Our fear of killer robots might doom us all

America seems gripped with what we might call Battlestar Galactica Syndrome. In the TV show, society developed a technology (supersmart robots) which then produced unintended and terrible results (the near destruction of humanity). Where the syndrome comes in is that in not wanting to make the same mistake twice, a society might decide to completely ban the technology. We can't have killer robots imperil our species if we don't have smart robots to begin with! The problem is you probably won't have autonomous cars and 1,000 other cool inventions, too.