Obligatory science-fiction link: in Harry Harrison’s The Stainless Steel Rat’s Revenge, the main character poses as a representative of an intergalactic weapons manufacturer to infiltrate the militant world of Cliaand:

I unlocked the case and flipped back the lid. The armament specialist glared down at the various components in their padded niches. I explained.

“My firm is the originator and sole manufacturer of the memory line of proximity fuses. No other line is as compact as ours, none as versatile.” I used tweezers to take a fuse from a holder. It was no larger than a pinhead. “This is the most minuscule, designed to be used in a weapon as small as a handgun. Firing activates the fuse which will then detonate the charge in the slug when it comes near a target or predetermined size. This other fuse is the most intelligent, designed for use in heavy weapons or missiles.” They all leaned forward eagerly when I held up the wafer of the Mem-IV and pointed out its singular merits.

“All solid-state construction, capable of resisting incredible pressures, thousands of G’s, massive shocks. It can be preset to detonate only when approaching a specific target, or can be programmed externally and electronically at any time up to the moment of firing. It contains discrimination circuits that will prevent explosion in the vicinity of friendly equipment. It is indeed unique.”

There was no talk of his wares guiding the explosive bullet/warhead/whatever, simply adding some intelligence to when, where, and whether it detonates, but I can foresee this real-world example adding such capabilities in the future as well.

(Of course, I’ll believe it when I see it — too many of these pie-in-the-sky tech advances get mentioned once or twice, then vanish, never to be seen again. But it’s exciting to think that it might actually work.)

They’re also exploring other possibilities, including other ideas from science-fiction movies.

In any case, I’m happy to see that we’re taking steps to ensure that what happened to the dinosaurs won’t also happen to us. It’s a remote possibility, but even remote possibilities can happen regularly over a long enough period of time.

If it does turn out to be wrong, it’s too bad, really. I was hoping that we’d found our first truly alien species (chemically speaking, at least) literally right in our back yard. Well, there’s always science fiction.

Between this and the SOPA uprising, my flagging hope for the US has been renewed.

The Internet has been compared to “the wild west” many times, and for essentially the same reason: with very little effort, those who scoff at laws can put virtual bandannas over their faces and hold up any bank that opens a branch in their neck of the woods, or any honest folk that dare to venture into the area, and fade away into the badlands until the heat is off them.

But like the wild west, the Internet is becoming civilized. It’s getting easier to enforce the law, and the bad guys are finding those bandannas a lot harder to come by. If the same sort of timing holds, the next decade will see the end of the digital frontier, and Internet black-hats will fade away like those of yesteryear.

It will be the end of an era. and many will eventually look back on it with longing, but the Internet will also be a much safer place to travel through, and that can’t be a bad thing.

EDIT, same day: Another example.

Un-freakin’-believable. And just this side of actually criminal. Dodd is a former senator — he should know that the money-for-votes relationship is illegal, and must remain an unspoken truth. Now he’s confirmed what everyone knew was the case, but had no evidence for: that SOPA/PIPA were written by the entertainment industry, and that that industry considers its donations to be bribes and expects the laws they want to be passed because of them.

(Hint, Mr. Dodd: the polite fiction is that campaign donations are no-strings-attached gifts, presumably because the politician in question has views compatible with the gift-giver and the gift-giver wants to help ensure that the politician is elected. Crossing that line is illegal. I shouldn’t have to be telling you this.)

If the MPAA doesn’t fire Dodd over that comment, they’ll prove they’re just as stupid and out-of-touch as he just shown himself to be.

EDIT, 2012-01-25: Hm, maybe this was actually criminal. Some people think so, anyway. I rather hope that this probe happens, though realistically I expect Obama and other politicians won’t dare to upset the MPAA any further by investigating them… unless, of course, enough people demand it. I also expect that, if such an investigation is started, it will be a sham, and everyone will know it.