Elon Musk basically thinks we're living in 'The Sims.' Here's why that's wrong — and dangerous

In the beginning was the AI. 

And the AI created lots of little people who were also AIs, sort of. Or maybe they were brains in jars, or they were actual people who didn't know they were actually living in tanks of milky fluid so they could power batteries for the AI's machines, even though human beings barely give off enough energy to power a light bulb, especially not when they're lying in tanks of milky fluid. 

Maybe the AI set up the whole Matrix thing just to distract itself from doing math like that. 

But anyway! Whatever their purpose, the AI's dupes spent their time running around inside a simulation thinking they were living at the turn of the 21st century, back when most people thought A.I. was just a so-so Steven Spielberg movie.  Read more...