We will adjust to a new normal

To some extent, being human will mean the same thing in 2035 as it did in our earliest days. AI and robotization are born from our minds, just like the computer before it, the satellite, the television, the printing press, and so on. These are our creations, and we made them because that's what humans do.

Being human has, since the very beginning, always meant projecting humanity onto inanimate things. Think Tom Hanks's beloved Wilson in Cast Away. Being human means constantly searching for the humanity in everything: designing robots — artificial dogs, people, apps—that can fool us into believing in their humanity. AI itself is an extremely human creation, the need to mirror ourselves in the inhuman. That's what makes humans the stranded castaway and AI the volleyball. AI won't make mistakes, and it won't starve to death, but, unlike Hanks, it also won't leave a FedEx package unopened — because that package symbolizes the hope of getting off the island.

Bottom line: We're curious and we create. Disagree with each other. Are spontaneous. Want things. In 2035, it will mean learning how to adjust ourselves and settling into a new normal after our creations alter our lives in some permanent way. After all the time we've been here, after even the ubiquity of AI and robotization, these core pieces of ourselves won't have changed.

Other voices in the conversation:

• Dmitry Glukhovsky, author of Metro 2035: As always, humans will seek God
• Romina Russell, author of Thirteen Rising: Humans will make art
• Annalee Newitz, author of Autonomous: Intelligence is a fragile thing
• Ramez Naam, author of Apex: AI will democratize our future