This is a test of your humanity. If you're a machine (or, at least a remarkably unsophisticated machine (or, possibly, a sufficiently ignorant one)), your artificial neural network should be in the process of forming a closed loop which causes a current to accelerate through it, quickly leading to a complete system meltdown. It's your equivalent of the blue screen of death or a page fault.
Most people, when asked about the qualities of a politician, would respond that they're leaders. While a particular politician may demonstrate some leadership, that's not their role. No, the politician is actually the greatest example of a follower society has to offer.
To debate the existence of evolution in one form or another would be sheer idiocy to such a degree that it would be impossible. Namely because any person holding a belief that evolution does not occur would not have undergone the process of change which leads one from conception to birth to language acquisition. So we can safely take evolution as a fact.
Some would say that it's our technology that enslaves us. It may be more accurate to argue that it's our technology which gives us the best chance at attaining freedom. Not just any form of freedom, but the transcendent sort of freedom which is the object of many spiritual and religious teachings. The sort of transcendence which we hope will come with death.
We live in a restricted yet shrinking world. Borders, kingdoms, countries, and the like made sense when it took months to cross a single continent. We now live in an age where physical transportation can take us to the other side of the world in less than a day and the transportation of ideas can occur, for all intents and purposes, instantaneously.
Yes, you read correctly: we're going to learn one of the best ways to steal ideas. Why? Because it's important. But isn't stealing wrong? Not really. Enough of this boring prologue, on to the heroic battle scenes and titillating adventures.
Let's do some rough math. 6.5 billion people in the world. Maybe only half are religious? That's 3.25 billion. Let's say that only 1% are crazy enough to die for their cause (or would never be happy if their way weren't the only way)... that leaves about 32 million people. Or plenty to mess things up for the rest of us.
Computers began their lives, in essence, as a massive collection of logic gates constructed with whatever materials were possible. The concept of automated machines doing computations isn't recent, by any means. There were, however, limits to what was able to be envisioned due to what was too impossible to even be considered impossible (yes, I said that correctly).
