Today's Humans, Tomorrow's....Robots?

Last night, my fiance and I went with another couple to see Iron Man 3.  I won't share too much of the story line but it did bring up a thought to me that I considered worth pondering.  With the evolution of warfare, our soldiers are always expected to be faster, stronger, more cunning and more developed in their skills.  There have been developments in uniform with possible cloaking mechanisms and robots have made it possible to avoid soldiers from charging into battle without knowing what or who was waiting.  But what if they were asked to take it a step further?  What if being simply human stopped being enough?

Our imaginations have driven this concept to heights that I am certain our ancestors couldn't have conceived. Artwork and music imagine robots being an integral part in society.  Movies have shared this vision as well with movies such as I Am Robot, in which robots are depicted as being a part of the household.  Robots have even been painted as human's future permanent companion, with studies being conducted on human interaction with "Lovebots."  Perhaps the epitome of the human-robot interaction was most capitalized by the movie series Terminator.  If you have seen these movies, you know that the premise behind them is a future world where humans and robots, that once stood side by side, now battle against each other.

But how real can this be?  Our media and society seem to become more and more wrapped around the concept of robotics and human interaction with robots.  Some of my peers would say this is something to fear and be concerned with.  Ideas and thoughts that the robot that cleans your carpet may be mapping your house or that we and our youth are being indoctrinated and becoming use to robots as it is the future of our nation.  Could we become obsolete and non-essential part of the world?

In the movies of robots and robots soldiers, ideas of a stronger genome of human is introduced.  What if the genetic material of people can be altered to ensure that they can not only resist injury but they can become weapons within themselves?  Are we far from our soldiers being asked to undergo such life altering suggestions?  Consider this: something as simple as a microchip can have great influence over your life.  Depending on how it can be implanted, there is not telling what can be sent, injected or otherwise infiltrated into your system.

I am not trying to have a conspiracy theory.  On the contrary, I am merely bringing up something that I am certain flits across the human psyche at least once in a life, even if just for a fleeting moment.  The idea that we can be replaced, become obsolete or otherwise lose a sense of purpose.  The idea that one day, improvements and predictions of DNA could be made, much like in the movie Gattica and ideal children can be created.  At what point will the quest to perfect what was already made cease?  For now, society has accepted plastic surgery that changes bits and pieces, sizes and heights even.  But what is the next step?

And when will we have gone far enough?