Artificial intelligence: Sci-fi writer Wil McCarthy gets a goodie bag and a flicker of 'nerdy patriotism' after taking part in a secret CIA panel discussion on the things that might go wrong:

'From those tapes will spring transcripts and minutes, and eventually a summary document – all of which probably will be classified. The Agency produces millions of pages every year. But in the way of such things, this info will filter up through layers of bureaucracy, summarized and resummarized, until some ghost of it impinges on policy. And in the circle of a few hundred people who encounter our raw input, decisions will be subtly influenced. At the very least, the butterfly effect ensures that we’ve made some kind of difference, rippling out into the future.' [Wired].

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