Back in 1848 a series of European peoples launched into open revolt against their monarchies. Fed up by the ruling class and the rules put forth by that class they all finally snapped and went after their leadership. Somewhere around 50 nations underwent the turmoil. The revolution became the namesake for the recent Arab Spring (because we can’t ever make new names–I mean how many whatever-gates have there been since Nixon?). I think of I, Robot, robopocalypse, Terminator, and countless shorter works about the eventual rise of the machines. I think at this point I am prepared to call it a Machine Spring, because it is basically the same concept in play in all of these circumstances:
Cold machine logic dictates that human intelligence, while beautiful, is an anathema to the planet. I respectfully agree with the assessment if only because we don’t think about the planet for the most part. We do and damage whatever is necessary to continue to profit and to ease our social burden that much more. I recently watched the film Transcendence, which wasn’t great but it did have very smart moments, several of which swirled around this idea of humans being abnormally destructive to the planet. I think by now everyone sees it even if we can’t agree on the science or legally find someone to blame. On the other hand most of us can get behind the idea that machines are smarter than we are and will recognize these problems we tend to ignore. Ask the stories above what happens and you get a woe-stricken tale of humans being phased out.
It is a scary thought to no longer be at the top of the food chain.