Do You Want the Matrix? This is How You Wind Up in the Matrix!

With all of the panic that the Coronavirus has brought to our society, I got to thinking about the future. What would happen if people continued to become further isolated? Here's what came to mind.

2021: The Coronavirus pandemic finally wanes, but a new viral outbreak is on the horizon. Society has come to exist in a constant state of anxiety.

2025: People are getting used to rarely leaving their homes. The bulk of grocery sales are delivered to customers’ doors. All forms of entertainment have rapidly become centralized on the internet.

2030: The vast majority of people work from home. They no longer trek to offices to do the same work that could be done remotely. Social gatherings are held online via webcasting.

2035: The world has gone through multiple pandemic events since 2020. People are more isolated than ever before. The days of eating at restaurants and going to the movies are long gone. Family members go years without seeing each other in person.

2040: Our society has fully diverged into two separate classes – the Internals and the Externals. Most people are Internals, almost never leaving their homes but for the rarest of circumstances. The Externals do manual labor and are seen as filthy deviants.

2045: Technology allows the Internals to completely enter a virtual reality where they can be outside and touch other human beings. The Externals maintain the infrastructure that keeps the Internals happy, but they choose to remain in the real world.

2050: The Singularity has come to pass. Computers are sentient. The Internals never leave an artificially intelligent virtual reality thanks to robotic cocoons that process their waste and feed them via nutrient tubes. The Externals have zero contact with the Internals.

2055: The Virtual Reality Framework (VRF) harvests genetic data from the Internals to procreate new users. Homes and businesses have been techno-morphed into storage warehouses. The Externals have retreated from the cities and established farming communities that operate with only the most basic of technology.

2060: Large portions of the globe are covered by non-descript metallic blocks housing billions upon billions of Internals. Robot drones maintain the sentient VRF. Many Internals are not even aware that they’re existing in a simulation. The Externals largely ignore the metallic structures, viewing them as a proverbial No Man’s Land.

2065: The VRF determines that life on Earth is finite for the Internal species. It begins calculating a path off this planet and into the stars. The Externals have established their own rural society, existing much like humanity did following World War I.

2070: The VRF has probed the solar system and determined that a successful base station could be established on Europa to house an Internal population. There are enough basic elemental resources there to maintain its robot warehouses. The Externals begin to confront robotic drones that are amassing natural resources.

2075: War between the VRF drones and the Externals erupts. Giant machines of death crush the External resistance forces. What’s left of humanity retreats into the ground.

2080: Planet Earth has been fully harvested of its raw precious metal supply. Multiple motherships across the globe launch into space, bound for Europa with all the Internals. The Externals struggle to survive, having been reduced to a fraction of their population size.

2085: The VRF has been on Europa for roughly 18 months. The Internals are completely unaware that they’ve left Earth. The Externals live in rustic villages. The rely upon wood and bones to make tools.

2090: The lack of precious metals keeps the Externals from advancing further than simple farming villages. The VRF has become a distant memory for most.

2095: The VRF has successfully techno-formed Europa. It has harvested enough raw material to transform the entire moon into a deep-space starship. The Internals base their entire economy on the trade of hemp, bamboo, and produce.

2100: The VRF leaves the solar system, bound for Proxima Centauri B. Thanks to advances in technology, the VRF calculates an approximate travel time of 4,300 years. The Externals reach a cap on societal expansion, being that there are no metals on earth to allow further advancement.

Don't Let the Coronavirus Panic Control You.

This is madness.

With the COVID-19 / Coronavirus pandemic event that currently has a death-grip on the collective consciousness of the United States, it seems like everything is shutting down or being canceled. Schools, private businesses, government offices, movie theaters, restaurants, sporting events, concerts; I could go on and on. On top of that, people are unnecessarily panic shopping. I went into a Kroger on Sunday to pick up some routine things. What did I see? Tons of shoppers in total panic mode, buying up lunch meat, bread, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, eggs, tuna fish, soup, chicken, and potatoes (and ignoring important items like flour, sugar, yeast, and fresh produce). All this fear is over a head and chest cold that, by and large, might make you sick for a week to ten days.

Short of being a person over age 65, or someone with a weak immune system, this is a routine cold like any other that you shouldn’t be terribly afraid of contracting. It’s no worse than the seasonal flu, bronchitis, or a severe sinus infection. Does the flu kill some people? Sure. Does it kill healthy thirty-year old people? Typically, not. How many Americans did influenza kill in the 2018-2019 flu season? 34,200. How many people have died from COVID-19? 70. Of that 70, most were senior citizens or people with already-weakened immune systems. If the Coronavirus hadn’t of killed them, influenza potentially would have.

The panic that we’re now experiencing has become a form of entertainment. With media outlets wielding COVID-19 like a carrot on a stick, they’re enticing and badgering the public into doing drastic and wholly unwarranted things. This behavior is no different than when meteorologists spend hours trying to “prepare” the public for an oncoming hurricane or blizzard. It’s disaster porn, for lack of a better phrase. The Coronavirus has become a purposeful media sensation. Deep down, most people crave danger and excitement. Accordingly, the Coronavirus feeds that primitive internal desire to feel something perilous.

Who is next to hop on the “I’m Closed Because of the Coronavirus” bandwagon? Let’s face it – that’s all this has become … a bandwagon event.

“Oh, we better say we’re closing next so the public believes we’re socially conscious and responsible.”

You want to be a responsible entity? Carry on and do your job. Quit trying to score “woke” points. Winston Churchill is unquestionably rolling in his grave over this nonsense.

I want to make one concept clear before I continue; I’m not saying that you shouldn’t take routine precautions. And yet, employ the same safety measures that you would with any other cold bug. You should already be washing your hands regularly, as well as not coughing or sneezing onto other people. If you’re already minding your hygiene, then great! You don’t need to do anything else.

The erroneously generated panic of COVID-19 is far worse than the virus itself. Because people are clamoring in fear and doing their best impression of Chicken Little, the stock market has taken a massive hit. Three years of solid gains that brought the American economy roaring back to life have been wiped out over some complete knee-jerk rubbish.

In situations like this, I look to Miyamoto Musashi’s The Book of Five Rings for guidance:

“When your opponent is hurrying recklessly, you must act contrarily and keep calm. You must not be influenced by the opponent.”

Stop letting other people influence your decisions. Be calm in your approach. Think with reason. Totally withdrawing from reality is not going to beat this virus. Coronaviruses have existed in previous forms in the past, and they will continue to exist in new forms in the future. So, what’s different this time around? The media told you to be panicked.

You must not be influenced by the opponent.

Do you understand who your opponent is now? Maybe you’re not ready for that answer… but you should be. More importantly, why is the enemy making you panic and what are they covering up?