Harvesting asteroids, creating a radically transparent virtual world state and replacing workers with intelligent robots are all very well, but unless our big tech companies recognize their social responsibilities, I fear that our real future could be as disturbing as the science fictional one presented in Ridley Scott's blockbuster.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Briefly, these five principles establish that the robot itself is never liable for its own actions, but rather that robots like automobiles should always have their ownership attributed and traceable, and that their intelligence and motivations should be made transparent so that users are not fooled into assigning more responsibility or resources to robots than they deserve as owned artefacts.

ECONOMIST: On fracking, Balkan airlines, robots, Europe