“Hmm, I see what you mean,” someone mumbles politely when you finish speaking. Otherwise, the mirthless smiles and the awkward silence that follow your contribution tell you that you are the only one impressed by your own ideas.

You nod with a mix of agreement and embarrassment as other ideas fly around the room, making your earlier contribution look like a dying oil lamp in a room flooded with light from halogen light bulbs.

Each time you had shared your thoughts in this conference years ago, it used to be that you dusted cobwebs off everyone else’s thoughts. It was you who brought clarity to confusion. You were the man with ingenious ideas. Now, every other person in the room is smarter.

Has your intelligence suddenly dwindled?

Certainly not! It’s only that you got stuck in Year 2024, and everyone else got augmented.

They all have undergone “IES”- Intelligence Enhancement Surgery.

Everyone who can afford a car can afford to get an AI chip implanted in their brain by a neurosurgeon, taking from them 60% of what it means to be human and replacing it with machine. With AI supplanting natural intelligence, everyone is smarter than Google and encyclopedia combined.

You are in a room where everyone else is just 40% human, and it is Year 2042.

Oluyemisi Oladejo is a doctoral student and Graduate Instructor in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida, U.S.A. A Fulbright alumna, she has earned multiple prestigious national and international recognitions across literature and education spaces. Oluyemisi is also a published author of both fiction and nonfiction works. Her research interest spans girlhood and international education, and she is committed to advancing equity through scholarly inquiry and storytelling.