The DeanBeat: Silicon Valley, sci-fi, and games are coming together

Last year, I started writing stories about the uncanny melding of science fiction, real-world technology, and games in mainstream entertainment such as HBO’s Westworld. The sci-fi in games and other entertainment used to be really out there, divorced from real-life technology and the near future.

But then came lightning fast advances in artificial intelligence for voice services and self-driving cars, and that blurred the line between sci-fi and Silicon Valley. Masayoshi Son, CEO of Japan’s SoftBank conglomerate, bought ARM for $32 billion. Why? He wanted to build the Singularity, or the day when A.I. becomes smarter than the collective intelligence of humans. When I heard Son say that he was preparing to invest for the Singularity, I was astounded by his ambition.