The first definition of humanity refers to a species of animal that scientists affectionately refer to as homo sapiens – or wise person – and that appears to be distinct from all other animals due to its abilities in language, reasoning, creativity, and technology. This biological and evolutionary sense of the word is the same as "humankind," and it distinguishes humans as a distinct life form from other types of animal and vegetative life.

The human race wields immense control over the non-human universe. This is primarily due to our intelligence's consistent invention and deployment of resources and technology, implying that we have come to rule the planet, and our creativity has shaped the world.

We are not a simple species because of our tools; we are still a hybrid species – part human, part technology – in a constantly evolving combination of human and non-human components. Non-human life, such as lions and bacteria, must be enraged by our hybrid humanity, which could easily “take us down” in a fair battle of simple life forms, but who have repeatedly encountered us in hybrid forms in which we combine our humanity with spears, arms, horses, vehicles, vaccinations, and antibiotics.

We deal with a variety of human-machine interactions (HMI) on a daily basis. On a hot summer day, I'm typing on my Macbook Air with an electric fan to keep me cool. Our mechanisation gives us an unfair advantage over non-human life forms, both large and small, which prefer to stay simple in one shape, with the exception of bacteria and viruses, our most dangerous predators, which can change form very quickly.

Our critical hybridity with other animal, plant, and machine life is currently in the early stages of a massive leap into new forms of power that we cannot imagine. Our hybrid humanity is about to grow rapidly in a way that is already transforming what it means to be human, thanks to new biotech, robotics, and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. Today's technologists are concentrating their efforts on simplifying human-machine interfaces – various forms of "dashboards" that use our five senses and understand human gestures to enable our humanity to seamlessly communicate with AI of various kinds.

Technology can not only change where we are now, but also where we can go in the future. Humanity would be enriched in both time and space, as well as relocated through both. Since I'm on Twitter or Skype, for example, I'm already visible elsewhere, speaking and answering in tens of thousands of different locations across time and space. This is in stark contrast to my great grandmother, who could only be seen and active in one place at a time, or in two places at two times when someone far away was reading a letter she had written.