Coolest sword, you say? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of this chainsaw sword.

I dunno - I think you probably want the head part, actually. Good thing we've already got face transplants!

That proctologist burn was GOLD.

I feel like I've read a number of articles lately about movie studios buying the rights to unpublished books, specifically in the YA market. Is this a new trend or have they been doing this for a while?

I think there's an important distinction to be made between removing financial burdens, which brings everyone up to the same level, and adding rewards above the financial or social baseline. Defraying part of the cost of having children won't necessarily encourage women to have extra children, but rewarding women…

So, I liked your initial comment about women being financially penalized for biology, and I think the point about the wage gap is apt, but providing financial incentives to bear children during a period of global overpopulation is an exceptionally bad idea. I agree that women and men of equal qualifications should…

I had the same reaction. It seemed to blunt and obvious a solution to be possible, I guess?

I dunno - I've only ever done one sweep and I regretted it. You never know when a contact might come in handy. If you don't want to deal with someone, just mute their updates and put them on a restricted list. Much easier than insulting someone by "de-friending".

Those are all good points – it does seem likely that we'll have a bit more of a technological bottleneck this time around. And, yes, a voyage from Earth to Mars is a order of magnitude more expensive than a voyage from Europe to America. According to this source, Columbus' first expedition cost the equivalent of…

I think we have all kinds of historical models, actually. Despite the presence of indigenous peoples, nobody "owned" the Americas or Australia before European colonizers showed up, at least in the narrow, legalized Western sense. Some of these colonizers were government entities, some were corporations, some made…

Is this a dramatically different question from "Should corporations be controlling sea/air/rail travel?" Because we've done all those already, with mixed degrees of success.

Welllp - straight-to-video it is!

Isaiah Mustafa, obviously.

I would even be satisfied with Chef Goldblum.

You're welcome!

Yeah, pretty much. This would be the even less subtle version, and have the added advantage of starring Will Smith.

Can we just deconstruct the whole thing and have the sequel be us invading the aliens' homeworld?

F***ing magnets, etc.

Yes, using a smartphone or a web browser absolutely makes a human act more like a machine. Both force us to think in machine syntax and encourage clipped, less nuanced communication. When I want to find something on Google, I try to frame my query the way a machine would. When I log onto Facebook, it's easier to…

"...we're inching up on the ability to make humans smarter, faster, and more able to communicate with one another than ever before."