The thing that really flakes my biscuit about the sci-fi cliche where the robots take over is that Masamune Shirow updated this to reflect computer viruses and nobody else seems to have even noticed. But Shirow did the fucking math. Computer viruses reproduce, act independently, and mutate. They are much further along the path to becoming living things than any other type of software or hardware creation. They are also most likely to move quickly along that path. Obviously The Matrix had a lot to do with Ghost In The Shell, but on the whole this insight seems very under-represented in sci-fi at large.