Life Has Become a Repetitive Cycle of Monotony

For the average wage-slave, life is, and has always been, more or less a work-eat-sleep existence with occasional intervals of "play" thrown in to make the daily grind seem somehow worthwhile. The only difference between us, and say a cat,  is that they don't have to struggle so much; unless, of course, they are hunting for their food--but then that's also pretty much like play for them.

The human animal, however, is not as fortunate as the cat. At least not the majority who don't have dream jobs, or weren't lucky enough to be the offspring of robber-barons, royalty or some other sort of elite group that gained their wealth through nefarious means somewhere down their ancestral genealogical line.

But enough about cats and dogs...

Look at the daily life of most people in this 18th year of the 21st Century. Beyond the struggle and injustices and the high cost-of-living, to what people just do with most of their time. --And let's forget about the monotony of work for a moment and look at the other side of life.

People are tethered to a smartphone for the justified reason of staying in touch and being safer (by being able to call for help). An argument that doesn't carry much weight, since in the short period of time in which they have become commonplace, most people are far from being safer. Quite to the contrary, each year violent crimes, wars, terrorism, and man's inhumanity toward man has progressively gotten worse.

What the smartphone does represent is our connection to the internet and social media, or more precisely, A.I.

A.I. exists to gather as much information about people and their activity as it possibly can. This data is then used to create demographic profiles that various algorithms can use to affect people's behavior. Whether to influence someone to purchase something, embrace a political ideology, reinforce a held-belief or act out in a certain way. The code is self-replicating, self-correcting and self-enhancing. It is constantly learning; and in fact, it is already way beyond the capabilities of human intelligence. It is now involved in predictive behavior, behavior modification, and social engineering.

But what does any of this have to do with the monotony of life? Because we have become data entry terminals for a synthetic intelligence that now runs practically every aspect of our lives. We have become the machines.

Quickly now... The year is broken down into 12 months. More or less each month has its holiday(s)... New Year's Eve, MLK, Jr. Day, President's Day, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas (and all of the religious holidays for every possible sect there is).

Each holiday we post the same greetings, maybe worded differently; or like on Instagram, we re-arrange the same items in a different fashion with maybe a different background or new photographic effect. For what reason? A feedback loop of acknowledgements and likes that release dopamine in the brain.

Every day, whether it's a  holiday or not we perform the same repetitive activities. Instead of living in "the now" or "the moment," we snap a picture of it, or post or tweet about it. In effect, we feed the "hive mind" by providing more and more data, in more and more ways, rather than experience anything truly first hand.

I know that cognitive dissonance is setting in for some people at this moment, but I don't care. The fact is that our lives are becoming nothing. We are becoming nothing. We just repeat the same activities over and over and over and over.

So who cares? I do. And if you do, there is something that you need to do today. You have to break out of the repetitive cycle and do something completely uncharacteristic of yourself. And then at least once each week, try to do something else new, different--even maybe something that seems ridiculous.

By doing this, you will break some of the neural pathways that have been forming in your brain due to the repetitive social media activity, and you will begin to see (and experience) life in a whole different way. The difference will be nothing short of turning a black and white image into color or a pixilated video into high definition.

Suddenly you will see things the way they are, and as you participate in social media, you'll see the absurdity of those caught in the feedback loop versus those who are merely communicating.

In conclusion, there is no conclusion. Our lives have become surreal, we live in a dystopian society and the algorithms rule the world. It's just a lot better when you are aware of what's going on; especially as the great A.I. gains more control. I mean, it's already messing with us big time, and the hell if I'm going to let it screw me over any more than it's already doing.

Good luck!