WHEN TECHNOLOGY FINALLY GETS TO A POINT WHERE MACHINES/COMPUTERS ARE SMART ENOUGH TO THINK AND DO FOR THEMSELVES, EITHER THEY WILL BE PERMITTED TO MAKE THEIR OWN DECISIONS, OR MAN WILL RETAIN SOME CONTROL....
THE FATE OF MAN WOULD BE AT THE MERCY OF COMPUTERS/MACHINES IF NOT PERMITED (MAN) TO HAVE A SAY IN ANY OR ALL DECISION..... YOU MIGHT ARGUE THAT MAN WOULD BE STUPID TO HAND OVER ALL POWER. Natrualy it would happen through complacency, machines help with so many things at so many cross pollenated levels that man would just drift into allowing all decision to be made by machines. On a wholesale or Macro Societal level we would especially become complacent and simply allow machines to make the decisions. Ultimately we will get to the point where it will be so so complex that no human would be capable of even approaching the ability to stand in and make a machine decision. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained. In that case the average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite - just as it is today, but with two differences. Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite. Or, if the elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone's physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes "treatment" to cure his "problem." Of course, life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them "sublimate" their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals.