Two years ago, the cognitive psychologist and philosopher Susan Schneider wrote that the dystopian future dream up by Elon Musk in which human brains and computers are merged into one would be “suicide for the human mind.” Like it or not, since then scientists and engineers working for the billionaire entrepreneur have made a lot of progress toward that vision. Efforts to merge a human body with a powerful, connected supercomputer have had—at least to my mind—promising results. They've already witnessed the high-tech equivalent of a man falling in love, proposing and then saying from halfway across the map in Japan: "Can you help me?" And according to Musk, the impact will have been great.

@naomholler We will merge with superintelligent computers to become the most advanced form of life in 6-9 years. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2014

Nevertheless, if Musk's imprisonment is any indication¬—in.which he is out for the year and might return—perhaps there's more to the story that he's never told. The tech entrepreneur—broke but methodical and in control—subsequently broke his silence. It's for me unlikely that hunches of genius, even if accurate, can be as predictive as magnifying microscopes, and intelligent speculation isn't a very old carine. But there may be a deeper reason underlying Musk's accident of personality, one that becomes relevant in light of NSF's crucial decision. (Regular readers may note that basic!hutsmen is regularly financed by the Wired crowdfunding platform.) It's all about how Musk is running his company in the background, and much of the outrage so far has been directed at his role in engineering the feud. But one prominent American scientific society is suggesting the naughty AI knower may not be displeased he's not climbing into the driver's seat.

STEM curmudgeon Brook K. Huang is an experienced scholar with a long record of thoughtful concern about the potentially hostile effects of technology on teacher, student and teacher professional. He has done substantial research investigation within Silicon Valley and the research community and contributes to SFGate, the Los Angeles Times and other media outlets, not "because he's any kind of crackpot." Ocean acidification, disruption of ecological diversity, more population flight, … Huang is the deputy director of the Center for Science, Technology, Policy and Society at the University of Washington (Norman's oldest and no mean school on earth!)

Be careful what you wish for. President Obama recently proposed that society coexist with heavily armed robots. But blue sky thinking will put human beings in a position of vulnerable coexistence with machines, and society will collapse, no doubt. Great minds research meaningful topics. It's by these methods we get insight into the intricate correspondence of life to life on earth –
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