Bad news for believers in the "singularity". Instead of accelerating us into a race of cosmic superbeings, our reliance on technology will turn humans into a species of domesticated pets: docile and anti-social.

So says Oliver Curry, a sociobiologist attached to the London School of Economics. A technology-dependent human race of the future will be obese, have weak immune systems, and be incapable of socializing, empathizing or performing team work, suggests Curry [ * ]. A bit like the "Web 2.0 blogger" of today.

He also predicted that the human race will split into two species, resembling the future inhabitants of earth in HG Wells' Time Machine. There'll be an underclass of ugly, dim-witted goblins (the Morlocks), and a eugenically-pure species of intelligent, 7-foot tall beauties (Wells's Elois) - each one doubtless capable of landing a tenured post at the London School of Economics - or making baseless evolutionary predictions at the drop of a commercial sponsor's shilling.

For quite how Curry arrives at his predictions isn't explained - but that's the beauty of sociobiology, you can just make this stuff up as you can go along - turning the result into a projection of your fantasies. In Curry's 7-foot tall uber-race, women's breasts will be "pert", he predicts, and men's penises will be larger.

It isn't clear if he submitted his prediction in the format of a superhero cartoon, helpfully labeling the large-willied master race "Adams", and the forlock-tugging goblins as "those bastards". But considering the sponsor, he didn't really need to

The "study" was conducted on behalf of the Morlock TV channel Bravo - home of Showdog Moms and Dads. ®

Bootnote: We believe we were the first to document the birth of the "Anti-Social Software (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/10/07/six_things_about_the_bubble/page3.html)" movement last year. We just didn't realize how evolutionary- significant it would be at the time.

Related stories

BBC abandons science (27 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/27/bbc_horizon/
Europe holds summit on future of print (23 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/23/print_editors/
MIT opens Junk Science Institute (11 October 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/11/mit_junk_science/
Future hype: the myths of technology change (7 June 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/06/07/future_hype_seidensticker/
The Novelist vs The Futurologist (23 May 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/23/updike_kelly/
People more drunk at weekends, researchers discover (21 April 2006)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/21/amsterdam_blogger_study/
What is Web 2.0? You redefine the paradigm (11 November 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/11/web_two_point_naught_answers/
Develop 'super-human' like powers... fast! (31 August 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/31/spam_superheroes/
How computers make kids dumb (21 March 2005)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/03/21/how_dumb_kids/
Vaulting into a Rapturous techno-future with Jaron Lanier (27 December 2004)
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/27/jaron_lanier_futurist_conference/