Is AI Smart Enough to Answer These 6 Questions?: Niall Ferguson

The novelist Neal Stephenson’s prophetic power never ceases to astonish. The Diamond Age (1995), is set in a technologically highly advanced world, with ubiquitous nanotechnology in addition to something strangely familiar called “P.I.” The abbreviation is explained in the following exchange:

“I’m an engineer … Did some work on this project, as it happens.”

“What sort of work?”

“Oh, P.I. stuff mostly,” Hackworth said. Supposedly Finkle-McGraw still kept up with things and would recognize the abbreviation for pseudo-intelligence, and perhaps even appreciate that Hackworth had made this assumption.

Finkle-McGraw brightened a bit. “You know, when I was a lad they ...