I'm not at all following what tall poppies and getting rid of doctors has to do with my view that we're not likely to choose whether machines start giving us orders, but rather to just find ourselves in that situation and with few other options in the nearish future. I'd liken it to the invention of the state, more than anything else, and similarly practically-unavoidable once the advantages are made clear. It's just something that'll happen to us as a result of competitive forces soon after it's made possible, not some deliberate choice we're all going to make collectively, let alone individually.

... either that or all this machine-learning and "AI" development stalls out and we never get much better at it or anything like it. I guess that could happen, too. Doubt it, but you never know.

What "stupid fear"? I'm not even sure it's a dark future, and, as I expect is now clear, I don't really think my or anyone else's opinion on that would affect whether it happens, anyway. It's either possible and so (damn near) inevitable, or not, so won't happen. What I don't think it is, is any kind of choice we're going to make.