Can you still remember what happened on an episode of a show you’ve been watching a week ago?

How well can you navigate your own town without a GPS compared to 10 years ago?

How good are you at telling someone what you’re doing for the rest of the week without looking at your phone? How long has it been this way?

When was the last time you went half a day without losing your concentration or forgetting what you were doing?

When was the last time you read an entire book and retained the details from the beginning to the end?

Have you noticed you’re not able to hold eye contact the way you are used to?

Can you have an open conversation outside our social groups?

Did you know that your brain rewires itself constantly?

Have you thought about how much you rely on your phone and the cloud to do basic everyday functions?

Have you considered what might happen if you suddenly could no longer use those services, through hackers, cyber warfare, or natural disaster?

Have you lost your will to actually stand up and do something about this?

Before any change can happen — before we can draw a map and plan ahead on how to build the long road to fix the hole we’ve dug ourselves, we have to have some collective epiphanies.

A global metanoia. It’s not a religious or non-religious thing — It means a change in global understanding. Global self-understanding. It does not seek to strip away everything you hold dear, but it does require putting those things at risk to insure you are on the right path.

It is the sacrifice of the binding of Isaac. It is the willingness to give up the most dear in service to your God. It is a metaphor which transcends the Abrahamic religions, which all share this story. Father Abraham had many sons, and many sons had Father Abraham.

It is the basic requirement at the foundation of these religions. Just like scientists must allow to completely change their views on reality, if a new idea fits our understanding of the universe. Before Copernicus, mankind believed the earth rotated around the Sun. This change in understanding did not happen overnight, of course, it took many years to travel, and to be accepted.

Things have changed.

Technological breakthroughs now happen at such a pace as to make following leading-edge science almost impossible. Yet, we are connected globally, sharing perhaps too much data at unimaginable volumes.

It’s logical to assume that a fundamental change in humanity’s relationship to the universe will happen sooner, rather than later.

Though I feel that this change is happening now, and happening quickly, perhaps that change has not yet begun. But it will.

We have already started merging with the machine. It should be obvious. If you looked through the questions above and thought yourself to have maintained your cognitive independence, do you think the majority of the population is like you?

It’s not that this is the primary cause for concern in itself, but that the programming and systems upon which we rely are themselves incredibly questionable, and programmed by those over which we have little say, and done in secret to profound influence.

It doesn’t matter if there is a conspiracy to control humanity like so much cattle — one can argue that it has always been this way to a degree.

What’s changed is that you have much less choice on whether or not to join the herd. And soon we may not have a choice at all.

There are possibilities looming on the horizon, but now all we need is one thing. One action item. One point of order.

Is this real, and if so, can we please discuss it? That’s it. It’s not a video, it’s not an essay, it’s not a study, it’s not a sermon. It’s a discussion. It’s the need for a discussion.

All we need is to agree we need a discussion on the way all these things are coming together — a discussion that supersedes cultural, ideological, and geographical boundaries.

#Yes2talk