Skynet, the self-aware computers featured in the Terminator movies, is becoming more and more of a reality if a former IBM Chief Scientist is to be believed.

Peter Van Der Made, current Chief Scientist at vWISP based in Western Australia has spent over a decade studying the human brain and understanding how to replicate it in computer form.

He says that computers are reaching the tipping point of learning for themselves, conjuring images of a doomsday scenario not unlike those seen in Terminator and Fallout.

Van Der Maae is formerly IBM's Chief Scientist at Internet Security Systems.

The scientist's new book Higher Intelligence tells the story of a 10-year breakthrough R&D project to build an 'artificial brain' chip that will help computers learn like the human brain.

rest here