My nightmare interview scenario

I was talking to a colleague today about Artificial Intelligence. "I'm glad I'll be dead before the really scary Black Mirror stuff kicks in!" I joked.

"Oh no," he said earnestly, "it's all going very fast. It'll be here in less than 20 years."

"20 years?" I shuddered. "I'll be 57."

"No," he replied, "You'll be Version 57.0!"

I don't mind the idea of robots really. I think they'll make all our lives easier. Social credit's already here, and time travel into the future could be fun. I just don't like the idea of being able to rewind your past and, in my case, see all the horror again.

I also hate the idea that people could develop a way of reading your mind, because that's one huge Pandora's box of wrong. One of the saving graces of civilised society is that you don't let what's in your head out of your mouth.

Can you imagine shaking hands with the interviewer at a job interview if they could read your thoughts?

"Hello! My, your handshake's weak and clammy. Are you a weak and nervous person? You're very fat, anyway, and you smell like an unwashed skunk. You also have hairy ears, which is unusual for a woman."

There would be absolutely no point in turning up. Even if the interviewer was sexy and fragrant, you'd just end up thinking:

"Hello! Wow, you're so hot. I bet you're super-vain and totally fancy yourself, but I would still like you to do me up against that desk..."

Actually I think that if they invented AI that could read minds, that would be the end of humanity.

It's probably not worth worrying about.