7 Doomsday Scenarios You Probably Shouldn't Worry About (And 2 You Really Should)

6. Robots And AI

There are a great many commentators saying that robots, computers and artificial intelligences will take our jobs, change our society and become a bigger part of our lives in future. Whilst it might be hard (although not impossible) to dispute that, it's difficult to imagine a scenario in which robots spell the bloody end for humanity.

Rather, if robots do bring about the collapse of society, we we will have to be complicit in it.

Many doomsday forecasters predict that an unforeseen intelligence explosion in our AI would destroy humanity either for its own good (a la I, Robot), or perhaps as a byproduct of the survival of robots. Nick Bostrom of Oxford University thinks that AI might cover the Earth's surface in solar panels and supercomputers, leaving little room for humanity.

The thing is that the cards of power are currently so stacked in our favour, in terms of both resources and intelligence, that we would have to be complicit in this takeover for decades. AI would have to participate in our economy, rely on us to invent compatible technologies and even programme them to "want" world dominance in the first place.

No one is saying that robots won't replace a lot of our workforce and perhaps change our society forever, but it's probably us that's going to put them there in the first place.