According to Stephen Hawking And The World Economic Forum, Science And Technology Could Destroy Us

Science and technology are hot topics in the news lately: we have the leaders at Davos holding sessions on strategies to mitigate the risk of killer robots; and a hop, skip, and jump away from Switzerland, at the BBC Reith Lecture, we have Stephen Hawking claiming that, "The human race faces one its most dangerous centuries yet as progress in science and technology becomes an ever greater threat to our existence," as reported in the Guardian. For Hawking, we will not be able to colonize Mars for the next 100 years--presumably the amount of time it will take for the technology to catch up to human need--and hence we must be very careful during this time. 

But what does careful mean? And what about the robots? Will killer robots preempt the technological leap necessary to occupy Mars? According to the World Economic Forum, such robots are coming--soon. According to Stewart Russell, a computer science professor from Berkeley, technology from drones and self-driving cars could make killer robots a reality within the next several years. 

If that's the case, and we won't be able to leave planet earth for another century, where does that leave us? 

For many of us, conceptualizing such a robot is difficult, given the memes we were raised on in movies and t.v.--the endearing R2-D2 and C-3PO from Star Wars, just two examples. But killer robots are something completely other--think about a weapon with the power and devastation of a nuclear missile. And many countries, in the name of national defense, are manufacturing them, according to CNN Money. 

The only hope thus far, getting back to Hawking's characteristic dystopian vision for humanity's reliance on science and technology, is for world leaders to hash out some kind of international agreement that would highly restrict their manufacturing and use--but that seems to be like shaking up a bee hive and waiting to see what happens next.