EVOLUTION'S CHILD

LOOK FOR THE DESCENDANTS OF HOMO SAPIENS IN THIS GALLERY OF
FUTURE FORMS

THE WHOLE EVOLUTION ALMANAC

When the book of evolution is written, what will it say about the descendants of
man? Will the heirs to the human throne be tiny green creatures that feed off
the sun, expansive clouds of cosmic dust, or robots with virtually no organic
components at all? When challenged by the creative force of evolution, our
far-flung progeny might take some innovative forms.

Whatever the outcome, several of the scientists we contacted in search of
evolutionary scenarios said that, thanks to extraordinary advances in genetic
engineering and robotic science, we will have the power to control our species'
fate. Partly because we have begun to take command of our destiny, it would be
wise not to discount any of the fanciful life forms that follow. As the
nineteenth-century British biologist Thomas Henry Huxley once said during a
debate on evolution, "I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of
anything." So today, meet with an open mind some of the potential members of the
family of future man

HIGHER TOUCH

Each finger of the robot creature will have fingers. These fingers, in turn,
will have smaller fingers in a repeating pattern. The metal-and-plastic
creature, a future version of you, will pull in its branches to walk through a
door, then, once in the room, spread out to its full six-foot diameter.

According to Hans Moravec of Carnegie-Mellon's Robotics Institute and author of
Mind Children (Harvard University Press), the fingers of this treelike creature
will have a powerful sense of touch. Gliding over a photograph, these tiny
tactile organs will sense height variations in the developed silver on the
paper. And if the creature needs an eye, it will form it by crisscrossing its
fingers tightly enough to diffract light like a lens.

But the most extraordinary aspect of this immortal creature will be its ability
to simulate human thoughts and capture human memories so precisely that in many
ways it could pass for-indeed, replace-one of us. In the scenario put forth by
Moravec, humans will create this intelligent robot replacement one step at a
time. The creature's dumb great-grandfather, created between 2000 and 2010,
will have the brainpower of a lizard built for grunt work-and no personality at
all. The second-generation robot will learn from experience. The
third-generation robot will run almost instant simulations of every task you
assign it, executing intricate instructions with ease.

By the turn of the next century, Moravec adds, the fourth-generation robot-the
high-touch "fingerbot"-will be smart enough to build replicas of itself and to
fashion a spacecraft to the stars, These highly intelligent robots, capable of
thinking much like us, will begin a trek across the cosmos, leaving the Earth as
a human preserve.

At this juncture, says Moravec, organic, mortal humans will want to transfer
their thoughts and feelings-indeed, their very essence-into the vessel of the
immortal machine. As time goes on, Moravec adds, humans will meld with their
lab creations so that they never die.

Human and machine, predicts Moravec, will merge into one with the help of a
skilled robot surgeon. The surgeon's job: transferring brain function layer by
layer into a machine and then excising the now-useless biological tissue from
your body*. These human-robot hybrids, Moravec adds, won't all have to look
like a bush with a trillion fingers. Instead, you'll pick your own body style,
gearing it to the environment and your personal aesthetic taste.

Moravec has found that his idea raises fears, and wonders why. "What is it
about this body of yours that's so incredibly important?" the senior roboticist
says. "If it were killed and an exact robotic substitute put in its place, your
friends wouldn't miss you. Your family wouldn't miss you; none of your projects
would miss you. So nothing would miss you. You'd be dead, so you wouldn't miss
you. So who cares?"