(( Do you think we will become a “collective?”))

That depends on how AI evolves. But the short simple answer seems clearly yes. Nearly every hominid will be to some extent mind-melded with some sort of electronic AI sentience. From that point on, the organic and social evolution of mankind will be under the control of AI purposes and designs. I do not expect that mind meld transformation to happen before human overpopulation triggers an avalanche polar methane release. That’s probably 40-50 years out. I’m guessing among the first major objectives of truly sentient electronic AI would be drastic reduction of hominid population environmental footprint. That wouldn’t necessarily be unkind.

With universal AI sentience, material productivity would hugely increase; so all hominids could in effect be “rich.” If hominids can be packed into private mind-meld high-resolution holodecks that consume say 10 kWh per day, they might not want to venture out much into the actual world. Maybe only one out of a hundred would own a private car. If a personal holodeck chamber brings the universe to the person, why would the person need to go to the universe? As mentioned previously, robotic nuclear power could drive the holodeck system for 10-billion or so hominids. A 5-story residential footprint for all humankind could fit in the state of Ohio. The whole trick of the Borg collective is a technology that converts hominids into organic robots under AI control. Maybe something like that is what China envisions for the future, and that’s why it’s moving 250-million peasants into high-rise cubicles located in industrial centers. While that sounds like highly congested urban centers, if the peasants spend most of their time either at work or in their cubicles, congestion might even be lessened.

I recognize that robots like Atlas will take on jobs that are hazardous to human health. I don’t know how many humans will find themselves without employment as a result but certainly these types of jobs represent a very small percentage of total employment. But I sense that you are trying to make a point about our continuous push to develop robotics and artificial intelligence. If Kurzweil is right this is inevitable. Do you think we will become a “collective?”