Self-evolving systems - threat or promise?

The Lifeboat foundation is thinking about future threats. I was struck by this one:

A system that evolves freely is potentially very adaptable and creative. It could also become nearly anything, with consequences ranging from the annoying to the disastrous. It is likely unlimited self-evolution will need to be contained carefully even as we mine it for truly new inventions. The arrows nicely hint at a chaos-star as well as replication.

Somehow this reminded me of danah's exasperation with politics, business, academia and media. The disappointing elites she describes would see self-evolving systems as a threat. I prefer to see them as a promise of something better to come.

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