Termination, Anyone?

"If trends in computer science and robotics engineering continue, it is conceivable that autonomous systems could soon be developed that are capable of making life and death decisions without direct human intervention," said John Edward Jackson, professor of unmanned systems at the U.S. Naval War College.

This paragraph is from a recent article Drone Wars, Without Any Rules by Dan Froomkin, and now I can't get a familiar movie soundtrack out of my head. Well, maybe not the whole soundtrack, just a few portentous chord sequences......