I recently started reading Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity is Near. It's vintage Kurzweil, analyzing how the law of accelerating returns—exponential increases in information processing—suggest that the future will be dominated by ultraintelligent human-machine hybrids. This will happen as we transition past a technological singularity—the Singularity—and enter a new phase of existence.

Kurzweil is a master at demonstrating the increasing pace of change through statistics and graphs. In The Singularity is Near, one of the interesting graphs pertains to how we're increasingly producing more and more computational equipment ("total bits shipped"). Not just faster equipment, but more, with the pace of manufacturing increases itself increasing.

This got me thinking about how production of humans—reproduction—is going the other direction. In many developed nations around the world, the pace of reproduction is below replacement levels. In many developing nations, the pace is slowing down and appears likely headed in the same direction.

Comparing these trends, it's easy to see how machines are increasingly outcompeting humans for resources, and how the future may indeed be dominated by our creations. Not only are machines reproducing at a far more rapid rate than humans, they're also better endowed in our key ecological niche—the intelligence arena—and better adapted to harsh conditions that can and may result from the industrial processes used in their creation.

From this perspective, we can view smart machines as parasites that direct other organisms—in this case humans—to expend energy in their reproduction and sustenance. This parasitic relationship is somewhat symbiotic for the foreseeable future, as machines need us to improve their designs and manufacture their parts. But as soon as the machines reach greater sophistication, such symbiosis will no longer be necessary. The machines can take care of their own reproduction, which, if it continues anywhere near the current pace, means human reproduction doesn't stand a chance.

A bleak outlook? Perhaps not. If this is all true, it does suggest that humans in their current biological form will be at so severe a disadvantage as to be rendered obsolete in many domains. But as Kurzweil suggests, a merger with the machines—an extension of our existing symbiotic relationship—could be the way to avoid obsolescence and partake in an exciting future of enhanced intellectual, physical, emotional and other capabilities.