attributable to a sufficiently advanced alien race? Are we, as human-kind, so egotistical to think that we have unlocked enough of the mysteries of science to believe that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that certain things are impossible? I, for one, think that we can not *ever* rule out the possibility of life forms so far advanced beyond us that they are indistinguishable from a deity.
What would we seem like to an amoeba? Can't we essentially "create" the amoeba's universe, even with characteristics that would make an amoeba think that it was an naturally evolved universe over a period of millions of years? Who's to say that we're not amoebas in someone else's petri dish?
90% of the software you run on windows is not written by MS. Most of the windows crashes are not really caused by windows. I run multiple windows machines that very rarely crash (1-2 times a year?) and my purpose built ones _never_ crash (well, does a power outage count?). The point is that a crappy 3rd party *application* on Windows *shouldn't* be able to make the *Operating System* crash! You run a crappy 4rd party piece of software on Linux, and the app crashes, it doesn't take the system with it. Once in a while it might take X-Windows with it (if it's a *really* crappy app), but, again, advantage Linux, X-Windows is not the Operating System.
Now, does the Linux kernel never crash? Does it never have bugs? Of course it does, but it's open source, so you get a whole bunch of developers all over the world looking into the transparent inner workings of the operating system to figure out *why*, and fix it immediately.
Regarding drivers, yes, crappy drivers are a big reason that both Windows and Linux can crash. However, that's why Linux developers (and most Linux users) push strongly for open source drivers - so that they can fix the crappy drivers and make them work correctly.
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IANALBIPOOTDS - You need to sue someone...
Absolutely. However, how many times in the course of human understanding have "well-understood laws of ..." been completely turned upside down? It used to be a "well-understood law" that the Earth was flat. It also used to be a "well-understood law" that the universe orbited the Earth. Do you really think "Gee, wow, finally, we *really* know absolutely what is going on - no more surprises to be had! *We're* the ones who understand everything to it's utmost - no chance we might discover something else that will turn yet another scientific fact upside down!"?
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
Why is the "supposed omnipotency of a deity" not attributable to a sufficiently advanced alien race? Are we, as human-kind, so egotistical to think that we have unlocked enough of the mysteries of science to believe that we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that certain things are impossible? I, for one, think that we can not *ever* rule out the possibility of life forms so far advanced beyond us that they are indistinguishable from a deity.
What would we seem like to an amoeba? Can't we essentially "create" the amoeba's universe, even with characteristics that would make an amoeba think that it was an naturally evolved universe over a period of millions of years? Who's to say that we're not amoebas in someone else's petri dish?
Now, does the Linux kernel never crash? Does it never have bugs? Of course it does, but it's open source, so you get a whole bunch of developers all over the world looking into the transparent inner workings of the operating system to figure out *why*, and fix it immediately.
Regarding drivers, yes, crappy drivers are a big reason that both Windows and Linux can crash. However, that's why Linux developers (and most Linux users) push strongly for open source drivers - so that they can fix the crappy drivers and make them work correctly.