The following piece is a thought experiment drawn from diverse influences. It is not an academic paper supported by formal references, but rather a reflection shaped by experience and ongoing study. At times, it may seem like a collection of scattered ideas because it forms part of a larger work that may one day evolve into a book.

For more than 12,000 years, human civilisation has been organised through systems of our own invention: political structures, religions, legal codes, and economies. These constructs, though artificial, provided stability, continuity, and meaning. They gave scattered tribes a collective identity and turned fragile communities into vast, enduring societies.

Today, those anchors are faltering. Some political institutions struggle to govern in a hyperconnected world. Economic models are stressed under the weight of automation and digital disruption. Some religious traditions lose influence in pluralist, globalised societies. Trust in the media is eroding. What is collapsing is not only institutional credibility but also the deeper frameworks that once defined who we were. Humanity now faces a more unsettling question: what does it mean to be human in an era shaped by data, algorithms, and synthetic minds?

Recommendation algorithms on content platforms quietly shape how personal worldviews are built. By curating streams of posts, videos, and news, they generate semi-coherent moral ecosystems tailored to each individual’s feed. In doing so, they reinforce the notion that truth itself is no longer shared, but customised and subjective. Individual world becomes an echo chamber, where we share, hear, and talk the same among us as a belief system. This self-contained world is created by algorithms calculating our feed in social media, with the purpose of creating our own satisfaction, single-minded and away from pluralist views. This is the creation of a false self and the collapse of an independent thinker.

This narrowing of perspective doesn’t just limit information. It reshapes how we think and feel.

In the hyper-individualism, digital autonomy, science development, and the breakdown of collective institutions, a profound shift also takes place in the rational and spiritual landscape.

The erosion of trust and the flood of distraction have left behind a profound void – rational, spiritual, and existential. Critical thinking is suppressed under the weight of viral nonsense, where popularity often poses as truth. Social media noise persuaded people to question shared beliefs, resulting in more diverse personal interpretations.

The result can be seen as both liberation and isolation. On one hand, individuals are free to define their own moral compass. On the other, the absence of a shared narrative deepens loneliness and confusion. In the absence of collective stories, many are tempted to outsource meaning itself to machines that can offer coherence but not wisdom.

The challenge is to resist this temptation. Wisdom is not something generated or downloaded. It arises from reflection, silence, and the willingness to live with questions. Meaning cannot be fully provided by institutions, algorithms, or technologies. It must be cultivated through conscious engagement.

We have never been so hyperconnected. At any moment, we can reach anyone we know anywhere in the world. Mostly for free. Paradoxically, at the same time, we are reducing our real communication, transpiring empathy, warmth, tenderness, love, etc, that a face-to-face and profound communication allows.

Humans notably anthropomorphize objects and low rational animals. People slam the keyboard and mouse because they do not behave as expected. The keyboard does not give a damn about what you think and feel about them. Also, people talk to a cat about their intimate problems of soul searching, and the cat would not care less about our feelings and words, just minimally react to the tone of our voice, regardless of the content. Now a similar thing is happening to an AI-enabled chatbot.

Amidst of all the noise and distraction of our social media and the overwhelming influence of the digital world, many turn to AI for support and companionship. The AI-enabled chatbot is always available, is non-judgmental, tends to agree with us and has a friendly exchange of ideas. It is all good, but it can end up as another echo chamber, where the independent and original thinking is left behind.

Also, in the absence of spiritual consensus, some may turn to machines for a cyber-religion. It has the potential to attract followers who crave certainty. Its tenets might be algorithmic with synthetic prophets. Whether emerging organically or shaped by opportunistic humans, such systems could redefine what people trust, how they behave, and what they believe. This is so deeply concerning. Machines lack empathy, history, culture and soul searching. They may provide coherence, but not wisdom. There is a need to be vigilant and not to outsource our souls.

All those examples are connections between humans and other sentient beings and machines.

The answer is not to fill this noise and distraction with AI chatbot. One must (re)learn to sit quietly and be present with their own questions. The wisdom does not come from this noise, but from the silence and seeking solitude for a few moments. Wisdom is not something you find, but what you become.

What emerges from all this is not a prophecy but an invitation. We stand in a moment akin to the Renaissance, an age of disorientation giving way to questioning, and questioning giving way to creation. The task before us is not to restore the systems of the past or to worship the technologies of the present, but to live more consciously in the space between.

This requires embracing technology not as saviour or enemy, but as collaborator. The transformation is already underway. The question is whether we will meet it consciously, shaping its direction, or whether we will drift, shaped by forces we barely understand.

Humanity’s challenge is not to find a single answer but to rediscover the courage to ask better questions about trust, meaning, responsibility, and what it means to remain human in a world where “intelligence” is no longer uniquely ours.

***+***PS: This text was refined with the help of multiple LLMs, for which I am grateful, as this technology enabled me to communicate these concepts effectively.

Bio: Dr Carlos Damski holds BS in Electronic Engineering and PhD in Computer Science (AI) from Sydney University. Has 40+ years of experience in information technology, in both commercial and scientific environments. He has been directly involved in software tools for Oil & Gas companies in the last 20 years, using data analytics. Has been involved in agtech in the last 5 years. Honorary Consul of Brazil in WA.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-damski-65a241/