The omnipresent computing menace to information society

Computers have evolved from mere number crunchers to systems demonstrating an astonishing degree of sophistication, decision-making ability, and autonomy. Silicon is no longer the only substrate facilitating information processing. Despite these progresses, machine intelligence is still far from rivaling human intelligence. Nonetheless, we might be all too ready to rely on inferior agents for decision making, to give away sensitive information without fully understanding the consequences involved, or to tinker with genetic code to program carbon-based machines without fully appreciating the risks. This article explores the potentials and risks that information societies may face in the wake of current and emerging intelligent computing paradigms.