Robots V Man: Why The Obsession?

I'm not sure who was the first to propose that Mankind's ultimate demise would be brought on by his own sentient robotic creations, but it has caught on with no discernible association to reality whatsoever - except maybe an environmental implication.

Asimov's I, Robot series came out in the 1950's but Fritz Lang's Metropolis appeared in 1927. Since then a slew of apocalyptic films/books on the near extermination of mankind via automaton have been produced including Stephen King's Maximum Overdrive, Runaway with Tom Selleck, the cult classic Blade Runner, The Matrix trilogy, The Terminator series and more recently Tim Burton's 9. Waiting in the wings is Spielberg with something called Robopocalypse (based on a novel). Robopocalypse? It might be good - but what kind of name is that? If it's a satire, then I can understand, but it's going to be hard to take a movie with a name like that seriously.

That said, the main question is why we have become obsessed and fixated on this idea of technology as the bane of mankind - more specifically, technology as deadly, autonomous reservoir of intelligence and choice.  

I can see how our use of technology through biological and nuclear weaponry could lead to a serious crisis. Even the impact of industry on the environment. But robots coming to life and demanding to write poetry and live out a life of free choice? No, not happening. If anybody is going to kill Mankind it will be Mankind - and it will have nothing to do with intelligence, artificial or otherwise. 

If anything, our greatest weakness is the digital age. This was  insightfully implied in John Carpenter's Escape From LA with Kurt Russell reprising his role as Snake Plisskin. A generally bad movie, it had Snake plunging the Earth back to the 'Dark Ages' at the push of a button, wiping away the World's progress by permanently shutting down all power via satellite. Then with eye-patch-like coolness he grunts, 'Welcome to the human race'. We've all wanted to do that. 

Think about it. Everything is going digital, and by extension is becoming highly connected, one mega hard drive crash and we have to start from scratch. Granted, not everything is digital yet, so we should be safe for a few years more - but only a few. 

After the nuclear winter when the remnant of humanity surfaces, significantly stupider than pre-apocalypse, they will hardly know what to do with a laptop, should they find one. A book would be easier to figure out and no batteries necessary. 

What we may be obsessed with is the fact that much of what we fabricate will outlive us, toilet bowls will live for thousands of years, long after we've Tweeted our latest bowel movement to Cyberspace. There is also the Matrix premise that our progress comes at the very cost of our own lives. The energy needed to run our World and its many contraptions is, in essence, our own life energy sacrificed for the sake of profit and comfort. Otherwise, the closest battle between man and machine to date is right below and we clearly win!

The lesson here is clear. The World needs to be a Mac rather than a PC.