Similar to a birth story for a human or fictional character, AI needs a strong origin story.

  You just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans. —Dr. Lanning in I, Robot, by Isaac Asimov As a little twenty-first-century cocktail-party experiment, quote that line to someone, and observe whether it elicits hope …

  Nagg: Me sugar-plum! Clov: There’s a rat in the kitchen! Hamm: A rat! Are there still rats? Clov: In the kitchen there’s one. Hamm: And you haven’t exterminated him? Clov: Half. You disturbed us. Hamm: He can’t get away? Clov: N…