@dwarvenallfather
Dwarves will come back when the environment and the material world change.
I disagree with you about the AI because at the end they are only 0s and 1s who can simulate a lot of our functionalities, specially physical ones, but they lack the capability of replacing humans as they lack consciousness in the sense that we don't operate in binary, there is the quantum effect of the observation effect that create/observe reality. Maybe with quantum computing, things might change.
@dwarvenallfather
I gave the same answer once and it felt like I was wrong, missing something when I said it that I couldn't explain.
I still can't but I don't think we're only physical signals in a closed system, because logically that means everything we do is determined by our internal models and binary biology, which would create everything, like AI, an pre-determined output, effectively disproving the possibility of free will. Yet, I see proof around us there is a degree of free will...
...because our entire universe works on probabilities, there is a random bases along the constant of our universe, a combination of the two.
Also based on this probability, we as conscious beings can create alternatives possibilities, both from the past, we can create a new future in our forecasts (inside our minds) therefore creating time itself as it's only real since we're around to perceive it. There's a good video about it that I enjoyed it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEo6eN9ZVnM