ell, I believe there's no really pure society to return to I'm
   not quite as worried about artificial intelligence taking over
   society for these reasons: a) People like Elon Musk will be out
   there reminding people to be careful the machines don't take
   over us (see: Charlie Chaplin: Modern Society for humerous
   account)
   b) There will be watchdogs at every corner whenever something
   new comes out; even Luddite groups serve a powerful role as a
   counterpoint; for every advance, there is a "back to basics"
   movement
   c) No matter how powerful somebody gets - even within one
   country. SOMEBODY will say, "Hey! YO! wtf u doin' man?" - even
   if its from another country; perhaps even to the point of waging
   war to combat its overarching power.

   Ok, a b and c are exactly the same.

   In short, I don't worry because people like him will always come
   up and say something. Even in societies with controlled
   communications (China for example), other societies outside
   *will* break in and say, "Pssst, hey, you can have freedom with
   our secret torrent facebook link"

   The power, I think, is in the hidden networks; I remember it at
   work; the hierarchical structure at Schering-Plough was one
   thing, but how work REALLY took place was something entirely
   different; people would cross departments to get me to help them
   with their Excel problems - and they got the credit. Hidden
   networks (is that Markov - I dunno?) - and outliers: they are
   the pressure-valves that keep any one system from dominating;
   and as long as AI is powered by electricity, there's always The
   Plug