It is 7am in 2025 and you’re in a driverless electric Uber car whizzing you to work in the City. You’re on Skype talking to one of your Chinese colleagues in Beijing, who doesn’t speak English. And you don’t speak Mandarin. No problemo. Skype is translating your conversation as you chat. Once you arrive in the office, you remember the heating was left on at home. No sweat. A quick call connects you to Robert the robot—doing the housework among other chores—who adjusts the boiler. Then one of your apps starts beeping: your blood pressure is a little high this morning—that must be down to the new loans you took out on Amazon via Blockchain. This is not some fantasy Star-Trekkian vision of the future, but a picture