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Is it possible that sometime in the near future, that intelligent life will be able to eclipse human life? And if it is possible, will these consequences be catastrophic?

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    $\begingroup$ Are you saying that humans are not "intelligent life?" And what exactly do you mean by "eclipse?" There are whole bookshelves of turgid speculation on this topic, both fiction and non-fiction, so the question as written seems a bit too broad for Worldbuilding's Q&A format. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Jul 11, 2018 at 20:15
  • $\begingroup$ "intellegent life" is humans, but man made items are the definition $\endgroup$
    – user50780
    Jul 11, 2018 at 20:16
  • $\begingroup$ That was a polite prod for you to edit the question to clarify. Comments are not intended for conversation. $\endgroup$
    – user535733
    Jul 11, 2018 at 20:17
  • $\begingroup$ Hi Deez Nuts, welcome to Worldbuilding! Of course this is possible. Or do you actually want to ask if "Terminator" or "Matrix" scenarios are likely? $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Jul 11, 2018 at 20:18
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    $\begingroup$ children are man/woman-made and they eclipse their parents every hundred years or so. I'm not thrilled with eventually having to hand over the reins to the next generation, but I wouldn't call it a catastrophe. Robots are just children with thicker skin. $\endgroup$ Jul 11, 2018 at 20:19

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Deez: If your question is "will intelligent robots be able to damage humans?" The answer is: "They already are". There are missiles with artificial intelligence whose sole purpose is to find and kill (and I think that could be cataloged as "catastrophic"). Any modern auto-guided weapon has some degree of intelligence devoted solely to damage, destroy and kill.

However, the "decision" of "what" and "when" to destroy is still managed by a human. Perhaps the real menace will arrive when the machines decide by themselves what and when to destroy.

Will it happen sometime? It depends: We humans make the programming. If we program a machine to take those decisions on their own and based on their own evaluation, then surely they will. And (as it has been historically proven by the endless patching of all the software we use), we humans are not perfect developers and our code always contains some degree of "opportunity areas" and needs to be "upgraded" sometimes. If we humans develop a highly intelligent entity AND we put it in charge of any weapon of mass destruction, then surely the results will be catastrophic.

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