Machines Taking Over

Are we making it too easy for machines to take over?  In ReadwriteWeb.  Do we see early symptoms when we listen for every smartphone ring?   I have been reading a novel recently that includes, in part,  this theme.  More on that to come.  Not out of the question.  " ... What if computer code could write itself? What if robots could think for themselves and continuously learn from their environment while being fed contextual information from a vast global network of data? What if the machines could build themselves and propagate, much in the same way that mammals give birth to new mammals? ... "