Biosphere will one day be replaced by technosphere

• No one will be able to stop global warming
• New forms of intelligent beings will be developed in 21st century

I am now nearly 90 and in my lifetime I have seen and heard the world changing so fast that homo sapiens (Latin: “wise man”), the species to which all modern human beings belong, are changing into a technology-dependent sub species, . Homo sapiens is one of several species grouped into the genus Homo, but it is the only one that is not extinct. This is explained in human evolution.

Forty years back at a lunch table discussion with my son, who was studying biology at Advanced Level classes, I tried to explain that the human body was a very inefficient structure in evolution. I believe Homo sapiens and its purpose is to advance through intelligence, but its very own existence depended on a very primitive way of absorbing and transforming energy to run the biological body that decays fast. 

This was my thinking when describing the process of the digestive system and the amount of waste the whole process takes today to absorb a calorie of energy, I was of the opinion that one day an evolved human being would be part machine and would take an energy pill (tablet) to run the body much more efficiently.

I am aware that technology has now developed to replace human tissue and body parts and it is a matter of time that the biosphere will one day be replaced by technosphere to adapt to the changing cosmos patterns. A biosphere is an ecosystem or the regions of the surface and atmosphere of the earth or another planet occupied by living organisms whilst technosphere is the part of the environment where techno diversity extends its influence into the biosphere. In biological terms technosphere is known as anthroposphere where part of the environment that is made or modified by humans, which can be called hybrid too.

Global warming is one area that has made much attention to all of us and other living things. Recently it was reported that corals across the oceans are disappearing due to increase of sea temperature. I have always said that my home town where I was born, Hikkaduwa, is no more today. No one in today’s generation has seen what the actual Hikkaduwa was and its biodiversity 80 years ago when I was a child.

According to science, global warming will continue to rise; we humans are only part of the problem that accelerates the issue due to the inefficient burning of earth’s resources. As the sun gets older it gets hotter and the planets around including earth will continue to be blasted and roasted with stronger energy beams.

It is estimated by scientists that the current lifespan of the biosphere is around another 100 million years, which will have a number of changes as we are witnessing today. To survive this change the modern Homo sapiens will have to use technology to evolve and that is where, robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will create new species that could adapt to cosmological changes that will change our biosphere. (The science of the origin and development of the universe.)

I believe the 21st century is becoming that turning point of humanity as it has to adapt to change to its own creations and natural creations. The biosphere will one day be replaced by technosphere and new forms of intelligent beings will be created among us to travel into deep space.

(The writer is a retired consultant surgeon. Internet has been used for research.)