AI and HR, the final frontier

In 1966, Gene Roddenberry imagined what things would look like in the twenty-third century. These science fiction writers are often cited as the people who shape the future; it is their imagination that drives geeks like me to code, improve and build. Robot vacuum cleaners (Hanna-Barbera, 1962), submarines (Jules Verne, 1870) and the humble automatic door (HG Wells, 1899) were all first seen in books and on television long before they ever entered our lives. Although we are not whizzing through the stars yet, one of the subtler technologies from Roddenberry's Star Trek is tantalisingly close to ubiquitous use. How many times have you seen a character in Star Trek using a mouse and keyboard?