The future of sports is algorithms, not athletes

Spectators sit stacked one row behind another, all craning their necks to look down at the miniaturized soccer pitch below them. With bated breath, they watch as a tiny player gently bumps the ball up the pitch toward its opponent. The goal in sight, the attacker has two options -- evade its opponent by expertly moving the ball around it, or send a safer pass to a teammate outside the fray. Like any soccer star, the player chooses glory and begins to putter its feet back and forth to move the ball -- when it begins to lose balance. And down it falls, like a felled tree.