I'm wondering when this will simply be a feature of game engines, along with AI character generation, terrain/map generators, and AI-driven dialog.

I'm really on the fence about it since it really could put extra life into games where it just isn't normally feasible to make all NPC's unique, dialog etc so you end up with a lot of "I took an arrow to the knee" type dialog.

For smaller studios - or independent authors - the ability to generate high quality content with code could also be a real boon.

I'd still rather not see big studios just go with AI instead of real humans for design and acting though. That just leads to cookie-cutter bullshit and games that feel stale

Yeah, I could see neck guards becoming required equipment after this. Safety regulations are built on blood

$35B could have built some nice transit infrastructure. Just saying

I could see maintenance costs increases being not insignificant over time. Parts/appliances had gone up notably, as has materials and the cost of people to do the work. There's also some issues with receivables which may end up needing to be written off, and deliberate damage over time. Generally, these do need to be accounted for on a going-forward basis.

That said, none of these should have increased nearly so much as the cost of property and overall rents. They should account for a reasonable increase over time, instead what we see is increased to cover the cost of the mortgage on additional rental properties etc

They could, but that's still going to take a lot to balance the scales. It should be part of an overall plan for housing affordability

Slumlords and overpriced rentals can be storage issues though. It can be a nice place, but if you're paying $2k+/mo for a 1b1b that's way too fucking much even if it's in good condition

I prefer against sharing my specific location but western Canada in an area where there can literally be a 60-70°c+ difference between peak winter and summer conditions.

Yeah, I'd agree with that. Road clearing in general is pretty bad here, let alone sidewalks and bike lanes (especially since the "clearing" often involves pushing it off to the side and blocking up those lanes).

I found it cool how some countries had sweepers which collect the snow and cart it off rather than just pushing it around

I could see this for ice but I'm thinking more snow and slush, which where can be near bumper-height on cars (not to mention the double-digit degrees below freezing for temperatures).

It's one of those things where it's probably a good idea for bigger cities with nicer weather (or better maintenance of dedicated bike lanes), but in smaller centres a better investment in public transit would make more sense

Those might be ok here in summer, but the snow (and shitty city management) plus hills would not work out well in the winter.

As somebody who has literally been injured with a cardboard tube to the eye (being used as a sword though sans crossguard/handle): just make sure the kids are using swinging motions rather than poking (or are very aware to stay below neck level)