If algorithm has become a dirty word, imagine a near future in which all of life is ruled by one. But don't worry, because this nightmare dystopia is suffused with gorgeously biting satire about the manipulation of history and personal data profiles, and you always know that the rebel human will emerge triumphant. Orwell for iGeneration+.
'But the main problem with Asimov's Laws is that the First Law is nothing but theory, because it's far too practical to have robots that can kill humans. So the First Law has already been done away with. This also made the second shorter. A robot must obey the orders given to it by a human. Period. A human? Which human? The orders of its owner, of course. So just imagine that, by chance, the first super intelligence comes into being in the computer system of a large mincemeat producer and its sole directive is to increase mincemeat production. This could end with the entire universe soon consisting of just three things. Firstly the super intelligence and its computers, secondly the production materials to create mincemeat, and thirdly mincemeat.'
