Even if we work out all the tech to make this happen and its somehow 100% safe, fuel costs will prohibit this. Think of how we consider fuel expensive now and you never leave the ground. Many cars get 30+ MPG. Now consider how much extra energy (i.e. fuel) it would take to lift you and a flying vehicle to go the same distance? Only the wealthy will be able to afford this.
Also, if we suddenly reverting back to vehicles that effectively get 10mpg or less, the FINITE fuel reserves will be exhausted at 3+ times the current rate.
"The pedal failed, so, the car was not of merchantable quality. They get to fix it. Essentially, they have not fulfilled the contract, they need to make it right. That means, they fix it (or have it fixed). At no cost to you. None."
Does that last forever? Cars in the US have warranties also, but they do eventually expire..
"No way to buy some mushrooms or hash... no hiding your hotel tryst from your spouse... no way to hide your alcohol abuse from your insurance company"
People will always want to hide some aspect of their life. That goes all the way to the top. That makes me feel relatively safe since nearly all politicians will want to keep that option open forever.
Yes, handling cash has a cost that isn't insignificant. That said, people that make $100k in retail do not make bank runs. And if they do, they are salaried and its just part of the job.
"Drank too much Coke? Were making purchases at 11pm instead of being in bed?"
You could be refused service because you bought too much with cash and they can't properly determine the risk to cover you. Or, they will only cover you at the highest rate because they are unable to assess your history.
Managing isn't easy. Few if any are ever trained on how to do it properly. Most managers get a starter job, show they are good at that job, and get promoted to managing others without any expertise on how to do it. At best, they are sent to a 1-2 day manager boot camp. This is especially true for tech managers.
Think about high school and college. How much of your education was spent on learning to be an effective manager? Especially for managing others. I never had a formal class address that for a single second.
" If they change miles to kilometers it would be 62% smaller."
Wouldn't it appear larger?
The greatest distance between two points in the UK is 968.0 km (601 12 mi) (between Land's End, Cornwall and John o' Groats, Caithness), 838 miles (1,349 km) by road.
"Once the threat of jail time is held over any CxO position, good fucking luck filling it."
If I could made CXO money for a couple of years, I'd probably be ok with a couple of years of white collar rich white guy jail time. You know, they have conjugal visits there? I be many of you haven't had a conjugal visit in six months.
"In Australia, it's illegal to make a statement about whether you have or haven't received certain kinds of warrants, because they don't have an equivalent to the US's first amendment."
So you are saying Australians cannot legally say then haven't ever been served a warrant if they haven't? Is that a specific law? Can they say they are definitely not undercover cops, if they aren't? Can you never deny anything, just in case the govt may have compelled you in some manner?
"This presumes you have a means to record, transcribe, read, evaluate, and summarize "conversations" in an extremely noisy environment spread across thousands of planes and perhaps millions of passengers a day."
That is true, but you have to consider that airlines know who is on every flight and even assigns their seats. It isn't hard to figure out when VPs, CEOs, etc fly. Plus those people are almost always in first class. They could strategically sit certain people together hoping they will talk about certain projects/acquisition/etc and record. I doubt that happens, but it isn't a totally crazy concept.
"$100K for loss of a purchase history record"... "the penalty would apply not just to the person that collected the data in the first place but separately to any other parties it was entrusted to who lost it"
So, if you purchase a coffee at Starbucks and the reciept with the name "Phil" ends up on the floor, is the sales person liable to be fined $100k because you walked away and they didn't properly shread it?
That's a great example of how not to interview people. Using "trick" questions to test someone is the worst method I can imagine to see if someone is a good employee.
Android and iPhones could easily employ a mechanism that wipes a phone that isn't logged into in 7/30/365/whatever days. That would also mean the state could only hold you in contempt for a limited period. Now, they could try to get you for destruction of evidence after the fact, but that is a whole different can of worms.
Even if the UK and Canada are "having trouble keeping up healthcare for all", they seem to be doing better than the US in average life expectancy and infant mortality rate.
Average life expectancy:
US: 78.69 years UK: 80.96 years Canada: 82.30 years
infant mortality rate: US:6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births UK: 5 deaths per 1,000 live births Canada: 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births
When I said "floating cities", I meant on the ocean, not in the sky. Japan has already built small patches of land where there was sea before. Aircraft carriers are basically cities at sea. There is no reason why we couldn't built non-military vessels to house millions of people.
So what if human population peaks at 10B, 11B or 20B. By definition it has to peak sometime, at least on Earth. The planet cannot sustain 500 billion people concurrently, at least with current technology and practices. And even if it could, it couldn't sustain 500 trillion people. There has to be a limit. Maybe we're close. Maybe we're not. We still potentially have a ways to go. We could build floating cities, and use all land for crops. We could turn the Sahara and other deserts into farmland. We could build floating farms to grow even more food. All that could allow for more people, but there will be a limit. I suspect there will be a pandemic sooner or later that will wipe out 90% or more of the human race. Then those left will start over again. By the time they build civilization back up, it will happen again. Rinse and repeat.
