well but, yea exactly ! that is what the current industrial trend with smaller reactors is all about

That's pretty awesome. I've got a solar system that produces way more power over a year than I use...but it's connected to and reliant upon the grid still. So not DRM free. But in a few years time when the government stops paying me for the excess power...I'll definitely install power cells and the power company can suck mah balls!

I am pretty sure that even long before that, the same will happen to us as has happened to the poor Mars: the magnetic field will weaken enough so that our atmosphere will slowly but surely just evaporate to the vast space. (in Mars this happened as its core became inactive over time, not producing the magnetic field anymore). And on Earth the effect will be even more pronounced because we are closer to Sun than Mars is, as it is the Sun's radiation which will rip the atmosphere away from us. No more seas or atmosphere for you, buddy.

Who knows, possibly this "leaking" is happening all the time, and our atmosphere is already much much thinner than it was e.g. a million years ago. I recall reading somewhere (sorry I don't recall the exact figures) that the magnetic field would have already weakened by like 10% since the 1800s or so. News like that freak me out much more than seeing Thurnberg whine about "climate change". (Naturally this weakening of the magnetic field could be just temporary and related to the magnetic poles switching places... hopefully.)

Who knows, when we learn that our atmosphere is leaking to the space all the time, maybe we will all scramble to burn all the coal and oil we can find, in order to strengthen the surrounding atmosphere? Screw the climate change, do it for our atmosphere!

This is also why I find the idea of trying to "terraform" and populate Mars quite silly. The only advantage to that would be that it is a bit farther away from the Sun so it will "survive" (as much as a dead planet can "survive") a bit longer before being engulfed by the expanding Sun.

My only hope will be that over millions of years, humankind will evolve to learn to live without oxygen and withstand sun's radiation, so that we can live only by the energy we get from the sun. You know, like those big creatures in the Farscape TV-series (the organic spaceship where the protagonist and the crew travels, and which becomes pregnant).

Or then the humankind just ceases to be anymore, and oh well. At least I will not be around to see its demise, unless hindus and buddhists were right after all with their born-again theories.

The magnetic field strength fluctuated in the past. It had periods of higher strength and of lower strength and its orientation changed. Currently the field strength is slightly decreasing. Though if and when it will fail completely is hard to calculate. It depends, however, on the liquid core, as you correctly said. So once the earth cools down sufficiently, it will be gone. But that cooling down also happens on a scale if billion years. The earth is significantly bigger than Mars and we happen to have a relatively high percentage of radioactive materials, that contribute some heat and slow down the cooling of the earth. So we're safe for a billion years at least.

... unless we manage to destroy ourselves or an extinction level meteorite hits the earth. The Yellowstone supervolcano will also make life a bit difficult globally, once it erupts. But in the short term we and the changes we caused in our own biosphere are the biggest danger to ourselves.

in other words you do not have any, so I call bullshit on the whole thing

"tech support stories" is a fallacy, as only people with problem contact them, and this is a very low % of users. Do you think that people who are tech savvy calls support and says " I have no problems and manage very well. Have a good day"? Tech support stories are also not "datapoints" (you should know this as you know all about datapoints) as they are purley anecdotal in nature (and half of them are elaborated on, repeated urban myths or just simply made up)

We are also talking about gamers using Steam, so people calling to MIcrosoft and can not make Word work becuase they don't know what a mouse is, is irrelevant.

I am an entitled rich kid from the first world and produce farts in a bubble noone cares about.

Pah, relying on mere mortal physics.....I have a magick portal to draw power from all dimensions if need be. ;)
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Well it would more likely be domes or underground colonies, and the idea would more likely be to develop tech/methods with which to expand further out into the solar system and beyond.....and to also have a "forward station" from which to do so, so people don't have to launch such outward journeys/missions from earth every time. Also we could perhaps gather any available resources from there and the "nearby" gas giants as well, helping to fund and fuel such possible future endeavors.

Evolving on that scale is probably(and sadly) impossible.....at the very least for the next thousand years or so. Still, it's nice to dream, eh? :)

"He does not provide proof, so therefore he is more likely to be wrong"

I'm pretty sure that's also a fallacy(or more than one, if you count things like the the fallacy fallacy).

Also I had a strong feeling you'd reply like this......one reason that I didn't bother to provide proof, btw, is that I have a feeling it wouldn't change your mind anyways, and that it likely would've been a waste of my time.

Anyhoo, if you actually want to see if your stance is right or not(and not just guess based on your local experiences)....well there's plenty of data to sift through out there.

Sidenote(edit): I was talking about people/society in general, which covers steam and everything else.

Indeed. You make the claim, you provide the proof. If it does not exists, then you are wrong. I can not provide evidence that something does not exist (with your great philosophical mind you can see why), so you need to provide the evidence that it does. If not.... bullshit.

Pot - kettle. Provide the evidence (these "datapoints") and I will bow down and proclime you grand overlord of all things. I do change my mind, but only if you actualy provide somrhing that is factual and rooted in reality. Are you able to change yours?

Again, and in danger of repeating myself - where is this data?
(and keep in mind I am not wanting you to hold another condecending epistemological rant here about what "data" is, I am asking for you to back up what you are saying. you have talked the talk, lets see if you can walk the walk)

Provide this data, or admit you are peddeling horse manure here.

Press X to doubt on both claims above

As I said, the proof is out there(both online and offline) if one observes society/people long enough....one just needs to be willing to take the time and put the effort in.

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On the subject, to the thread: Seeing things over the years like many videos where people get asked basic questions(technical or no) and cannot answer/answer wrongly, seeing people's replies in forums to such questions and their posts in general about such topics, seeing trends like the dumbing down of software(including OSs) and tech, etc.....such things are imo decent proof that people as a whole are slowly becoming "dumber" regarding various things and on various topics.

Don't worry, I understand. You had a look and could not find anything, and now you are trying to save face. Why can you not just admit you were wrong? Or does this all "change your mind anyway" thingy only apply to other people and not yourself?

So, that's solved then. In the future, just make sure you do not make any claims you cannot back up, and you should be fine. Cheerio for now.

( Oh, and an edit. I knew you could not find anything, beacuse I did a search of all the internet myself earlier, and did not find anything. There, that proves I am right. )

I'll take it was the third option then, that you just misunderstood me.

Most people would make sure of that before insulting someone.

Fair enough you may have an issue understanding the English language, but you shouldn't make assumptions without confirming they are correct first.

And if my logic is wrong, please indicate where ... support your claim.

As Led Zeppelin wrote - Communication Breakdown.

The real question to ask: Who made who

Yes, comparing a dependency on Steam DRM to a dependency on electrical power is rather silly. In the case of Steam, it is not just that you are dependent on 'the internet' - you are dependent on a connection to a specific server, which is in the sole control of one company. In the case of power, for most people there are many different options available for power companies and microgeneration is a possibility, so you are not at the mercy of one corporate entity in anything like the same way.

There is nothing inherently wrong with a video game having a dependency on something, because not all dependencies are equal. The key factor is who is in control of that dependency and whether there are alternatives. If we were heading towards a situation where all electrical power was controlled by one corporation and it was illegal to generate your own, believe me, I (and probably many others) would be out in the street protesting that.