The idea that robots of one kind or another (e.g. nanobots
eating up the world and leaving grey goo, Cylons in both
versions of Battlestar Galactica trying to exterminate humans,
etc.) will take over the world and find humans unnecessary isn’t
especially new in works of fiction. It’s not always mentioned
directly but the underlying anxiety often has to do with
intelligence and concerns over an ‘explosion of intelligence’.
The question it raises,’ what if our machines/creations become
more intelligent than humans?’ has been described as existential
risk. According to a Nov. 25, 2012 article by Sylvia Hui for
Huffington Post, a group of eminent philosophers and scientists
at the University of Cambridge are proposing to found a Centre
for the Study of Existential Risk, Could computers become
cleverer than humans and take over the world? Or is that just
the stuff of science fiction? Philosophers and scientists at
Britain’s Cambridge University think the question deserves
serious study. A proposed Center for the S