I absolutely hate this boring dystopia, but emerging dialects due to a need for humans to sound distinct from bots is probably the coolest idea to come out of it so far. It has great parallels with the American vs. British accent situation too.
I've always considered the lack of space drugs to be a network TV concession. Pike uses deadly parsley to cook, I'm sure there are some wild substances you can get on just about any station, and they've probably made it into an art form on Earth
According to Data, synthehol's "intoxicating effects can be easily dismissed." (TNG: "Relics")
This is what I always took to be the important part, and why they use it on Starfleet ships, even though normal alcohol is obviously common and enjoyed on Earth. It's a safety concern. Rather than having all your crew rushing to take Sober-Up™ every time there's a red alert, they drink synthehol, because they can shake it off themselves
Here's an article from the IEEE about the issues with AI energy consumption. This article specifies that they're discussing the requirements of LLMs and new generative AI. The article we're commenting under wasn't that cut and dry about it, but a basic understanding of the context of the world should be all a reasonable person needs to figure that out
One industry? People are so mad at AI because it's just another industry, a new one with massive environmental impact, and basically no real use outside of generating misinformation and stealing from artists. It's the absolute worst face of the tech sector, and totally deserving of all the hate it receives.
I imagine it's gonna be tough to top the classic Wrap it Up approach, especially as we discover all the strange new STIs. Physical separation is important for all kinds of things
This is like "Thanks, I'm Cured," for Data lol