IMO, If FTL was possible, something, somewhere, at some point in time would have engineered a self replicating organism capable of it. These things would be everywhere by now we would see evidence of them.
Manus just answered this correctly for me in one crack:
Me:
I put a coin in a cup and slam it upside-down on a glass table. I can't see the coin because the cup is over it. I slide a mirror under the table and see heads. What will I see if I take the cup (and the mirror) away?
Manus:
This is a classic riddle! Let's think it through. You placed a coin in a cup, turned it upside down on a glass table, and then slid a mirror underneath the table. Looking into the mirror from below, you saw 'heads'. Since the mirror reflects the side of the coin facing downwards through the glass table, the 'heads' side must be facing down. Therefore, the side facing up, hidden inside the cup, must be 'tails'. When you remove the cup, you will see the side facing up, which is tails.
Sorry, was a 1/2 hearted attempt at a joke about his pamphlet titled "What is to be done?", similar to the wording used in parents comment. No need to alert the inquisition here just yet.
Capitalism! So successful at delivering productive happy societies that they need to stage coups worldwide to keep people from attempting to try alternatives and fund death squads to secure profits. Great idea.
The US had for most purposes a system of quasi-owned state enterprises after WW2. The US gov had zero equity, but was a partner providing research, funding, and diplomatic backing. The list included companies like IBM, GE, Exxon, AT&T/Bell Labs, Boeing, etc. All these companies had large R&D departments financed directly or indirectly by the gov.
Most of this was dismantled after the Raegan era, when they decided to move all production to other countries with the goal of running everything from Wall Street, through the power of dollar-based financialization. They wanted to control everybody else as modern colonies, where developing countries would perform the role of workers and the US the role of a business owner. It just happened that some countries never really wanted to play by these rules, that's why the US is threatening to dismantle the globalization system.
Seems like a no brainer in the current environment though right? At least temporarily in sectors underserved by the market but still crucial to the national interest? Can always privatise them again down the track if they're ideologically unacceptable for whatever reason?
Is this in the Imperial Mall quest in Pacifica? Have to hack into a van or something, then talk to some Netwatch guy? A quest trigger bugged there for me as well last week, there was a door that should be open that wasn't, had to reload an earlier autosave and replay for it to trigger properly.
Other than that one large bug, the game has been great, little bit of jank but no worse than say, Skyrim without the community bug patch. I only purchased it in the last steam sale so missed all the rough stuff.
I think it might have been that? It was in one of the first missions. I agree though on your other points--my experience playing the game up until that point was quite good, hence why I spent hours trying to get past the issue.
