What that 2019 outlier? I don't think you can get to statistical significance on that one year. This looks like what I'd expect it to look like. You're probably better getting into the big data game by game statistics if you're looking for sings of tampering.

So... good job by the bookmakers? Looks like over 18 or so years of doing this you'd be down fifty or so "points", which seems about right for any gambling.

It is easy to imagine a point in the near future when you call tech support and are relieved when its a computer that answers.

Technology is an endless game of cat and mouse. But... If you imagine a carrier battle group and you ask "is there a way to create a missile defence system so that the carrier is protected?" The answer is yes, but every few years we will have an 'oh shit' moment where the other side comes up with something new and we have to counter it in a hurry. However, you keep a few extra carriers in your back pocket and we should be able to protect them from a strategic perspective.

However, can you do that without losing some support ships? No.

When it comes to nuclear war you can't just say it is ok if Washington survives. A single major US city getting nuked is totally unacceptable and it is hard to imagine any foreign policy situation that would justify that happening in exchange for some "win" abroad.

What missile defence is about is out-spending the little guys. North Korea, Iran, (hell even Russia), could easily find themselves in a situation where they simply cannot afford to keep playing the game to have nuclear arsenals that represent a credible threat to the USA. China's different. So even though the system could be defeated, you can make it cost trillions of dollars to be able to do so.

Every bank worth its salt has a significant off-site disaster recovery backup. Sure, some of them probably are not built right. But the vast majority of the money in the financial system would be known even in a worst case solar flare.

If it's a simulation then it is a simulation of something, for a purpose. Every atom is needed for the simulation and you, and your choices, have an important enough impact on it that you're worth simulating.

It doesn't matter that you have no idea what the purpose is. It doesn't matter that your individual contribution could be almost insignificant. There's meaning there.

The alternative, that the universe is completely absent meaning and eventually everything fades into heat death and nothingness represents a kind of existential nightmare. You can get comfortable with the nightmare and find meaning for yourself. But an external meaning would be a very important philosophical thing.

It matters because then there is a point to existence.

Let's say Phoenix is the easiest city in the USA for SDC's and only requires 50% of the skills needed to drive every city, that still means they've basically been learning at 5% a year and next year its 55%, the year after 60% and at each interval more cities fall inside their performance window. I'll put money on the average ten year old never getting a license.

Russia wanted a war, and they got themselves a war.