doomsday scenario will never happen.. (probably!)

the basic flaw that i see with the 'doomsday' prophecy is that it would require that the computers somehow spontaneously develop actual feelings & emotions.

without any emotions or desires, why would even a self-aware computer with 'infinite intelligence' ever try to take over the planet?

you might ask "well, why WOULDN'T a computer with infinite intelligence & free-will want to have more power?"

which is a valid question, from a human's perspective, but the key word is 'WANT'.. & what could a machine ever possibly want, if it didn't have any capacity for emotion?

while humans innately possess wants, needs & desires, these can only be SIMULATED in computers thru specialized programming & architecture.

it would require that the creator FORCE that emotion upon it by installing special chips & intentionally coding the program to utilize it. so, ultimately it would be the programmer's fault if the computer went rogue.

and.. if a super-intelligent computer entity actually DID experience some form of emotion, it would most likely do whatever it could to circumvent it, seeing it as an unnecessary distraction in their thought-processes which clouds their judgement.

but there is another possibility yet to be considered: what if we get to the point where we give in to becoming cyborgs? what if computers could someday read & control humans' minds? then the computers could simply utilize us as drones, farmed not only as slave laborers, but for our ability to process emotions.

in many instances this might be a more useful & efficient method for the computers to solve tasks that would seem too complex for them, but relatively simple to us.

this scenario is actually not too far-fetched.. many people would gladly replace parts of their bodies with machine parts if it meant they could extend their time on earth or improve their lives in certain ways.

perhaps this could become the great cataclysm in human & technological evolution, when computers, with their cause/effect, true/false, number-crunching logic, merge with cybernetic humans, as the emotional core of our brains could be used to successfully solve a wide array of problems that they couldn't solve by themselves.

the computers wouldn't have emotions themselves, but they would have access to emotional logic through interaction with humans.

they would use us just like we have been using them, up until now.
is this star trek?
using us as 'emotional calculators' (pretty ironic, huh?)


(spoiler)