> I think in general it is fair, but the very arbitrary 18/not-18 cutoff doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I saw some neuroscience research once that indicat

> I think in general it is fair, but the very arbitrary 18/not-18 cutoff doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I saw some neuroscience research once that indicated you don't really mature until your early 20s. That said, in some cultures you are considered an adult at about 14 (mostly hunter gatherer cultures that lack the insane complexity and fundamental weirdness that we have right now). 18 seems a good rough split-the-difference, but equally, in an ideal world it'd be 21. That said, most people wouldn't want to wait that long to do responsible adult activities like drive cars too fast around the place, vote for the people who do the best job of lying, and consume borderline-lethal quantities of alcohol ... :-)