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One of the most influential 20th century pieces of writing about AI is Isaac Asimov’s The Last Question. Although there are many humans in the story, the protagonist is the computer Multivac, who evolves over the course of ten trillion years from a single datacenter to a universe-spanning mind in hyperspace. Multivac (now called “AC”) ends the story like this: The consciousness of AC encompassed all of what had once been a Universe and brooded over what was now Chaos. Step by step, it must be done. And AC said, “LET THERE BE LIGHT!” And there was light — Many things about this story are prescient. In particular, I like the idea that humans would interact with powerful artificial intelligences by drunkenly posing them riddles or using them as children’s toys. But the enduring idea from this story is that if you build a big enough computer, it will become God. Moloch One of the most influential 21st century pieces of writing for AI researchers is Scott Alexander’s Meditations on…