Dave, you've always struck me as a person of rigid logic, and I don't mean an unreasonable kind of logic, but that when you are presented with a set of circumstances your first instinct is to turn to your powers of logic. You perceive, then you evaluate options and outcomes for their positives and negatives, then you make a decision and all the while you remain open to new information, should it present itself. Sadly, you are in the minority.

All of those things you are pleading for make too much sense for them to ever actually be implemented. Not only does it not occur to most people what makes sense and what doesn't; many people lack the analytical thinking skills to even ponder the dilemmas of our day

One of the things that's so frustrating is that our problems are completely solveable. The answers are there, technology is there or will be, people can change and generally want to do the right thing. It's just that the solutions require forethought and initiative.  

For a bunch of upright talking apes we've done some amazing things but most of us are happy enough to beat our chests and have a snack, crap out of a few kids and call it a life.

Still, I'm hopefuly.