i had this discussion in my sci-fi class earlier in the year, and it turned out to be really interesting.

it seems inevitable with the development of technology that the ability to build robots with artificial intelligence will one day equal if not surpass mankind.

many people believe an I, Robot type scenario might happen where robots grow past their programming and become a seperate race, in many ways...

so I ask, do you think this is a realistic idea that machines will overpower man? what about the idea of robots replacing jobs humans don't like doing (ie servants, labour, soldiers etc.)?

NO, they are wrong, they will all be like Astro Boy fighting crime and replacing lost family members.

Robots will never grow past their programming. That makes no sense. Robots will do repetitious tasks that drive us crazy (a.k.a assembly line work). Aside from that, robots will remain mindless.

There is ongoing research by computer scientists to build software and machines that mimic human intelligence (i.e., they can learn and adapt, rather than just doing what they're programmed to do). Some AI researchers believe that once we create a machine that is intelligent enough to create other machines, the ability for machines to learn on their own will grow exponentially.

The question is whether two sentient "races" can co-exist peacefully. This idea is, in fact, explored in Asimov's I, Robot. Human history has shown, though, that whenever another species has grown intelligent enough to rival man's intelligence, it has been wiped out. That's why humans are the only species on Earth with this level of intelligence.