This bit: "What we're going to see is increasingly solicitous machines defining our environment" reminded me of Jack Williamson's With Folded Hands scenario (f

This bit: "What we're going to see is increasingly solicitous machines defining our environment" reminded me of Jack Williamson's With Folded Hands scenario (from 1947, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands )