Most all are very good points. I don't see this being an issue today, tomorrow or even next month. But a year, two years down the road.... SOME farmers may go into it. Maybe if bots become truly "illegal" (not likely - aren't we as real players, in a way, bots)? More intelligent right now, sure. But I GUARANTEE you that the captchas that we use right now to keep spam bots out will be broken again and again by increasingly intelligent "AIs" (more image processors).

Imagine, if you will, a bot that plays not as a program but as a computer running a computer. Instead of modifying the data, it plays like a player does.

You dump the screen, do basic image analysis to give the computer the data. It can respond to GMs. It can "think" in so much as it can do basic player functions. It can act and react appropriately. With little to no downsides to death, it can keep plugging away. It does not need to sleep. We are getting better at real time image analysis. It can track health bars, inventory, know where it is spatially. Everything a basic human can do. And it would interact with the computer without any hooks, any extra input. It would, in essence, to Blizzard.... BE a human. Only it would be a computer controlling a computer. Hell, put the entire OS INSIDE a VM and then have the program CONTROL all of the game client. I HIGHLY doubt Blizzard could ever detect something like that - it would be "stuck" inside a VM, which people would and will use for all sorts of purposes other than botting.

We aren't there yet. But we will be someday. Then what do you do? Ban players? How do you know which is which when the computer looks and smells and tastes and acts like a human?

These are not problems we will face right away but I guarantee you that we will. And I love thinking about them and their ramifications.