Honestly makes a lot of sense. The ink probably turns into a solid at too low of a temp.

Greed absolutely. But feels like this meme is pretending that money only started existing in the 16th century and no one was greedy before that.

Around that period there was a huge leap forward in the quality of the boats. England and Portugal were maritime powers. They were limited by the distance they could sail, and suddenly could sail much farther. Enforcing control on the opposite side of the world would have previously been unthinkable. Capitalism isn’t the reason they started conquering the globe. It’s the improved boats that allowed them to travel the globe in the first place. The spirit of imperialism was already there before capitalism came around.

I’d argue that it was the huge boats capable of crossing oceans, first built around the 14th century, which could comfortably sail around Africa. Look at the borders of the Portugese Empire, doing very similar stuff to what England was doing, but apparently that’s different somehow? It’s the boats that enabled them to become imperialists over huge distances.

The wars of Genghis Khan are said to have killed 10% of the population of the entire earth at the time. Is that enough scale?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destruction_under_the_Mongol_Empire

USB micro (not sure if you’re getting micro confused with mini, but doesn’t really matter) only supported data transfer, not video transfer (like HDMI). Some USB-C ports are data only, but it theoretically supports more than USB micro was ever capable of.

For example you can buy a USB-C to HDMI cable for a few dollars, which could theoretically plug your phone directly into your TV (if your phone supports that). But a USB micro to HDMI cable was called an “MHL adapter” and was expensive and only worked on specific MHL capable phones like this one. It has a separate box that requires its own power cord in order to work, it’s not just a simple cable. USB-C should, in theory, eliminate the need for such a thing.

a series of switches is not ever going to create a sentient being

Is the goal to create a sentient being, or to create something that seems sentient? How would you even tell the difference (assuming it could pass any test a normal human could)?