We've actually SEEN this happen a number of times; take the Metrons, the Organians, the First Federation, Trelane, the Talosians, the Prophets, even the Q continuum. Starfleet as a rule tries to be on its best behavior when meeting a new species precisely because you never know when YOU might be the primitives in an encounter, and because they remember from their own history how painful it can be when powerful cultures try to dominate weaker ones. And wouldn't you know it: nine times out of ten the semi-god aliens they encounter have either been openly benevolent or intensely ambivalent; the closest thing we see to malevolence is simply callous disregard for life in favor of, say, scientific curiosity (Naguilem), childish pranks, (Trelane), incredibly childish pranks (Q), or a kind of shallow indifference (the Organians). The only time a powerful "new life form" becomes explicitly malevolent is in the example of Gary Mitchel, who is actually a HUMAN driven mad by the sudden explosion of his powers.
It's a concept I sometimes ponder on my own writings, and Frank/Brian Herbert expanded on: humanity is less likely to be dominated by intelligent machines as it is by evil men using intelligent machines.
) is going on.
. Of course, them being so intelligent, it would again be far more efficient for them to shift to materials that are more plentiful and more durable. The first generation of machines would be wise to design their predecessors out of plastic, or even recyclable bioplast. The point here is, they're machines: they're smart enough and versatile enough to adapt to their environment and unlike humans they are probably not stupid or egotistical enough to delude themselves into thinking they can force the environment to conform to them.
