The physical extinction of the human race is one possibility.

One of his greatest talents was empathy; no sadist can aspire to perfection without that diagnostic ability.

The dilemma felt by science fiction writers will be perceived in other creative endeavors.

Once upon a time I was such a good liar; I could talk the fish right into my mouths.

We will soon create intelligences greater than our own ... When this happens, human history will have reached a kind of singularity, an intellectual transition as impenetrable as the knotted space-time at the center of a black hole, and the world will pass far beyond our understanding.

But every time our ability to access information and to communicate it to others is improved, in some sense we have achieved an increase over natural intelligence.

The problem is not simply that the Singularity represents the passing of humankind from center stage, but that it contradicts our most deeply held notions of being.