This module introduces the theory that the future of artificial intelligence is smart networks that have intelligence "baked in" in the form of Blockchain Distributed Ledgers for confirming authenticity and transferring value, and Deep Learning Algorithms for predictive identification. Smart networks are not a far-off possibility but already needed as deep learning systems are going online in connected apps for Autonomous Driving and Drone Delivery, and Human-Robot Interaction. Two high-impact contemporary emerging technologies for the future of AI are Blockchain Distributed Ledgers and Deep Learning Algorithms, and discusses their implications for the future of artificial intelligence. 

Payment channels is a new form of business interaction that blockchains enable. The idea is contractually obligating an asset (prepaid escrow of capital or some other asset), tracking consumption of a resource against the escrow, and then settling on a net basis in one transaction at the end of the period.

Distributed ledgers imply peer-banking services offered by every network node to others for a small fee. Money becomes an accounting ledger  Economic Impact of Blockchain article: http://timreview.ca/article/1109 running on a distributed computer network, a transaction, credit, and payment graph. Digitized money and payments, and activity possibly being securely forward-committed in payment contracts, suggests that the economy could settle on the basis of net rather than gross transfers. A net-clearings contracts-for-difference economy could enable us to rethink debt, replacing crippling monolithic capital structures with streaming money disgorged in smaller chunks that are more closely tied to costs and repayment possibilities. Pre-paid consumption and 30-60-90 day vendor credit terms models could be offset to facilitate a directed payment graph economy of just-in-time money. A wide slate of contemporary economic challenges might be addressed including health care price rationalization, global energy management, entitlements, and the automation economy. 

Economics, broadly defined, is concerned with the description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Also related is how individuals and groups make choices about these goods and services, and the consequences of their decisions. Decisions might be explicitly in regard to money and resources, but the same principles pertain to any kind of decision. The general form of the problem is that wants are bigger than resources, and even if two choices are both free, there is an opportunity cost in terms of deploying resources or focus into one area and not another. The same structure of decision-making among multiple options, with there being an opportunity cost to the road not taken, may persist regardless of domain, whether in classical economics or distributed ledger economics.