Where do you get this "fact" that you state as if it were undeniably true? While I agree that higher education in some countries is sub-standard compared to the rest of the world, I'm not even sure how you could prove this. You'd have to define "smarter". Is that more people with degrees, Nobel prizes, inventions, research papers, higher graduation rates (and at what level), winning competitions, speak "English" better, or is smarter something else?
"the state needs to collect an additional 11,538 / person in taxes, just to break even"
If by breaking even you mean collecting as much as if they didn't have any breaks. I suspect the state would still be ahead with less per person taxes and 13k jobs than if they did nothing.
And you are so brave to blindly want to spend my money on a project because it sounds cool.
I get it. Saying mankind went to Mars would be an achievement and something to brag how we are better than whales and bears. But lets just say we could send someone to Mars in 2 years and it will cost one trillion dollars to make that happen. I'm sure there will be scientific and technological breakthroughs, but would a different project have a likelihood of having better and more useful breakthroughs?
What if that money were spent on: Self driving cars - Think of the lives saved and worldwide efficiencies gained Cancer/disease research: More lives saved Paying down the debt: Not popular or a breakthrough but the interest alone would give us at least $30B/year back. That could buy a nice wall! Healthcare - nuff said Infrastructure Tacos - That would get each citizen around 3000 items from the Taco Bell dollar menu!
There are a lot of options. Why is a manned Mars mission the BEST option?
"Driving (anywhere on the surface of the Earth) cannot be defined with a reasonably finite set of rules, period."
So, why are we giving 16 year olds keys to cars with often only a few hours training?
And are you telling me an algorithm can't be created that simulates the sense nearly every animal in existence possesses? Sure, it may not work in rain, snow, or some conditions; but if it worked half the time it would be a boon to humanity.
"RMC sues the 'defendant', which then admits to making the post (they didn't)"
Your plan is to find people willing to knowingly lie to a court about something that could be fairly easily provable. That just turned a civil case to a criminal one and that 'defendant' could potentially face years in Federal prison for fraud, lying to the court, falsifying evidence, and likely more.
I agree "the human capacity for ingenuity is astounding", but good luck finding someone willing to risk prison to protect some business' online identity. Also, this would have to be a one time thing to work. No one could repeat this without being caught.
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Even if we work out all the tech to make this happen and its somehow 100% safe, fuel costs will prohibit this. Think of how we consider fuel expensive now and you never leave the ground. Many cars get 30+ MPG. Now consider how much extra energy (i.e. fuel) it would take to lift you and a flying vehicle to go the same distance? Only the wealthy will be able to afford this.
Also, if we suddenly reverting back to vehicles that effectively get 10mpg or less, the FINITE fuel reserves will be exhausted at 3+ times the current rate.
"The pedal failed, so, the car was not of merchantable quality. They get to fix it. Essentially, they have not fulfilled the contract, they need to make it right. That means, they fix it (or have it fixed). At no cost to you. None."
Does that last forever? Cars in the US have warranties also, but they do eventually expire..
"No way to buy some mushrooms or hash... no hiding your hotel tryst from your spouse... no way to hide your alcohol abuse from your insurance company"
People will always want to hide some aspect of their life. That goes all the way to the top. That makes me feel relatively safe since nearly all politicians will want to keep that option open forever.
"Let's assume they make $100,000 a year"
Yes, handling cash has a cost that isn't insignificant. That said, people that make $100k in retail do not make bank runs. And if they do, they are salaried and its just part of the job.
"Drank too much Coke? Were making purchases at 11pm instead of being in bed?"
You could be refused service because you bought too much with cash and they can't properly determine the risk to cover you. Or, they will only cover you at the highest rate because they are unable to assess your history.
Managing isn't easy. Few if any are ever trained on how to do it properly. Most managers get a starter job, show they are good at that job, and get promoted to managing others without any expertise on how to do it. At best, they are sent to a 1-2 day manager boot camp. This is especially true for tech managers.
Think about high school and college. How much of your education was spent on learning to be an effective manager? Especially for managing others. I never had a formal class address that for a single second.
" If they change miles to kilometers it would be 62% smaller."
Wouldn't it appear larger?
The greatest distance between two points in the UK is 968.0 km (601 12 mi) (between Land's End, Cornwall and John o' Groats, Caithness), 838 miles (1,349 km) by road.
"Once the threat of jail time is held over any CxO position, good fucking luck filling it."
If I could made CXO money for a couple of years, I'd probably be ok with a couple of years of white collar rich white guy jail time. You know, they have conjugal visits there? I be many of you haven't had a conjugal visit in six months.
"In Australia, it's illegal to make a statement about whether you have or haven't received certain kinds of warrants, because they don't have an equivalent to the US's first amendment."
So you are saying Australians cannot legally say then haven't ever been served a warrant if they haven't? Is that a specific law? Can they say they are definitely not undercover cops, if they aren't? Can you never deny anything, just in case the govt may have compelled you in some manner?
"This presumes you have a means to record, transcribe, read, evaluate, and summarize "conversations" in an extremely noisy environment spread across thousands of planes and perhaps millions of passengers a day."
