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.

The Specter at Our Door.

While sitting in my office today, a thought occurred to me.

It’s the year 2020…

• A lethal bio-weapon is plaguing mankind thanks to the Chinese government.
• Men can be women and women can be men.
• Mega-corporations are actively spying on us through our phones.
• Governments around the globe are cracking down on free speech and policing our thoughts.
• A sizable portion of the American populace wants to institute communism.
• We’re now eating simulated meat products.
• Being a proud patriot now makes you a bigot.
• The news media are the last people you want to trust for factual news.
• We can talk to our dead relatives in virtual reality.
• Most Americans are overweight or obese.
• Politicians are openly buying votes.
• Post-modernism has rendered objectivity obsolete.
• We don’t have flying cars, matter transporters, or hyperspace drives.
• Men are competing with women in athletic competitions and utterly destroying them.
• Deep-fake technology can recreate any person ever on video, dead or alive, and you can’t tell the difference.

What the hell happened to us?

You would think that we’d be much farther along in our advancement as a species. Instead, we’re collectively staring down the barrel of a shotgun and about to blow our brains out.

The Specter is at our door. Knock… knock… knock… He wants in. He knows we’re about to end it all. Collapse is imminent. We’re preparing to take the big sleep.

How can we ever hope to come back from this dystopian nightmare?

It would be mighty egotistical of me to claim to have all the answers. I don’t believe anyone does. Walking to the proverbial edge of this societal cliff wasn’t done in a day. We’ve been stepping closer and closer to the edge for decades. A step here; a step there. It’s been a gradual state of decay, one mistake at a time. You can’t notice it in the short term; it’s too incremental. When you have decades of life experience, the changes become more noticeable though. We lost ourselves along the way. We gave too much ground to the dissidents, the degenerates, and the detractors.

We stopped having the courage to say “no” when we needed to put our foot down.

If we’re going to turn the Specter away, we must take measures to right the ship. Correcting the missteps we made along the way starts with acknowledgement. If we can’t recognize that we’ve screwed up, then we can’t begin to remedy anything. I believe that’s where we start – with the objective assessment of the damage done in our own lives. I would ask each of us to earnestly consider this topic, then ponder where to go from there. The only way off the edge is for each of us to start stepping in the opposite direction.

Humanity Is Crippled By Fear.

I sit alone in my home this evening. There's no one but my dogs to keep me company. My thoughts this evening turn to notions of mankind. What drives us? What makes us tick? Where are we going? How are we to ever survive the future? Most importantly, how are we to ever survive each other? It seems fear drives a great deal of what we do. We're afraid that foreigners will terrorize our cities. We're afraid of losing our homes, our loved ones. We fear being unloved. At the heart of it all, I believe we're most afraid of our own self.

Fear is a powerful tool; it's one that's been employed by tyrants and barbarians for countless thousands of years. Fear makes a man do something he wouldn't normally do, even when there's little at stake. We stop at red lights out of fear of being struck by another vehicle. The consequence of being burned by fire is another tangent of fear. In many cases, fear can be a positive thing. It keeps us from making repeated mistakes. Fear also makes us abuse our children. It can turn a loving husband into a jealous control freak. Fear can make us stick our head in the sand. It's funny how fear possesses multiple faces, much like a harlequin with a new mask for every performance.

I'm intrigued with the human condition, in so much as how it works with exploration. Mankind used to be very eager to break the bonds of this planet. We put men on the moon. We sent probes beyond our own solar system. Our desire to explore the outermost reaches of our own universe were once a driving force in technological development. Yet, here we are in 2015. The most highly anticipated piece of technology is the Apple Watch -- something none of us need. I'm deeply saddened at how mankind has taken two steps back from the future. What are we doing? Shouldn't we be thinking about expanding mankind's grasp of our universe? I realize Earth is our home, but just as birds, we can not stay in the nest forever. At some point, we must stretch our virgin wings and fly from the nest, seeking a new life. There's only a limited bank of resources at our disposal on this planet before we run out of options. I don't want to wait until the last possible moment to develop a strategy for future survival. The time to explore is now. Let us leave no star unseen, no distant planet untouched. Earth isn't just our home -- the entire universe is our home.

