Perhaps technological development always follows a similar path for every civilization, everywhere in the galaxy. When a civilization’s technology reaches a certain level, it becomes easy to engineer a self-improving artificial general intelligence. Yet, at that point, the obstacles to making it safe remain insurmountable. Even if the danger is widely understood, someone (some blob, some hive, or whatever) somewhere on the planet in question is bound to make one. After that, everything is paperclips, so to speak. All is lost.