That is true, but you have to consider that airlines know who is on every flight and even assigns their seats. It isn't hard to figure out when VPs, CEOs, etc fly. Plus those people are almost always in first class. They could strategically sit certain people together hoping they will talk about certain projects/acquisition/etc and record. I doubt that happens, but it isn't a totally crazy concept.
"$100K for loss of a purchase history record" ... "the penalty would apply not just to the person that collected the data in the first place but separately to any other parties it was entrusted to who lost it"
So, if you purchase a coffee at Starbucks and the reciept with the name "Phil" ends up on the floor, is the sales person liable to be fined $100k because you walked away and they didn't properly shread it?
The nail was a nickel.
That's a great example of how not to interview people. Using "trick" questions to test someone is the worst method I can imagine to see if someone is a good employee.
Isn't that what many speculate that Trump has done for 20 years?
That would be reasonable, but if that trend is seen across thousands of returns, it would seem like there is an underlying issue.
"That's fine if you disagree with generals and admirals"
Maybe he is smarter than the generals. There are a few people like that nowadays.
Android and iPhones could easily employ a mechanism that wipes a phone that isn't logged into in 7/30/365/whatever days. That would also mean the state could only hold you in contempt for a limited period. Now, they could try to get you for destruction of evidence after the fact, but that is a whole different can of worms.
Even if the UK and Canada are "having trouble keeping up healthcare for all", they seem to be doing better than the US in average life expectancy and infant mortality rate.
Average life expectancy:
US: 78.69 years
UK: 80.96 years
Canada: 82.30 years
infant mortality rate:
US:6.9 deaths per 1,000 live births
UK: 5 deaths per 1,000 live births
Canada: 5.4 deaths per 1,000 live births
When I said "floating cities", I meant on the ocean, not in the sky. Japan has already built small patches of land where there was sea before. Aircraft carriers are basically cities at sea. There is no reason why we couldn't built non-military vessels to house millions of people.
So what if human population peaks at 10B, 11B or 20B. By definition it has to peak sometime, at least on Earth. The planet cannot sustain 500 billion people concurrently, at least with current technology and practices. And even if it could, it couldn't sustain 500 trillion people. There has to be a limit. Maybe we're close. Maybe we're not. We still potentially have a ways to go. We could build floating cities, and use all land for crops. We could turn the Sahara and other deserts into farmland. We could build floating farms to grow even more food. All that could allow for more people, but there will be a limit. I suspect there will be a pandemic sooner or later that will wipe out 90% or more of the human race. Then those left will start over again. By the time they build civilization back up, it will happen again. Rinse and repeat.
"Americans are smarter than the rest."
Where do you get this "fact" that you state as if it were undeniably true? While I agree that higher education in some countries is sub-standard compared to the rest of the world, I'm not even sure how you could prove this. You'd have to define "smarter". Is that more people with degrees, Nobel prizes, inventions, research papers, higher graduation rates (and at what level), winning competitions, speak "English" better, or is smarter something else?
"the state needs to collect an additional 11,538 / person in taxes, just to break even"
If by breaking even you mean collecting as much as if they didn't have any breaks. I suspect the state would still be ahead with less per person taxes and 13k jobs than if they did nothing.
Is it a mission set to go in the next 24 months with an unlimited budget?
"you guys are a a complete bunch of pussies"
And you are so brave to blindly want to spend my money on a project because it sounds cool.
I get it. Saying mankind went to Mars would be an achievement and something to brag how we are better than whales and bears. But lets just say we could send someone to Mars in 2 years and it will cost one trillion dollars to make that happen. I'm sure there will be scientific and technological breakthroughs, but would a different project have a likelihood of having better and more useful breakthroughs?
What if that money were spent on:
Self driving cars - Think of the lives saved and worldwide efficiencies gained
Cancer/disease research: More lives saved
Paying down the debt: Not popular or a breakthrough but the interest alone would give us at least $30B/year back. That could buy a nice wall!
Healthcare - nuff said
Infrastructure
Tacos - That would get each citizen around 3000 items from the Taco Bell dollar menu!
There are a lot of options. Why is a manned Mars mission the BEST option?
"Driving (anywhere on the surface of the Earth) cannot be defined with a reasonably finite set of rules, period."
So, why are we giving 16 year olds keys to cars with often only a few hours training?
And are you telling me an algorithm can't be created that simulates the sense nearly every animal in existence possesses? Sure, it may not work in rain, snow, or some conditions; but if it worked half the time it would be a boon to humanity.
"RMC sues the 'defendant', which then admits to making the post (they didn't)"
Your plan is to find people willing to knowingly lie to a court about something that could be fairly easily provable. That just turned a civil case to a criminal one and that 'defendant' could potentially face years in Federal prison for fraud, lying to the court, falsifying evidence, and likely more.
I agree "the human capacity for ingenuity is astounding", but good luck finding someone willing to risk prison to protect some business' online identity. Also, this would have to be a one time thing to work. No one could repeat this without being caught.