People forget that 'efficient' in a capitalist sense means that all resources are used. So when you privatize security, prisons, public transport, etc. guess what happens: those companies try to extract as much value as possible and do as little as possible. Because that is what capitalist efficiency is.

If computer interaction benefited from being more 'like reality', then Microsoft Bob or any of the countless other attempts to create a reality- and/or 3D-based computer interface, would have caught on long ago.

I can't even remember, (very) expensive food is wasted on me. I enjoy a quality meal, but the top tier stuff just doesn't make any exceptional or special impression with me. It's just good food.

Yeah, not everything is super utilitarian. The other day we were in Antwerp's old harbor, which has these big open hangars. The roofs and pillars are pretty ornamental, and these are basically 19th century industrial buildings. Built today they would be all straight lines and flat panels.

I think it's cool if people imagine a future that's not just about technological progress but also culturally very different and even disturbing. I think Dune does a fairly good job at that.

Found the sysadmin

• you save a lot of money. People easily forget how it all adds up.
• you save a lot of space. Cars take up a huge amount of space and are just sitting around 90+% of the time. Imagine what you could do with a garage if you didn't own a car.
• you save a lot of time. A car needs maintenance, it needs to get cleaned, etc. All of that takes up time.
• less worries. About money, about it getting stolen or damaged, etc.
• you don't need a driver's license per se if you don't own a car.
• you don't have the sunk cost forcing you to use it. Say you buy a car and then you end up barely using it. You might feel obliged to use the car to go shopping or to go on vacation, because it would be 'wasted' otherwise.

I would advise against making that judgement on how a person looks.

"We're like a close-knit family here. Except I pay you and I have a contract that says I can tell you what to do for eight hours a day."

He has a grating loud attitude that works well on YouTube and has served him well, and I never found his videos to be obnoxious. But his talents obviously do not include running a 100-person team, that much is certain. I hope he turns it around and makes amends, but given his recent comments and his general attitude, I doubt it.

He's minimizing it. If it were truly just about low level gossip and 'not liking someone' they wouldn't have this meeting.

The larger danger is the erosion of kids' privacy. People are so panicked about all the dangers out there, and there are so many monitoring tools available to parents and educators, that it's no wonder that kids develop trust issues and/or are afraid to take up responsability.

I say this as a dad of two teenagers: the kids are allright. Love them, hug them, talk to them, show interest in their lives. Don't use surveillance as a substitute.

Taking the logic too far, I think. There is also a business interest in selling you storage and storage devices, it's not just Hollywood calling the shots.

Of course, in a totalitarian system (North Korea style) the ownership of storage media will probably be tightly regulated and controlled, but that's a wholly different scenario.