Yeah, no. There is still energy transfer.

I believe Hapgood's crust-displacement theory explains the climate change at the turn of the ice age better than orbital wobble.

There's a podcast where Fossey talks about the device on the Electronic Component News website: http://www.ecnmag.com/audio/2011/01/tinkers/first-Commercially-Available-Chip-Scale-Atomic-Clock.aspx

That's the story I was thinking of also. Some men doctor the 'teddy' of one oif their children to remove an important part of the device's social conditioning protocols. This gives the child certain advantages in the conditioned society. For example (non-spoiler), the ability to create graffiti in an obsessively clean and organized society would be quite useful to some. Just have the 'teddy' stop admonishing the kid from drawing on walls and sidewalks as a child, turning its advice towards discretion of actions, for one.

You make some very good points about the issue, but there is another reason beyond stubborness that USB 3 sticks with copper - power. The USB connection is a powered device cable. This is a very important function. An optical cable would have to be a hybrid if we wanted it to be able to power and charge the devices linked to it, or worse, we'd need a separate charging cable. It's bad enough that the new EU cell phone standard connector is based on USB 2.0 tech and is therefore incompatible with the USB 3 mini connector.