A. I.
Artificial Intelligence: Arguably the second-biggest revolution in Earth‘s recent history was that of computers attaining sentience.
Much has been written on the subject (far more in the Humanities than in the Sciences), but very soon after this ‘brain barrier’ was broken, the forefront of most scientific progress lay indisputably in the quantum minds of pure A.I.‘s, A.I.-derivatives, and A.I.-augmented humans. Breaking the brain barrier soon resulted in blurred biological taxonomies, and, for several reasons, was soon followed by a dramatic proliferation in the manifestations of life. Homo Sapiens, (in his natural form) entered a period of long, steady decline, dominating only a few areas of endeavor, mostly in the crafts and performing arts. Interestingly, they remained at the forefront of soldiery.