You are a teacher, too, my friend

Artificial intelligence (computers and robots) will eventually replace the human race, the experts say. What we know as “human” will either totally vanish or become as One with (either or both of) the above.

Yep, that’s what those who specialize in studying such things now say. And from all the research I’ve been doing (and whether I like it or not) the evidence I find appears to point to the inevitable outcome that our species will eventually become cyborgs; part human, part machine.

Heck, for many of us that future is already here. For instance, you are already a cyborg - in essence - if you wear contacts, braces, dentures, an artificial knee, or anything else “non-biological” that makes up part of your body.

But even weirder still is the strong possibility that our minds will be capable of being fully downloaded onto computers, so we could then live for eons - as artificial intelligence (not in biological form as we are now).

Sound impossible? I wouldn’t bet against it. Knowledge and technology are advancing exponentially by the moment. So far, every technology our species has ever dreamed of we’ve been able to eventually produce (the lever, the wheel and axle, the electro-magnet, the computer, space travel, virtual reality, etc.). There’s no reason to think that the science fiction of today will not continue to become the science reality of tomorrow….as in “all too soon”, tomorrow.

I thought of all this as I pondered an assignment handed to me a couple years back by a 4th grade girl. If one were to grade her work (a summary of our class nature hike that day) strictly by spelling, grammar, syntax, and standard coherence - as likely would an artificially intelligent robot/computer “teacher” - then she would surely receive a very low grade, indeed.