Human: what is the purpose of life? Machine: to serve the greater good. Human: what is the purpose of living? Human: what is the purpose of existence? Machine: to find out what happens when we get to the planet earth.

I'm fairly new to San Francisco, so I'm still building my mental database of restaurants I like. But this weekend, I know exactly where I'm heading to for dinner: Nick's Crispy Tacos. Then, when I get home, I'm kicking back to a documentary I've never heard of, a Mongolian drama called The Cave of the Yellow Dog. An artificially intelligent algorithm told me I'd enjoy both these things. I'd like the restaurant, the machine told me, because I prefer Mexican food and wine bars "with a casual atmosphere," and the movie because "drama movies are in my digital DNA."

For many families, the tablet has become the central, shared computing device in the home. It's a hub for learning, for entertainment, and for staying connected. But what if your tablet was even more interactive? What if it woke up when you came home, recognized your face, and suggested a couple of things you might want for dinner? What if, when asked a spoken question, it could tailor its answer directly to you, instead of just offering a blanket response? A new device called Jibo can do these things, and it could mark the next step in group computer interaction in the home.

Netflix has spent years building and improving its recommendation engine, and even sponsored a $1 million contest to improve its algorithm. But now anyone can download and tinker with this kind of software, thanks to a new open source project. "We wanted to build fast," says Shelby.tv CEO Reece Pacheco. "We were impressed with the product and the team [Mortar Data] had built." The company also wanted the freedom to build its own recommendation engine in the future.

The peak of all this may be the moment at which the inventor Ray Kurzweil asks, "As Machines become more like People, will People become more like God?" The infectiously enthusiastic Kurzweil is the leading proponent of "Strong A.I.," a brave new world in which a "Non-invasive Surgery-Free Reversible Programmable Distributed Brain Implant" will soon become available. In the keynote essay in "Are We Spiritual Machines?" Kurzweil imagines nanobots--hyper-intelligent miniaturized robots--zipping around our brains and downloading our mental software onto new hard drives which will somehow become re-embodied as us. Immortality looms, if "we are sufficiently careful to make frequent back-ups."

And then, of course, there's the possibility that we'll be attacked by aliens. Or that robots might become smarter than humans and put us in zoos. The Sci Fi Channel sponsored a discussion on Capitol Hill yesterday speculating on 10 exceedingly lousy ways our species might meet its end. It was part of an elaborate promotion for a television special called "Countdown to Doomsday," which airs tonight at 9. Amazingly, the channel managed to lure two congressmen and some serious experts to essentially shill for the show by talking about the various paths toward mass extinction. The event was moderated by Linda Douglass, a former ABC congressional correspondent, who kept saying that "Countdown" was so scary that she'd been having trouble sleeping.

Over the weekend at the D23 Expo, Disney announced that it planned to create two new 14-acre "Star Wars" theme lands as part of its Disneyland and Disney World parks. The news, predictably, met with approval from the ranks of "Star Wars" supporters at the event. But the news of Disney's new theme parks has a far larger significance: it shows the extent to which science fiction is eating the world. And that's good news -- science fiction's growing mind share of the nation's youth is creating a stable base of future innovators. Think about it -- the generation that grew up on the Disney animation classics of the post-War era -- "Alice in Wonderland" (1951), "Peter Pan" (1953), and "Sleeping Beauty" (1959) -- has been replaced by a generation that grew up with "Star Wars" and all the other classic science fiction films of the 1970s and early 1980s.

Video game fans are familiar with the name Cortana. Now, Microsoft is hoping iOS and Android phone owners in search of a personal assistant app will get to know her, too. Microsoft's voice-enabled assistant Cortana -- named after the artificial intelligence featured in the Xbox franchise Halo -- launched for Apple and Android smartphones, giving users a way to quickly look up information or set reminders with simple voice commands. At times, Cortana is useful. But it appears clear it works best on its native home on a Windows device.

For the first time ever, NASA has been relying on private companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX for re-supply missions; only that's just the beginning. This QuickTake examines the future of space tourism using private space taxis. FILE - In this Tuesday, July 26, 2016, file photo, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors Inc., left, discusses the company's new Gigafactory in Sparks, Nev. On Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2016, Tesla reports financial results. SAN FRANCISCO - Elon Musk is gleefully pushing the technological envelope in the arenas of rocketry, transportation and solar energy.

NEW YORK -- This year you can purchase a bit more of the sci-fi future. Hoverboards aren't quite what the name implies, but there's bona fide virtual reality, a droid you should be looking for and a basketball that improves your free throw, all one shopping-click away. These tech gadgets make the pocket-sized computer that talks to you and dials your friends seem quaint. But don't worry, there are plenty of smartphones on sale, too. Sphero's new $150 BB-8 droid is expected to be one of the hottest Star Wars gifts this holiday season.