The age of humanity as we know it's coming to an end. We all remember the scary monotone voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the ' terminator' series. And how does one forget the menacing “agents" from the Matrix?? There are fictional artificial beings with superhuman abilities coming from a world where humans have been replaced by machines as the dominant race. This happens shortly after a Technological Singularity.
Technological Singularity: The theoretical future point of unprecedented technological progress- typically associated with advancements in computer hardware or the ability of machines to improve themselves using Artificial Intelligence.
While the possibility of machines dominating our planet one day is an entertaining notion for us, and an especially profitable one for fiction makers, it has over the years evolved into very serious academic research area. The advances brought out in the fields of artificial intelligence, cognitive science and nano technology bring the possibility of a technological singularity even closer and sooner than we think. 
The creation of the first true artificial intelligence, which analysts put sometime after 2040, will supposedly usher in an unprecedented age in human history.
One of the defining principles of the coming singularity is the law of accelerating returns which states that technological progress happens not in a linear fashion but in an exponential manner.
Most of us are followers of this linear perspective. But the actual rate in advancement is exponential. So what does it show? The human mind is conditioned out of everyday experience to assume that all growth patterns are linear while in fact many are obviously exponential. Take for example Moore's law, which states that integrated circuits will double in performance every 18 months. This single accelerating principle which still holds today, is the reason behind the outburst in internet and mobile phones industry. Almost everything we can imagine in this world today are being explained with the accelerating principle. 
Similar patterns are seen the biotech industry with ever faster and cheaper DNA sequencing and in nanotech industry where ultra-microscopic devices are being developed.
The day when an intelligence ' smarter than human intelligence ' is invented may come sooner than we think as the very base of intelligence is nothing but logical and analytical computations. 
There are two arguments when it comes to the effects that singularity will have on human race. One such arguments is that such event would be catastrophic to humanity with the machines eventually dominating us with their superior mental ability just as we dominate over non humans today. After all, we won't listen to a cat or dog to decide which is best. The other argument, however, seems to be a bit optimistic. Its proponents believe that singularity is truly beneficial to humanity. 
Both are of course just verbal exemplifications and won't be enough to explain the real scenario. We can't actually dispose it with a smile. 
The pace of scientific development is in top gear. We couldn't say that these are all just fictional stories. Innumerable movies such as Terminator, I Robot, and Jurassic park were framed on this platform. Who knows whether the films are the prior judgments of our awaiting destiny?
Singularity used to be a fringe science and technology area had been entirely under the domain of science fiction writers until the past decade. Then the concept began to get closer academic scrutiny and today it is a legitimate field of research on its own. The Singularity University was started inside the NASA Ames research center a couple of years ago. Here graduate students learn everything from nanotechnology, genetics to artificial intelligence, to prepare for a world that is not far beyond. The momentum has also built up for the last couple of years for the development of safe and beneficial artificial intelligence. The Age of Machines has dawned.