The genus Homo is the only known species to have developed tools that have impacted their evolutionary path. From the chipped and sharpened spearheads of Homo Habilis, to the development of controlled fire by Homo Erectus, onto the conversion of the pottery wheel to a tool of transportation by Homo Sapiens, the effect was to make the individual physically stronger and more productive. When I was young, household appliances were marketed as “labor saving” devices. But the possibility exists that, if labor saving devices become so widespread that the need for physical labor disappears entirely, the Human race might become physically weaker.

The same applies to the intellectual realm. From the proto-abacus of the Mesopotamians to Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine (Ada Lovelace was the first programmer) and onto AI, the individual was enabled to expand their knowledge of myriad fields of inquiry to almost godlike levels. But the comparison to the physical realm above holds. It’s possible for Humans to become so dependent on Machine learning computers that they lose their creativity, curiosity, and imagination. They might be consigned to the fate of the Eloi in G. H. Wells The Time Machine.

As to evolution, it is impossible to do a statistical analysis with a population of one. Hence no one has developed a Universal Theory of Evolutionary Appearance and Extinction. We may well be on the verge of extinction. We may be remembered as the first species to have created our replacement species viz. Homo Machina.