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The idea of superintelligent machines may sound like the plot of "The Terminator" or "The Matrix," but many experts say the idea isn't far-fetched. Some even think the singularity -- the point at which artificial intelligence can match, and then overtake, human smarts -- might happen in just 16 years. But nearly every computer scientist will have a different prediction for when and how the singularity will happen. Some believe in a utopian future, in which humans can transcend their physical limitations with the aid of machines. But others think humans will eventually relinquish most of their abilities and gradually become absorbed into artificial intelligence (AI)-based organisms, much like the energy making machinery in our own cells.

Once almost all tasks are outsourced to super-intelligence, humans may gradually lose the abilities that once defined Homo sapiens' smarts. In fact, some say the world is in the midst of the singularity already: Humans have already relinquished their ability to navigate, memorize and calculate, said Joan Slonczewski, a microbiologist at Kenyon College in Ohio. Scientists have even developed empathetic robots to do some of the most human tasks -- caring for the sick and elderly. In the end humans may become like mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of the cells. Though mitochondria were once independent organisms, primitive bacteria engulfed mitochondria long ago, and they gradually outsourced all their functions but making energy.