Wow, I’ve never had any issues with USB ports on any of my phones. Which one of us is the outlier? Do you ram the cable in too hard? Do you bend the connector in weird ways?

At that point, there will be no evidence of your disappearance, so legal details don’t even matter. Anyone who brings up such evidence, will also disappear.

Yes. These two are different things. Most people experience both, some only one of the two, and Jaiden experiences none of that.

You’re developing romantic attraction. It’s different from sexual attraction, but usually people think of them as one and the same.

They are shredded to small pieces. A magnet separates all ferromagnetic parts, like steel casings. There can also be other separation methods such as flotation. Various non-ferromagnetic materials such as zinc and manganese can be dissolved in sulfuric acid. In order to speed things up, leaching is done at an elevated temperature. By tweaking the leaching parameters, it’s possible to dissolve Zn and Mn selectively.

In the next stage, Mn and Zn are selectively precipitated as hydroxides using something like sodium hydroxide for example. There are other options too. You could also melt the batteries and separate the metals that way. If you use pyrometallurgy instead of hydrometallurgy, you’ll be using a lot more energy, and there can be CO2 emissions.

Ideally, you would find a “philosopher king”, but that’s unlikely to happen. The next best option would be liquid democracy or some sort of direct democracy. If that’s not an option, you could switch to preferential voting that leads to a coalition parliament fairly often. Proportional representation works too. Basically anything other than FPTP.

You could also look back. History has many examples of people governing themselves in various ways that differ from the systems used at the moment. Even within the spectrum of contemporary democracy, there are several options to choose from. People could just look up what kinds of democracies are used in other countries and how they differ from the one used (or not used) in your home country.

I think we need a new radical philosopher who comes up with a new way of government, and starts promoting it actively. Actually, long ago, I heard a small political party do just that. They wanted to switch to the kind of direct democracy used in Switzerland, which sounded nice IMO. If people heard about someone proposing an alternative, they might at least consider it.

The way I see it, people aren’t really exposed to different ideas of this kind. They see the problems, but not the answers. People aren’t really proposing new solutions that much, now are they?

Anyone who has observed a robot vacuum struggle with minor bumps knows that even homes aren’t ideal for wheels. Some warehouse are ok though, but they were specifically designed with wheels in mind.

Bicycles are awesome. If you want one optimized for efficiency, get the simplest one. Going uphill will be annoying, but at least it’s always at peak efficiency.

LOL. You can go places with convincing arguments like that.

But seriously though, versatility is useful, but only up to a certain point. In niche cases, special tools make more sense due to the superior performance they offer. For example, running with a traditional leg prosthetic isn’t as efficient as running with a special running prosthetic. You know, those carbon fiber arcs that looks nothing like a leg (AKA “running blades”).

I can totally get behind swappable parts. Depending on what you’re doing, you could use different arms and legs specifically designed for the task at hand.

See also: Adam Smasher

I guess the only solution is to become a full borg. That way, every titanium bone would be rated to handle superhuman stress and you could cary much more.

If you run the citizenship cycle every 13 years, and you get paid 5 million every time, that’s still about 32 k$ per month, which is not bad. It takes a very long time, but it should be worth it.

How long does it take to become a US citizen? That determines how often you can sell your citizenship and restart the process. Imagine getting 5 million every year or two.

1. Encrypt your data.
2. Make a disk image.
3. Make a torrent of that image.
4. Start a cult where the torrenting your data determines the ranking within the order.
5. Come up with a cool name and logo for the cult. Maybe something like “The Archivists of Eternity” for example.
6. ???
7. Profit

LOL, you got me! The chocolate thing is pretty much satire. Totally forgot about the fake cheese though. That would have been even better. I don’t know if anyone actually eats chocolate or cheese to cure homesickness. I suppose some of the other products might be more appropriate. People can have memories attached to all sorts of weird things, so I guess technically any food could be applicable.

However, the thing about prices is entirely factual, at least in my area. Everything in there is so expensive, that you would have to be really curious or desperate to try them out.

When you get homesick and want to eat some American chocolate or whatever, you won’t find it just anywhere. You’ll have to go a special American store for that. You know, like one of those Asian markets, but for American stuff. Everything in there is also really expensive, so don’t expect to visit every day.

Speaking of corruption, there are places where you don’t call the cops under any circumstances. If you somehow end up talking to cops for any reason, you can expect to loose a lot of money.

The police officer could request a bribe or threaten with fake fines. There could also be harassment, abuse of power and even violence. The police forces can actually form a sort of government-owned mafia, where lower-ranking officers are expected to collect bribes and pass them up the chain of command.

Thanks. Mystery solved.

About that family thing. If anyone ever tells you that “we are family” it means you can call them for help when you’re moving. If you have trouble configuring your router, call your new family for help. If you need to drill a hole in a concrete wall, but you do don’t have the right drill bits or other tools, call your new family.

If your boss doesn’t want to come over to drill some holes in a concrete wall on a Saturday afternoon, they’re not really family, and they can’t expect you to act like family either.