DeepMind. Can't wait.

It's not that I don't know much about "cognitive neuroscience". It's not that, like most of us, I had never heard of Demis Hassabis until a couple of days ago. It's not even that I'm surprised that the former games designer and child chess prodigy was able to sell a start up company that has never actually produced anything to Google for $400 million. No, what I'm really concerned about is how little time is being spent debating how artificial intelligence might change our lives for the better rather than consolidate state power on the one hand and corporate wealth on the other. We seem to be peering into the abyss. Into a future of total state surveillance and ever increasing economic inequality. The games of course will be more lifelike and addictive than ever and may even provide some consolation for the barren tedium of real life.