Come Let Us Build

Conventional conspiracy theory holds that there is a small number of nefarious elite attempting to co-opt world domination through criminal tactics.  But what if the reality of the end times is far more disturbing and complex than that?  What if it doesn't boil down to a small number of individuals maliciously usurping authority over an unsuspecting world?  What if the evil empire described in the book of Revelation was actually the ultimate desire of the majority of human beings in the future?

The Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11 sheds a surprising light.  The people say "Come let us build ourselves a city and a tower with the top in the heavens..."  Far from being the innovation of an individual, the bricks of Babel were laid through collective effort.  The earth was unified in language and ideology.  A dream of progress captured the collective desire.  Everyone bought in.  Looking in from the outside it appears almost a cult.  But inside the collective mindset everything makes perfect sense.  It is the loss of individuality for the cause of the whole; an intoxicating mix of purpose and belonging to an ideology that assimilates the mind toward a vacuous state.

In the future, humanity will be lured into this stripe of collective consciousness once again.  It will be hailed as the next step in the evolutionary process.  Utopia will be promised; subjugation delivered.  The path to the Technological Singularity will be paved with miraculous results in the medical field.  The mute will talk.  The lame will walk.  The blind will see.  We will be able to do more at greater speeds than ever imagined.  Our tools will unlock the impossible.  Anything we imagine will be possible.  But the promised utopia will bait the nations to  merge with our tools; becoming tools ourselves.  Once a tool, the hook will be set and the implementation of artificial superintelligence will ensure the prison door sealed.