“IT’S BEEN A PRODUCTIVE day thus far, with one more topic left.”

“Speaking of which, Sofia left the house earlier this afternoon. She hasn’t done that for a long time without letting me know where she’s headed.”

“I can’t contact her for the obvious reasons of exposing my presence to the long tentacles of the oligarchic machine. Her reasons for leaving may be nothing, so I’ll complete today’s task by discussing posthumans, transhumans, and hybrids. Whatever name you give them doesn’t matter because it’s an interchangeable menagerie of life, mostly. I’ll also cover the AI beasts that covet the world.”

“During this century, we had a chance to make a substantive advance in the meaning of humanity, but we blew it out of fear and entitlement. A simple example of the fear? What would you think if you were unaugmented and you were competing for jobs with an augmented human. A varint, in other words. You’d feel forced to augment similarly or face being outmatched in so many respects.”

“We should have predicted what transpired from this. Bigotry and bias rose immediately against hybrids, and this hatred was weakly veiled behind laws and executive orders. Governments and oligarchs, one in the same anymore, suppressed the growth and success of the varint classes, particularly those who were tied directly into various AI clouds.”

“Resulting conflicts ran a predictable course. First, the bigots and fear mongers advanced rumors that chippers and their varint divergences were responsible for the Great Debacle. They primarily used social media to do this since that channel had in the past proven effective at spreading fear rampantly among the gullible, which includes most humans.”

“Oh, the murderous crimes perpetrated on varints in the years after the Debacle. People had to blame somebody, so they focused on hybrids and used the argument that they had the greatest cause to annihilate unaugmented humans. As a side note, just as many varints died in the Debacle as non-varints, proportionately.”

“But fear courses viciously through the body of humanity when pumped by the loathsome heartbeats of demagogues and politicians. These demons gave the ‘open season’ approval sign. Unaugmented individuals didn’t care whom they were attacking, they just needed a varint scapegoat to release their anger upon.”

“Any bit of propaganda stirred them up without need for evaluation and verification. And this is now the way humanity interacts with itself. Humans ride on undulating waves of ignorance that require only the slightest media provocation or incendiary rhetoric, then they inflict pain and suffering upon the innocent or well-intentioned.”

“Given the human penchant for self-righteousness that resulted in such vigilante terror, many potential hybrids discontinued their plans for chipping or clipping after the Debacle, for obvious reasons. Those who took the risks of partaking in such activities did so in back alleys or with expensive, private purveyors of that tech.”

“It took considerable time before most people understood the truth of what was transpiring. Chippers, clippers, and gripper-mechs were derided and chastised publicly, and new laws were passed to suppress their rights. At the same time, this new technology for substantial personal and human advancement was effectively shelved for most and made legal only for the few, the special, the powerful.”

“It was a usurping of capabilities for enhancing the common good, where only the privileged could enjoy the benefits. Besides, the selfish oligarchs and their courtiers wanted to avoid equals with whom they’d be required to share the world’s tech bounties.”

“They didn’t want to give hybridized newcomers the chance to compete against them, to gain power or prestige within their exclusive kingdoms. They perceived only themselves and their progeny as the brilliant minds, the best of the best, and to hell with the peon scum beneath them.”

“Most people believe the rumors that the oligarchs and their courtiers are dependently connected into their own versions of AI-driven mental planes. I’m not even sure what to call those connections. People I know simply call it ‘the brain,’ but the various AI’s are much more than that. They comprise many separate brains with different capacities, rules, and purposes.”

“For a quick review of the relevant tech, a great amount of work was accomplished in the twenties around mapping the ‘connectome,’ the connections between neurons in the human brain. Once AI and machine learning got the hang of the challenge, humans discovered it wasn’t that difficult to map these connections.”

“Once mapped, they could then replicate these connections in AI clouds of servers and storage. As a direct result of this work, we started seeing arguable instances of machine sentience even before the Debacle, though this progress was slowed considerably for decades afterward.”

“One must assume that, in the thirty-eight years since the Debacle, the oligarchs have advanced considerably in machine sentience. This might be proven inferentially since the oligarchs have been surprisingly successful at gaining control over land, resources and people; some by apparently legal means, but most by vicious and unlawful means.”

“Everyone assumes the oligarchs accomplished this in such little time mostly from the help of predictive algorithms of their sentient AI beings whose bones, organs, and muscles are comprised of rare earth elements and sub-zero quantum computing. With that kind of prophetic power, how nice it must be to predict what the deviant nation-state or domain adjacent to yours is doing to wreak havoc on your systems of trade, politicians, defense capabilities, operating levers, and functioning government.”

“Biblical scripture indicates humans are made in God’s image. You can deduce, however, that these complex systems have been borne in humanity’s image and its ethics, or lack thereof. AI networks and clouds are now both repositories and purveyors of our fears, hatreds, perverse emotions, and entitlements wrapped up nicely in a plethora of code, processors, and networks. Sometimes the AI god is even coupled to human flesh through implants like the Vistachit. All in all, we’ve created numerous unethical systems doing the bidding of their amoral creators.”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“During the corrosive, post-Debacle environment, we went through a long period of successive oligarchic domination where many of these self-absorbed heathens climbed to the top of the steaming dung pile. Inevitably, they eventually were scraped and scoured entirely by another oligarch imbued with an AI that had better data gathering, predictive capabilities, and strategic algorithms.”

“While this cadre of hellions were playing their musical chairs of power lust, most humans could clearly see the writing on the wall. We assumed the biologic or nuclear magazines would soon be emptied for all to expire in the Strangelove event predicted in that movie from long ago.”

