Excellent, thought provoking article. I am absolutely horrified with the because-we-can direction AI research is heading, without checks, balances, or any thought for the moral implications to humanity. It is bone-chilling. I hope and pray they never succeed.

Why can't people learn the lessons of science fiction? I'm a full-blown Butlerian Jihadist: "Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind." It all ends in "Open the pod bay doors please HAL" or (as you've indicated in this piece) "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe". Or even worse, the Terminator scenario.