Firstly, an AI can hold in its databanks information about every known illness and medicine in history.

The authorities were completely helpless in the face of the calamity. Except for organising mass prayers and processions, they had no idea how to stop the spread of the epidemic – let alone cure

sensory and reward areas in the rat’s brain. This enables the scientists to manoeuvre the rat by remote control.

It goes without saying that the gods didn’t actually run their businesses, for the simple reason that they didn’t exist anywhere except in the human imagination. Day-to-day activities were managed by the temple priests (just as Google and Microsoft need to hire flesh-and-blood humans to manage their affairs).

The Quantified Self movement argues that the self is nothing but mathematical patterns.

Particularly telling are civilisation-style strategy games,

Relatively small changes in genes, hormones and neurons were enough to transform Homo erectus – who could produce nothing more impressive than flint knives – into Homo sapiens, who produces spaceships and computers. Who knows what might be the outcome of a few more changes to our DNA,

The modern world does not believe in purpose, only in cause.

Doubting free will is not just a philosophical exercise. It has practical implications.