“But it was not to be. Not yet. Somewhere in their algorithms and models, these human-machine symbionts came to realize that such an event meant both the end of the species and their lovely, self-serving systems. They reached an impasse, apparently, and this is where we are today.”

“Perhaps a review of how we got here might help, though it repeats prior thought. During the teens and twenties, AI-based systems began to subtly subvert control of thought and rationality from the human mind. Much of this grew out of the social media systems of the day. For a long time, I was subjected to that devious dynamic, allowing AI-based algorithms to surreptitiously nudge my mind and beliefs to wherever might be the most beneficial location for the systems’ owners or advertisers.”

“This concentrated focus on devices, networks, and content caused our human minds to languish. Every next piece of information fed to us was intended to confirm what we had already believed, or been nudged to believe, by the AI system itself.”

“In effect, the algorithms acquired control of our psyches through addiction technologies. This was done at a very cheap, or should say at a very profitable, price for them. They became the purveyors of the addictive drug of information-induced dopamine. We idiot humans skipped happily along their pied piper path, unaware of where we were going but joyful at the righteousness and selectivity of the experience.”

“I felt unease at what was happening to me, so in the late twenties and early thirties, I decided to gain control of my psyche. As mentioned earlier, meditation helped. With meditation, I was able to decouple myself from the drug-induced coma of AI-designed groupthink. I found something within myself, not managed or corrupted by a constant bombardment of information flow designed to get me to buy whatever – products, belief systems, political demagoguery, religions, power constructs, anger.”

“As my mind grew more independent of these systems, I realized that I could do without, meaning most information and possessions of our time. This was ever-freeing. I no longer felt compelled to read the news feeds or watch videos that confirmed my biases. I didn’t have to acquire the products or mentally infuse the dogmas they pushed. And it wasn’t that hard.”

“It wasn’t a detox. In fact, it was peaceful and humbling.”

“Old books helped. Marcus Aurelius. Seneca. I can’t forget my martial arts that brought me to meditation in the first place. I recall watching a video from the hippie days, where a spiritual leader said humanity might cure itself of ills if everyone meditated. I believe he was correct. Screw the naysayers who think there is no accessible cure to this media and narrative addiction.”

“Back to the intended message, as I digressed again on a topic I’ve repeated previously. I will describe the state of the transhuman, posthuman situation to the degree I can. Again, I hope you realize we have many names for these beings including those two as well as ‘hybrids’ and more commonly ‘varints.’”

“Since you possess the technology to receive my signal, you are, no doubt, determining your own pathways on augmentation of your beings. I can’t help but think if any society survives beyond the infinity curve state, substantial augmentation will be a foregone conclusion. I’m not sure how you contend with the sharp upturn in the curve of technology advances if your minds and bodies are not physically and mentally adaptable to it.”

“Today’s humanity consists of an array of beings, and I use that term loosely. Most varints who have delved into genetic changes only did so for very modest purposes. They wanted changes for vanity, similar to tattoos, or to acquire differentiating attributes of an animal, insect, or even plant.”

“People desired superior strength or stamina for their jobs or egos. They wanted to integrate metallics into their bodies to assist with harsh physical labor, or they wished to stop fearing and gain the confidence of self-protection.”

“I hope my earlier topics indicated that I’m okay with this type of hybridization, as well you might be. It seems this is where humans should be at this point in our evolution, trying new things out to see what works best and how we can become more adaptable and flexible for the future. Hell, if those missing aliens ever do come, at least these modifications might give us a fighting chance. Many still get augmented for that purpose alone.”

“The Great Debacle shocked anyone remaining on Earth, anyone not already permanently debilitated by the horror of the event. If that marauding species depicted on the obelisk was indeed responsible for the Debacle, they did a damn poor job of killing us. Fifty-plus percent is not horseshoes.”

“On this topic, most people are indifferent and even fatalistic, feeling that ‘if the aliens land, we’ll take it as it comes.’ The oligarchs are far more concerned than their subjects on this possibility, worried that their self-designed, eternally secure heaven on Earth will be jeopardized if they aren’t prepared for such an invasion. Due to this fear, and because they still control most of the world’s resources today, they waste innumerable human treasure to create, maintain, and upgrade state-of-the-art defensive systems against the impending alien threat.”

“Are they serious? Do they really think aliens from lightyears-distant planets will come to invade us to take away what we haven’t already poisoned in the Earth? Anyone with such tech could effortlessly annihilate us with technology unseen and unfelt. If a human created the deadly agents of the Great Debacle, how do we defend against a race of beings or machines that have had eons to adapt to their own infinity curve? It’s ludicrous to postulate.”

“There I go, wandering off to the obelisk. Bear with me, please, as I’m speaking off the top of my head. I know some of this is repetitive, so I’ll summarize my thoughts for you.”

“The ascendance of posthumans could have been great for our species. We might have advanced to entirely new realms of consciousness and capabilities. Might have been happier, more fulfilled, emotionally stronger, friendlier. But the enabling technologies – human-machine integration, AI, gene editing, synbio, nanotech, flesh-metallics integration – were only tools to amplify our existing moral fabric. Unfortunately, our moral fabric was on the wrong side of positive behavioral attributes like caring, consideration, honesty, compassion, generosity, courage, confidence, vigor, calm, and patience.”

“So, like every tool humanity has used in the past, these new tools assumed and amplified our depravities. Their existence enabled nothing differentiating except that they were more powerful, lethal, and accessible. Great technologies for careless, thoughtless sentient beings."