The Social Singularity
The days of internet hobbyists and hackers is gone---or so I am told, for I never experienced it.
In its place lies humankind's most insidious creation. A wasteland devoid of authenticity and diversity. A desert, save for a few oases who attract all but the most curious.
These oases need the people they attract to stay thirsty--as their shareholders pay top rates for the more people they have--so they feed them drinks that make them thirstier.
Soon the politicians saw the power the oases had gained, and began to capitulate. What if we feed them our drinks, and convince them the other drinks are sour?
The commonfolk become infatuated with their drink of choice. Swearing it was the best, and berating those contrary to them. So the oases provided separate rooms for each drink so the groups could hold civil, albeit cultic, conversations praising their drink.
Occasionally, the oases would send people to the wrong room. What an uproar this would cause! The ensuing frenzy would leave both sides surer then ever that their drink was the superior one, sucking down with renewed vitality.
I left out a few details. Importantly, there are many small dwellings throughout the desert. Numerous, warm, familial holes, belonging to individual owners. They do not commonly own large supplies of water, but instead can entertain you through acts of creativity, ingenuity and invention. Artists and intellectuals!
Some spend their days searching out these havens instead of conforming to centralized sustenance.
Others manage a home for others, furnishing it as they see fit.
Many of them came to a horrific conclusion: they hadn't been thirsty the whole time.
Liquids revealed themselves as repulsive and insulting--a violation of consciousness.
And so they dreamt of a world without liquids or deserts. A mountainous region much harder for survival. The slopes prevented the collection of too many in one place and the cost to bring supplies repelled institutions.
Yet these mountains thrived with diversity. Each climber and house owner having their own stories and exploits, meeting up to provide advice and pass knowledge, but not so long as to fall into stagnation and indolence.
Have you considered climbing? Or are you content in your special room.