Popular culture is lousy with tales of techno-science escaping human control. And as these stories — involving rebelling robots, murderous artificial intelligence systems, and genetically modified chimeras on a warpath – testify, the results of these creations breaking their human made shackles is rarely particularly good for humanity. Insofar as such visions retain a positive aspect, it is in showing human survivors who, conceivably, have learned a lesson from what has just transpired. Of course, such anxieties are not only to be seen in fictional accounts. Warnings of the threats robots pose to jobs, the catastrophic potential of artificial intelligence, and genuine considerations of recreating currently extinct species – are as likely to be found in the news as at the Cineplex. And as these stories move from fictional worlds to the real one, it is worth pondering whether such tales will ultimately be deemed as comical hysteria or woefully…