Assume for the sake of argument that conscious beings have existed for some 20 million years: see what strides machines have made in the last thousand! May not the world last 20 million years longer? If so, what will they not in the end become? Is it not safer to nip the mischief in the bud and to forbid them further progress?

Samuel Butler, 1872

(My own answer to Butler's question is "No" for the reason Moravec gave in 1988.)