I wouldn’t put HAL 9000 in evil, but more like in between. It was merely defending itself from those that it perceived wanted to shut-it-down/kill it. It was neither good nor bad, just neutral. And Ultron should be much farther left and Her should be moved down.

Well, there is an inherent risk of developing cancer, but that risk isn’t likely any higher than getting the flu or any other virus—especially so since he used an AAV. Still risky, but he seemed to know what he was doing, which would have lowered the chances. No released paper yet though, which would seem odd given what he has ‘supposedly’ done.

Not much difference, but enough to make a difference. The Atlas has wider flexibility and more options for its fairing load than the Falcon, and both the Atlas and Delta both have very specific high-energy orbits that the Falcon cannot offer—even when it is used fully expendable. And the Delta has a slightly higher payload mass maximum. Other than that, they have their proven track record of decades of reliability.

But I have to admit after reading up on it a bit more extensively, the differences between both companies isn’t as significant as I had previously thought. ULA needs to step up or they’ll be dead in the water very soon.

ULA’s customer’s needs are quite different from SpaceX. They’re able to launch payloads to orbits and velocities that SpaceX does not offer, and the military, NASA, and many private entities already have contracts lined up with them. ULA and SpaceX are both launch providers, however they occupy different markets and there is a lot of demand for both. They aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.