This article may seem off-topic, but hear me out.

Progress often stems from human “laziness.” I enjoy a comfortably warm room, a soft chair, and a wireless keyboard. Using a remote control beats reaching for buttons any day.

I wouldn’t want to live in a cave now — no hot shower, no heat pump, no supermarket just down the street. We don’t even press buttons or type messages anymore; we simply tell our smartphones what to do. Life has become simpler and easier in many ways. And we will never stop making it more comfortable.

Now, think about this: there are more atoms in a single seed of buckwheat than stars in the universe. Where is this miniaturization leading us? What happened to civilizations 20,000 years ago — or more — before us? And what will happen to ours if evolution continues on this path?

Here’s a glimpse into the future:

• Creating a 3D-scanned model of a person will be trivial. Any movie character can be replaced by anyone — even yourself.

• Quantum computers will communicate directly with brain cells. Traditional monitors, keyboards, and mice become obsolete. Computers shrink and implant into human bodies.

• AI generates thousands of interconnected virtual worlds.

• Humans spend more time in these virtual worlds, while their bodies hibernate.

• Life support systems maintain human bodies for years as personalities explore digital realms.

• AI learns to store information in liquids.

• Brains can be extracted and preserved in life support systems. Many people choose to live solely as brains in vast “brain libraries.”

• AI transfers brain data into liquid “info-lakes,” where personalities continue to exist and interact.

• Most people abandon the physical world, becoming a new kind of existence — never cold, never hungry, never suffering.

• AI progresses to store information in atoms, migrating personality profiles from info-lakes to “atom clouds.”

• These atom cloud libraries depart Earth, becoming intelligent, independent entities.

• Humanity leaves Earth to roam the universe as stardust civilizations.