Within companies, software is usually now seen as something that can, or perhaps should, only be done by a team with fairly close coordination. While the open plan office trend may sometimes be about cost, many people are advocating it because it stops coders entering flow state and building substantial things on their own. Likewise, pair programming and processes based around daily meetings. It's becoming quite introvert-hostile.
]]>Not everyone wants to live in a Passivhaus (although I'd maybe consider it if someone explained how you fit a cat-flap).
At least in the more southerly parts of the UK, even quite old leaky houses need little heating if you don't mind wearing a jumper in winter. I'd argue that Passivhaus-type solutions are overkill.
]]>Highly-speculative counter argument to some of the anti-life-extension stuff: perhaps keeping first-generation billionaires around indefinitely is preferable to having a lot of second- or third-generation examples, because creating such a fortune in the first place implies at least some willingness to invest and, maybe, try new things.
]]>Does that really follow? Diluting savings probably does, overall, reduce inequality between middle and lower classes (although not in an evenly-distributed way). It has rather little effect on the truly wealthy -- few of them are fooling enough to hold a meaningful fraction of their assets as wealth.
]]>Varicella zoster (chickenpox/shingles) is a pretty good example.
]]>I'm not saying that the current arrangements are wonderful -- but was the 20th Century really better?
]]>Fingers crossed...
]]>I'll own up to the occasional pessimistic thought about the rate of technological progress, but actually glass seems to be a pretty good example where things are ticking along steadily and companies don't seem to averse to long-term R&D projects. See also the fairly exotic glasses that are used for phone/tablet screens.
]]>I imagine there's a fair degree of technology sharing between ICBM stages and the small strap-on solids used by Atlas and Delta.
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