Some people think machine intelligence will transform humanity for the better. Others fear it may destroy us. Who will decide our fate?
The editors’ note of a new magazine reads, “The next century is going to be impossibly cool or unimaginably catastrophic.”Illustration by Ege Soyuer
Katja Grace’s apartment, in West Berkeley, is in an old machinist’s factory, with pitched roofs and windows at odd angles. It has terra-cotta floors and no central heating, which can create the impression that you’ve stepped out of the California sunshine and into a duskier place, somewhere long ago or far away. Yet there are also some quietly futuristic touches. High-capacity air purifiers thrumming in the corners. Nonperishables stacked in the pantry. A sleek white machine that does lab-quality RNA tests. The sorts of objects that could portend a future of tech-enabled ease, or one of constant vigilance.
