There is a big flaw in the reasoning. I’m a big science fiction buff as many here are and there have been countless AI/robot Apocalypse stories such as the one linked below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/With_Folded_Hands
The problem is that before an AI apocalypse you must deal with a few things.
1. True AI has failed to materialize beyond novelty even with decades of research.
2. Machines can not manufacture and reproduce themselves from the environment.
3. Biological organisms may die but they persist and dominate and change to fit almost any niche robots and AI can not and machines can not.
4. We are not even close to duplicating the complexity of a single human cell let alone the human mind and just because a machine can beat us at chess does mean it can apply mental flexibility to generalize knowledge to different situations dynamically.
The idea that an AI boogeyman will rise is the product of overactive imaginations that are for some reason failing to appreciate the hurdles that must be overcome to even make such a thing possible.
If machines are going to take over the world I’d be far more fearful of dumb machines modeled over insects that have the ability to reproduce, kill, and reprocess than any malevolent AI but even that possibility is remote and could not happen unless considerable resources were dedicated to producing it.
The problem people see too many movies and movies make things look easy.
Yeah, a robot would have to have desire to eliminate us but without being programed to do so, but without it, there’s no reason to develop that desire.
In a way its a lot like my feelings on alien races coming to earth. They only reasons they would come to earth is for biological protein (food) or friendship. An interstellar race would be so advanced that friendship is like asking Albert Einstein to befriend a clam.
Agreed.