At the turn of the millennium, I get asked one question over and over: What's going to happen to us? How will we change, as humans, when science and technology advance over the years and the centuries?

The only honest answer is, I don't know; but I am willing to stick my neck out and make a prediction in one specific area: we will all become, more and more, cyborgs.

A cyborg is a human being, changed to improve or restore body functions by the addition or replacement of man-made parts. Almost everyone reading this is already a cyborg in one or more ways. Are you wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses? Do you have dental fillings, or a crown on a tooth? Are you perhaps wearing a hearing aid, or a pacemaker, or is one of your knee, hip, or shoulder joints artificial? Has part of a vein or artery been replaced by a plastic tube?

If your answer to any of these questions is yes, then you are part cyborg. Admittedly, these are cyborg additions at the most primitive level, but we already have the technology to make much more versatile and radical changes to ourselves.

Let's consider a few of the easy ones. First, we can make an artificial eye lens containing miniature motors, sensors, and a tiny computer. The lens will adapt, as a human eye lens, to changes in light levels and in the distance of the object being viewed. Near-sightedness, far-sightedness and astigmatism will become history. As the human retina ages, or light levels become low, the lens can also boost the contrast of scenes to compensate. Everyone will have eyes like a hawk, able to see with great clarity, and eyes like a cat, able to see well in near- dark. Last night, driving an unfamiliar winding road through heavy snow, I would have given a lot for a pair of these future eye lenses.

At first, of course, such things will cost a lot - millions of dollars for the prototypes. But, like hand calculators or cameras, once they are in mass production prices will fall dramatically. The main cost will be the one-time installation charge.

Suppose that your eyes are excellent, and you have no need for cyborg eyes. What about your hearing? Today's hearing aids, despite the claims made for them, are rotten. They don't give directional hearing, and they can't separate what you want to hear from background noise. The next generation of hearing aids will also contain tiny computers. They will be invisibly small, provide full stereo directional hearing, and boost selected sound frequencies as necessary. They too will be expensive at first, but manufacturing costs will drop until they are cheap enough to throw away rather than repair.

Your ears and eyes are in fine working shape, you say, so you don't need cyborg help? Very well. Here are a few other third millennium optional additions. You choose any items that appeal to you.

Peristalsis control, to provide perfectly regular bowel habits. A sleep regulator, which can be set to make you fall asleep or awake according to your own preferred schedule. A general metabolic rate regulator, boosting or lowering body activity levels to match the situation (or the level of a partner; we probably all know couples who wage constant war over setting the thermostat). A blood flow controller, solving any possible problems of male impotence. A vocal cord monitor, which adjusts your rough shot at a note so you sing exactly in tune. Built-in computer chips, to provide instant answers to arithmetic and logical questions of all kinds.

If this list worries you, and you say, isn't there a danger that devices like this will sometimes be abused or misused? I reply, can you think of any piece of technology that sometimes isn't?

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