Well, it is very different from a fuse box or a dead man's switch because it is CREATIVELY manipulating its' environment to achieve what it "wants". Also, much of what WE want is hard-coded as well.
This is actually pretty scary. It is basically giving AI a human-like form of will. It "desires" what you program it to desire and goes about achieving it, learning from its' own mistakes and becoming increasingly proficient at manipulating its' environment to achieve its' goal(s) along the way. It makes me excited, but also quite frightened to think what goals people might give AIs like this in the future...
The "problem" is framed to support the author's sentiments about discipline. "Motivation vs discipline" is not a useful description of the problem at all ("x vs y" arguments seldom are). In my experience, people who frame the problem in this way are accustomed to doing what other people want them to do. They get depressed and unmotivated and wonder why they can't "make themselves" do things. So they decide to misuse the idea of discipline to complete their transformation into an automaton! Try this instead: Do whatever YOU want to do. Find what motivates you and pursue it. It really is that simple.
I don't think NK did it, but a nation-state, just like any other entity driven by self-interest, would go after ANYTHING they felt would give them an advantage. Including actions they can use to sway public opinion in their favor (or against the favor of their enemies) or garner sympathy for themselves.
Am I mistaken, or did the "hacker group" only mention The Interview AFTER the media proposed the connection? It seems like whoever hacked sony (edit: or somebody else!) just took advantage of an opportunity to cause some chaos. And the whole "FBI confirms NK" thing seems shady. None of this quite adds up.
I was really just trying to point out that he was trivializing NASA. Maybe a private entity will beat them there, maybe not. But they're clearly far from being an incapable organization and still achieve plenty of cutting edge, "world-first" scientific data gathering, engineering research, etc..
As a side note. I'm willing to bet they will be the first (with collaboration between the other space agencies as they often do).
Edit: Plus, I don't know of any other deep space crew carrier that currently exists. It sounds to me like they have a head start since they already have one in their possession, albeit untested.
Perhaps, but I wouldn't underestimate them! They have a lot of ground-breaking projects happening even though you don't see them in the media very often. They do a lot with what they get.
ball sack, ball kicking, ball gravy. These are the first ones I tried because I thought they looked suspect. Google does return suggestions for these, so not blacklisted. There must be several more false positives in this list if the first ones I tried were wrong.
edit: Oh, this was last updated in 2010... nevermind then.