How can we measure the effects if we can't even count the dead to the nearest million? - Brian Hayes

The absence of a golden rule for mattress flipping is a disappointment, but it does not pertend the demise of civilization. We can adapt; we can learn to live with it.

Fretting about a dearth of randomness seems like worrying that humanity might use up its last reserves of ignorance.

A big advantage of the serial-number approach to identity is that things stay the same even as they change.