CPU manufacturing without any intervention is likely leading towards a monopoly. Every latest generation fabrication facility costs much more than the previous one. Eventually we’ve reached the point where only three companies (Intel, TSMC, Samsung) are interested in making such a large investment.

That’s the $100M question. Pick the answer correctly and you’ll get record breaking compensation levels.

For me the whole point of flying is fast travel. Private even more so, because it operates on your schedule.

A Amtrak train is slower than driving.

It depends. I take the Amtrack from Albany to Chicago once a year or so because I hate flying. It's maybe an hour or two slower than driving and that's with a lot of time built in to the schedule for delays. The last time I took it We left Albany 45 minutes late and still made it on time to Chicago. Yes, delays happen, just like in traffic or at the air port, but I find the focus on delays when Amtrak comes up extremely over-stated. Perhaps it's just the routes I'm on.

If you have all the money in the world, why would you need to go fast? Just enjoy the ride in comfort and style.

Private rail car is nowhere near as comfortable as actually getting home quickly, especially you have the kind of home that people with all the money in the world do.

Many people with money travel so much home is a hotel. They 'have a large manson that the staff says is nice' isn't quite the truth but it isn't far off.

though they also don't have time to take a slow train.

Perhaps more of a European mega-rich habit, not especially applicable to the US, is the practice of just taking the mansion, helicopters, and cars with you on a super yacht.

* https://theitalianseagroup.com/

* https://benettiyachts.com/

* https://www.sanlorenzoyacht.com/

I'd forbid those things in territorial waters. They bring no money to local communities and are glad to do things like ignore nature reserves or go with motor boats where people are swimming, which is of course illegal but they don't care.

Even if you travel a lot and just have one home, spending a lot of time on luxury travel can still get old.

For the people that own these cars, it’s about the journey, not the destination.

FWIW I am away from home ~300 days a year for work and I have the choice of any mode of transport.

I prefer train any time.

And for some, the journey is the destination.

It depends on the route and the distance.

For example, Portland to Seattle isn't that far but I-5 can easily back up and become an hours-long ordeal, and SEA and PDX aren't particularly close to a lot of places.

Traffic jams have become so much easier to handle with lane following and down-to-zero adaptive cruise control.

A backlog of hundreds of hours of podcasts doesn’t hurt.

Still would prefer the train.

It matters, especially for the perception of the less educated and less traveled (that happen to vote).

It matters how?

You think voters will increase support for Africa (whatever that means) if their perceived size of the continent is increased?

Look at Trump and his first term Electoral College map. He was sincerely butthurt about winning an overwhelming majority of the USA by square foot, and losing the popular vote.

You're not going to get a rational answer to the question.

I agree that's the level of rational thought that has gone into this argument.

All of the maps are awful at a global levels. If you fix one problem another comes up.

I am be surprised at the number of maps we look at today given that often we are looking at digital screens that could display an interactive globe as easily as a distorted old map.

I’d like to hear this from a developer that went through this path, instead of someone selling AI.

Not a developer, but numerous devs chosen as a statistically representative sample.

I actually want a seasoned developer that has 10xed with AI to give a conference talk about how they use AI with a live coding demonstration. If the productivity utopia is a hard path few travel then there might be a delay until the majority of devs get there. I want one or two people to show me the way.

Right now I think it might just be a 1.5x boost, and most of the people claiming it’s more are just shovel sellers overstating the quality of near by mines.

The persecution of homosexuals absolutely has an impact on consolidating authority.

* Some of your political opponents will be homosexual, so it gives you an avenue to remove them. You can turn a blind eye to your political allies, if they are discrete.

* You can use the accusation to persecute anyone.

* It sets the frame that the authority governs every private aspect of your life.

Amazing mental gymnastics, literally every point is applicable to prosecution for not wearing a seat belt.

Only there are even more people who do not wear seat belts than practicing homosexuals, i.e. by your logic, a fine for not wearing a seat belt is MORE AUTHORITARIAN than the law on persecuting homosexuals.

Sorry, I was not making a point about the larger discussion about wearing a seatbelt.

While I agree that we shouldn’t have laws regulating seatbelt usage (for adults), I find your comparison disgusting and think it does more harm than good for gaining support.

If I’m being productive I’d rather have an AMD chip than M4 so I can run Linux comfortably.

They depict two very different economies.

If food, energy, medical care and transportation was as cheap as it is in Trek then it might actually make it to post scarcity. One thing that makes Star Fleet such a successful organization is combination meritocracy and diversity. I think any organization that nails that will be very successful.

In The Expanse the economies are much more relatable ones of exploitation, poverty, and extreme scarcity. Specifically watching the nationalist Martian society collapse was very interesting and felt realistic.

Steam’s refund policy and support system doesn’t eliminate the possibility of someone buying on steam with their CC and then calling their CC and claiming fraud.