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In yet another example, the overhead for automatic memory management is shown to be prohibitive.

The dominant species on earth (humans) sleep, the generally believed to be smartest animals sleep (humans, monkeys, dogs, various birds), the biggest (elephants, giraffes), the hunters (big cats), the hunted, herbivores, omnivores, the dominant type of fruit fly (in the article) sleeps. Even creatures that would drown if they went unconcious (dolphins, whales) have a kind of sleep.

What, exactly, has it prohibited?

Because we're currently the smartest animal, you suggest we couldn't be better if sleep were not required?

I do not suggest that. I merely ask you to support your jokey suggestion that the overhead of sleep is prohibitive when it doesn't seem to have prohibited ... anything.

If we didn't require sleep (and thus had 8 more hours each day we could work) we could produce far more as a race. It's not like it's some crazy suggestion, it's obviously true and unrealistic at the same time.

Beggars in Spain is an interesting treatment of that idea:

http://www.amazon.com/Beggars-Spain-Trilogy-Nancy-Kress/dp/0...

Without sleep, we would require one extra meal a day. A 133% eating rate is a significant increase in food required. You'll notice it when you stay up all night and it isn't adrenaline induced.

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