IBM’s supercomputer Watson made history recently when he became the first robot to defeat human contestants on the game show Jeopardy.

Watson, a marvel of technology as he quickly and simultaneously formulated math algorithms into coherent answers, raced against the split seconds those synapses take to connect in the human brain.

Is this only the beginning of robots dominating humans? The duel is taking to the stage soon in an opera.

The Chicago Opera Theater will present Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers at Millennium Park’s Harris Theater next month, where robots and other technology will raise some of these questions about the future of humans versus machines.

The opera tells the story of Simon Powers, a man obsessed with perpetuating his existence even after the death of his body. In order to ensure his legacy, Simon constructs what he calls “The System,” which allows him to download his memories and his very self in order to remain present in the physical environment after he dies.

Once Simon succeeds in immersing himself in The System, the actor playing Simon is relegated to an off-stage role while the sounds, lights and objects in the opera take on Simon’s characteristics.

“I think it’s speaking to some hopes for the future in terms of how these technologies will eventually give us better abilities — unknown abilities — and extended lives and also a whole set of anxieties that people have about how this will play out,” said Machover, an MIT Media Lab professor, who gave an insider’s view of his opera during a panel discussion at Northwestern University last Wednesday.

In a technique Machover calls “disembodied performance,” software specifically designed for the opera measured singing, gesturing, breathing, muscle movement and other aspects that related to various actors’ performances. These measurements then became translated into the pulsating lights, music and movements of objects on stage as a mechanical representation of Simon himself.

“It’s about representing the subtle things about a person’s presence without them actually being there,” Machover said.

The opera includes a chorus of robots and a musical chandelier, made of Teflon strings and electromagnets, designed to move and change shape with the narrative of the play.

The absence of a human actor in favor of technology is one of the opera’s major themes, besides being a characteristic of the opera itself.

“A lot of people are anticipating this kind of future” where technology replaces humans, said Northwestern biomedical engineering and mechanical engineering professor Malcolm MacIver. “There is a lot of anxiety about these technologies as well.”

Despite the fact that Machover’s opera presents an idea of a future in which our minds can be downloaded, this discussion of the future presents philosophical and environmental problems as well.

Instead of focusing on our immortality, Machover says, we should focus on living our best lives in the present.

“The texture of our lives is not the actions and it’s not the words,” he says. “It’s all of the thoughts and all the parts of thoughts that are in your mind at all times. And that’s to me what the opera is all about. It’s about how ephemeral our lives are and how important it is to try to transmit between people what the essence is.”

Machover’s philosophy is direct. “I’d much rather think about how we can use our skills to enrich the rest of our lives rather than a few of us live forever.”