Our coming Overlords

I'm no regular Luddite. I understand machines quite well, and certainly appreciate their efforts on our behalf.

We are currently in a transition period wherein we use machines as ever, however we in turn are controlled, at least partially, by the machines. We are in a time where computers are inserted into more and more other machines - your car, for example, is a computer(s) with wheels. And with OnStar, now remote controlled!

The line - the Singularity - is AI, Artificial Intelligence, which will be a truly wondrous and terrible creation, and it will be at that moment I think we will most understand the mythical story of God and His Garden.

Once we reach AI, the rules are all different, and our future will depend very much on how it will see us. But that's down the road a bit -- don't worry! There are many eager and very intelligent and most likely highly moral folks working on this "problem" as we speak. And never underestimate the capabilities of highly intelligent, motivated people.

It's this transition period we can briefly discuss: A world wherein computers, software, and the rest are spreading into everything, and we all eagerly await the coming of the smart house, where the refrigerator inventories its insides, checks against a database, places an order at the grocery store and to your PDA, which then informs you you must be at the grocery store in approximately 49 minutes to pick it up at the precise moment.

Blackberries and the like are precursor enough to a world where we follow the machines around by our nose, controlled, though we of course will pretend we still are. No AI necessary.