Dwan Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him and the subether bore throughout the universe a dozen pictures of what he was doing.

He straightened and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to a position beside the switch that would complete the contact when he threw it. The switch that would connect, all at once, all of the monster computing machines of all the populated planets in the universe -- ninety-six billion planets -- into the supercircuit that would connect them all into one supercalculator, one cybernetics machine that would combine all the knowledge of all the galaxies.

Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the watching and listening trillions. Then after a moment's silence he said, "Now, Dwar Ev."

Dwar Ev threw the switch. There was a mighty hum, the surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flashed and quieted along the miles-long panel.

Dwar Ev stepped back and drew a deep breath. "The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn."
"Thank you," said Dwar Reyn. "It shall be a question which no single cybernetics machine has been able to answer."

He turned to face the machine. "Is there a God?"

The mighty voice answered without hesitation, without the clicking of a single relay.

"Yes, now there is a God."

Sudden fear flashed on the face of Dwar Ev. He leaped to grab the switch.

A bolt of lightning from the cloudless sky struck him down and fused the switch shut.

Machines thinking they are Gods.
I find that laughable, since they are built.

Any machine capable of self-improvement would be, all but metaphysically, a God.

You think we'll ever hit that point?

Absolutely. Although, this thread isn't supposed to be a discussion about Godhood, but the potential power of artificial intelligence.

Absolutely. Although, this thread isn't supposed to be a discussion about Godhood, but the potential power of artificial intelligence.

I get that computers can do things quicker than us,
but I think that they will always be limited by the humans who made them.

1. They could turn off whatever generator is powering it.
2. How does a smart computer, supposedly, manage to control the powers of nature without any tools?
3. What's it going to do, kill them with dubstep unless they worship it?

3. What's it going to do, kill them with dubstep unless they worship it?

Ugh, I'd prefer to be hanged, drawn, and quartered.

Any machine capable of self-improvement would be, all but metaphysically, a God.

It's still a machine though. It was programmed to act the way it does and will always be like that. Think about how in Fallout 3 (yes, using video games) where you can argue with President Eden that he's just a product of the  fallacy of circular logic, or circular reasoning as to what it's known as

Everybody seems to be missing out on the fact that an artificial intelligence capable of re-writing itself would be, by definition, capable of out-competing humans in almost every single way.