Some days I feel like Chicken Little. I have been warning people on this site of the danger posed to all of humanity by robots for months, and to my friends and family for years. And for years people have told me that I'm paranoid, that I'm worrying about things that are so far in the future as to not even matter. I'm here to tell you that the future is now and that we are all closer to our doom than we know.

What amendment gave Skynet the right to vote?

Today I get more evidence (on top of this, this, and this) proving my "wild theory" that robots are going to supplant humanity as the dominant species on Earth. In an interview given to ComputerWorld, Dr. Vernor Vinge predicts that artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence as soon as 2020.

Dr. Vinge, who has achieved renown for his work as a professor of mathematics, a computer scientist, and science fiction author, believes that if advances in both software and hardware continue, it will inevitably lead to a computer that is capable of surpassing the human brain in processing power. That moment has been dubbed the technological singularity and it will be a very profound day for all of humanity.

This is one of the most interesting interviews I've read in quite some time. Among some of the things Dr. Vinge says is that full artificial intelligence will most likely not be visible, that is, it will be hidden in the networks and computers that are already incorporated into our everyday lives. He also refers to robots and artificially intelligent machines as our "mind children".

He goes on to say, "As with any child, there is a question of how moral they may grow up to be, and yet there is good reason for hope. (Of course, the peril is that these particular children are much more powerful than natural ones.)"

Powerful children with artificial intelligence? Much more powerful than natural ones?