These ICO-funded research projects are turning into the next Xerox Parc, IBM Research etc. I doubt they will ever ship something practical directly, or that the investing public will ever get their money back, but they are spending the money by hiring great engineers and researchers and giving them free rein to have fun with no budget restrictions. I suspect that will result in fundamental advances that will benefit us in the long term, like Darpanet eventually gave us the Internet.<p>I want to believe that something good will come of this, beyond incinerating cash building products nobody actually wants to use. (Yes, I’m saying that Golem as described is impractical and naive, and giving it so much funding so early makes it even harder for them to learn hard lessons and succeed as a product).<p>In a way, they found a way to trick us into paying more taxes to subsidize public research and development! You’ve got to respect that.