Machines that think, dream, aspire: ever since John McCarthy coined the term ‘artificial intelligence’ in 1956, mankind has striven to create sentience.
To an extent, we’ve succeeded. Intelligent systems assist our elderly, vacuum our floors, and guide our web searches. Automated telephone assistants are nearly as easy to talk to as [...]

Imagine, if you will, a fictional society three generations hence. Fossil fuels have expired, Martian colonies are in their infancy, and instead of going to the opera, well-to-do citizens enjoy high culture by… playing networked video games?
This scenario is not as ludicrous as it seems. From Shakespeare to television, from [...]