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The end of the world as we know it is near (not a joke or a prophecy)

Western Civilization, now technologized and globalized, already has an expiration date: it will disappear in the coming decades and it will be replaced by a meta artificial intelligence (Meta-IA) in control of the planet, while each human being will live enclosed within his/her own techno-bubble, according to recognized experts. And what they say makes sense.

As we said above, this topic is neither a joke (it is based on reports by renowned experts) nor a prophecy (it is based on a future that is already emerging in the present, not on a projection from the present to the future).

According to the futurist Thomas Frey, from the Davinci Institute (near Denver), around the year 2040, there will no longer be a "common knowledge" (what could be called, as it was called before, "common sense", but that expression is now dilapidated).

In a report published last March, Frey said that "each person will live within their own hyper-individualized experience." Because of the lack of common knowledge, "virtually no one else can relate to their upbringing." Frey calls it the “divergence of human experiences.” Each of us will live a life separated from all others.

At the same time, the recognized expert in new technologies Shelly Palmer presented in his column last weekend a similar situation: the "Great Decoupling", which basically (that is, in a very simple version) means that human beings they will "disconnect" not only from each other, but also from the planet, and, because of that, a Meta-AI will take charge of controlling the artificial intelligences that in turn control humans.

According to Palmer, it will be a future of "useless humans, conscious, but not intelligent", controlled by a planetary artificial intelligence that may or may not become self-conscious.

Be that as it may, what once served as the basis of Western civilization, that philosophical or metaphysical unity which 2500 years ago Heraclitus called (in Greek) logos (something like "significant foundational connection", which may or may not to be perceived), is what is being lost, if we properly understand the "divergence" of which Frey speaks and the "decoupling" of which Palmer speaks.

And they can add several other experts with similar warnings about dystopian futures, including Yuval Noah Harari, in Homo Deus (intelligence separated from consciousness) and Otto Scharmer, in Leading from the Emerging Future (triple social, ecological and spiritual disconnection.)

The (Greek) logos that at some point became philosophically and existentially so important that early Christians recontextualized it and placed it at the center of its message ("In the beginning was the Logos") is dissipating as quickly as the disappearance of human intelligence and human consciousness.

Without that fundamental foundation, all the structures subsequently built on that basis will crumble, exactly as we are seeing it and living it today. If going back to the past is not an option, staying in the present is impossible, entering the new future is frightening, what should we do? Maybe we should reread Nietzsche, who, after all, was not that wrong.

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