Physicist Says Humans Won't Be the Top Species by 2045

When I read the headline that a scientist said that human beings will lose their grip on the number one spot on Billboard's Top Species Chart in 31 years, I began to wonder.

What's going to replace us? Lions, tigers,...emus? Oh my.

Turns out it's not going to be something I, personally, would even call a species.

I--and that physicist, Louis Del Monte--call them machines.

Yes, in 2045, Del Monte predicts that artificial intelligence will have advanced enough to consider us humans as threats...much the same way that WE regard poisonous animals.

Now, if you have visions of Terminators dancing in your head, think again. The good professor doesn't see it happening that way. He sees humans becoming cyborgs--creatures/people that are part machine, part human being.

And, in my opinion, that is either incredibly advanced hypothesizing OR he's late to the game.

Cyborg is actually the title of a book by Martin Caidin that was published in 1972 and later adapted for television in the 1970s as The Six Million Dollar Man.

Of course, that story's protagonist, Steve Austin, and Jaime Sommers from the spinoff series The Bionic Woman, were not controlled by their mechanical arms and legs.

Nor does our good friend Jason Koger cede control to his bionic hands.

But, to be fair, that real example and the two previous fictional examples are not what Del Monte means. Those are medical reasons for mechanical limbs or appendages.

He believes that humans will become cyborgs by choice, in the interest of immortality.

It's a fascinating theory, I suppose. And there's no way to say he's wrong; he's making a prediction.

I guess this is what happens when you leave brilliant scientists alone too long.