Computers and telecommunications are already giving us access to large amounts of information. This is increasing our brain power, just as steam engines increased our power. As computers become more powerful they will grow more intelligent. There seems no reason why machines should not become more intelligent than people in the future. Computers will start to design and build other computers. They will then be able to evolve just as life evolves. There will then be two forms of "life". Many thousands of years in the future there might be competition for power between computers and life. Which will win?
Well, computers certainly have many advantages over life. They can:
· process large amounts of information quickly
· be switched off for years, then start to work perfectly when they are switched back on (very handy for travelling over stellar distances)
· be made very small, and control tiny machines
· work together in networks to solve big problems