What will the future look like? Futurists have been pondering this particular question. A few things seem plausible. First, robots and artificial intelligence may take over our jobs, making us obsolete as workers. Machines and computers have already taken over many jobs. Until now, new jobs have replaced the old ones. These new jobs were more complex so that machines couldn’t do them. However, artificial intelligence may be able to perform these tasks far better than us. Artificial intelligence is a computer programme that can learn like a human, but much faster. Artificial intelligence may soon take over many remaining jobs and make all the decisions for us. As a result, we may have a lot of leisure time, or be terminated for being outrageously resource-inefficient useless eaters.
In a few decades, we may no longer be driving our cars. We tell them where we want to go. Our cars plot a route, bring us there, and keep us safe. Perhaps it will be forbidden to drive yourself when human drivers cause more accidents than self-driving cars. In the 1980s, when I was a teenager, and Knight Rider was a popular television series, it was science fiction. Today, the technology is already there. Artificial intelligence may soon make other decisions as well. We may still decide what we want, for example, what kind of book we like to read, but algorithms decide the specifics. And you might even be happy with it because artificial intelligence knows better what you desire than you do. That is when humans succeed in taming artificial intelligence and making it serve their purposes.
Some people fear that computers and robots will take over the world, controlling or destroying us. Computers and robots don’t have a will of their own. but neither do we. Traditional computers operate according to their programming, but artificial intelligence thinks for itself like us. It learns and can become more intelligent than we are. We allow smartphones to take over our lives, but this is not what smartphones want to do. Humans have designed apps to be addictive, so we do what the programmers want us to do. And we are lazy, so we allow algorithms to decide for us. In this way, artificial intelligence will take over. Emotions and desires have a biological origin, so computers and robots don’t possess them, but artificial intelligence can simulate them and come to resemble us.
Alternatively, humans may enhance themselves with biotechnology, cyborg engineering and information technology. These beings are also no longer human and can be referred to as post-humans. They might still be like us in many ways because we think that our inner selves are precious. And so, we are unlikely to alter our inner selves, even if we can. These post-humans may live very long lives while artificial intelligence handles decision-making. And so they have a lot of time on their hands, and boredom may be their biggest challenge. That may also apply to artificial intelligence, if it is like us, which it might be, because humans created it. That brings us to the third option. These post-humans may create games and imaginary worlds that simulate human civilisations for entertainment. If the technology becomes cheap, there could be billions of virtual universes for every real one, and we live in a virtual reality ourselves.
Latest revision: 25 September 2026
Featured image: Dead Sea Scrolls – part of the Isaiah Scroll. Public Domain.
1. Are You Living In a Computer Simulation? Nick Bostrom (2003). Philosophical Quarterly (2003) Vol. 53, No. 211, pp. 243-255. [link]
