It won't be war, politics or poverty that eventually wipes out humanity.

According to Seth Shostak, our end will come about as a result of designer babies and artificial intelligence.

The outspoken director of the Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Seti) Institute believes developments in these areas will lead to new 'alien' species.

'We can eventually produce offspring that are as different from us as dogs are from grey wolves,' he said in an opinion piece for Seti.  

Bad idea. Humanity has difficulty enough dealing with their current iteration. To read more, click here.