The only thing prohibiting mankind from sailing the vastness of our universe is fear. We're afraid to evolve our mindset, our field of scope, our willingness to think outside the box. Why couldn't we construct a terradome on the moon and establish a space colony? We have the materials at hand to withstand the diminished atmosphere of the moon. Supplies could be transported there, though admittedly the journey would be arduous. Yet, what ever came from not accepting a challenge? Are we not human beings? Are we not capable of overcoming adversity? Where is our sense of bravery?

Fear. I say to you again. Fear.

Fear chains mankind to the past. Courage is the key that unlocks our future.

Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance.

- Arnold H. Glasow (1905 - 1998)

Merge with the universe.

Hovering in open space, surrounded by glowing ribbons of cherry red, plum and teal; I take one look down. And I fall...

This is the beginning of a reoccurring dream (both day and night) that I've had for as long as I can remember. It doesn't take place on a building, or even on this planet. Instead, I'm free-floating in the universe. There's no one else around; I am alone.

I find myself looking around at all the universe has to offer. The infinite colors and shimmering stars are the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. As I begin to fall (though you technically can't fall in space, but you understand what I mean), I steadily pick up speed. The galaxies of vibrant light begin to twist and morph. Faster, faster, faster - I go forwards with voracious velocity. My fingers reach out and cause the stardust to ripple. Eventually, my trip seems to enter a tunnel. Colors and shapes have lost their meaning; everything is a blur. My body feels lighter and less dense. I can feel my own body... my essence... begin to merge with the universe.

Faster.

Faster.

Faster.

At this point, I feel as if I'm not moving at all. My speed has become so rapid that it's as if I'm floating at a standstill. My body doesn't seem to be present. The universe and I have become one. I can look at myself, but there's nothing there. All the while, I still don't know exactly where I was traveling to.

And that's where the dream ends.

I've had this dream while riding on a school bus, sitting in a doctor's office, driving a car, watching television, swimming in a pool, etc. The list of places I've had this day dream is lengthy. If you ever see me in person and I'm staring away blankly, then you can assume I'm probably in this dream.

My dream of journeying through space is always the same. I never find out where I was traveling to, much to my disappointment. As of late, I've been experiencing this dream quite a bit. At times, I can activate the dream depending on my mood. More often than not, the vision just happens.

The strange part? The older I get, the more this feels like a memory and less like a dream. With certainty, I've been there before at some point in my existence.

I believe this vision relates to my personal transhumanist ideology. My aim is to "upgrade" my body through technological means. You may scoff and say that's nonsense (or at the very least improbable), but I'm very serious. One day, I hope to actually take this trip and see where I wind up.

Unverifiable Existence.

Tonight, you and I are going to think outside of the box for a moment.

Light truly is a wondrous thing. Photons (the quantum units of light) are constantly whizzing past us, faster than anything we can even remotely achieve through current scientific capability. So humbling, this notion is. We can only dream of building an engine that would propel us as fast as light. Yet, could we not treat photons like taxis? Maybe we could 'ride' the light?

Could the secret to light-speed travel literally be right in front of our very eyes? It could be, but this isn't my main point of discussion. As they say in Hollywood, I've buried the lead.

Alternatively, I find the very nature of light to be somewhat deceptive. Why? Because we never see the 'real' universe. I'll explain.

Light travels at a speed of 671 Million miles per hour. To our senses, that's instantaneous. Yet, there is an undeniable microscopic delay. From the point at which light is reflected off an object to where our senses can receive it, there's a gap (albeit insanely small). Because of that 671 Million MPH speed gap, we have no possible way to verify that the object reflecting light is actually as we perceive it. We exist in a world with sensory data that's delayed and unverifiable. The 'real' world only exists within a realm where there can be 'instantaneous' light transmission.

Here's the twist - because the very nature of light can not be 'instantaneous', then the real world is completely dark and not visible. That leads me to one conclusion - the true fabric of our universe can not be seen while inside said universe. The only way to 'see' the real universe that we exist in is to view it from an external vantage point. And what's the only way to leave this universe?

You guessed it -- travel faster than the speed of light.

Concurrently, if one were to shine a light upon anything within our 'real' universe, it would extract that object into our unverifiable existence.

To put it mildly, we exist in the world of 1 ⁄ 299,792,458 of a second ago when our senses are running at optimum capacity.

Let that stew in your mind for a bit. I'll continue this discussion in a coming future post. Stay tuned.