There is so much sensationalist nonsense by clueless people here, it is insane. Do you freak out over everything you do not understand?
Because you don't understand the solid state physics of your iPhone CPU, does that mean it is magic?
Because you do not understand what a neural network is, does that mean it is magic? NO, it is essentially curve fitting with gradient descent. (Me: PhD in Statistics).
"... which explains why natural languages are poorly approximated by Markov processes."
Is that a joke? It's 2016 and you think you need to explain that a Markov process is a poor approximation of natural language? This has been obvious for computational linguists, and anyone working in the field, from day one.
That the nordic societies are nice, is of course without question.
But the U.S is a different animal. If you want to live a complacent life, squeeze out a few children, work 9-5 for the rest of your life, without taking any risks, the nordics are a great choice.
If you want to create something extraordinary, take huge risks, maximize your potential, tap into unprecedented resources in the form of engineering know-how, scientific capital, venture capital etc, then you are without question better of in the U.S.
There is a reason why the Googles/IBMs/Facebooks/Bell Labs/MIT's/Skunk Works/DARPAs/NASAs of the world are ALL American. Technological and scientific dominance does not go hand-in-hand with a dull society where 99 % are just complacent.
Because you don't understand the solid state physics of your iPhone CPU, does that mean it is magic?
Because you do not understand what a neural network is, does that mean it is magic? NO, it is essentially curve fitting with gradient descent. (Me: PhD in Statistics).