It’s fascinating to consider the possibility of robots becoming as prominent as humans have on Earth; however, if intelligent machines are to become the inheritors of the biosphere, it will occur in a way that will take almost everyone by surprise. We won’t wake up one day to a robot-run planet, but rather, to a planet where we have the option to become robots ourselves. It’s a common mistake to believe that robots with human-level intelligence will just suddenly spring into the picture thanks to Hollywood movies, but long before we have the capability to create artificial intelligence on par with humans, first we will perfect the technology that allows us to augment our own biology.
Once our nanotechnology is sufficiently advanced, we’ll have the option to inject nanobots into our bloodstream where they will interact with our biology at the cellular level. These nanobots would help keep us alive from the inside by combating disease with cellular precision and even reversing the effects of aging. Once we integrate our technology with our biology this will represent the first stage of the “robot takeover” of Earth. Is there a difference between robots taking over the world and robots taking over humans? Perhaps in the beginning. But at what point do we stop calling ourselves “human?” My prediction is that the first total machine intelligence that exists will be the result of a human slowly replacing his or her biology with technology. While gradually “upgrading” body parts over time this person will retain human consciousness, experiencing reality as would any “normal” person, but simply through an enhanced physical medium far superior to a biological body.
So, if a majority of Earth’s population were to undergo such a transition, the world would in effect become controlled by robots. The interesting part of the story is that those robots would have been human at one point. In my view, this shift in human existence will be an inevitable result of the profound technological evolution that has long since overshadowed that of living organisms. The coming merger of man and machine may be called “unnatural,” but what could be more natural than wanting to sustain one’s own existence as optimally and for as long as possible? That’s what life does. Humanity has had the ability to manipulate his environment for thousands of years. We change the natural environment into technology as we see fit and we’re just as much a part of that environment.
Soon, we will take our technology by the hand and let it carry us as fast as it has been moving, and even faster in the decades to come. First, we became masters of our surroundings. Next, we will become master’s of ourselves. Then, we will be true masters of physical reality.
