When you are going about your day to day life, going from one routine activity to the next, it can be difficult to fathom the world around you and just how big it truly is. In your little bubble, the world can seem one way while those just beyond your sphere of influence might see it a completely different way. However, with the human race closing in on 8 billion living beings, you have to realize at some point that there are people just like you all around the world. To some, this can be a hopeful thought, proving your hopes that the world has good people in it. To others, and to us here are Eritas Daily, we find this concept extremely disturbing.

For just a second, picture the things about yourself that you see as truly unique and what makes you you. If you’re an American, this list might be quite extensive since you’ve likely been served an advertisement for about a million different products all claiming to help you be more ‘uniquely you.’ Or really, anyone who spends any length of time on the internet, but particularly Americans.

Now take that thing you are picturing that makes you unique and think – on a large enough scale, someone else probably thinks the exact same thing makes them unique, simultaneously proving both of you wrong. Does that make the thing you do any less you? Maybe. And that’s what we’re talking about.

As another example, consider your birthday. When you have your birthday, you can’t really think outside of yourself, to the point where when someone shares your birthday, it feels bizarre. But on a planetary scale, the likelihood of someone sharing your birthday is 1 in 365 or 366 if you are born in a leap year, so we’re talking about sharing your birthday with 21 million people. This puts making your birthday ‘your day’ in perspective.

And again, this might all sound hopeful to you, but all we can do (because we are paid to) is think about the worst possible scenarios and outcomes. What if someone finds that thing that makes you and millions of likeminded people ‘you’ and manipulates it to the point where you are no longer individuals and no longer a collective, but simple One.

Or picture this instead. Picture the worst parts about you, your deepest secrets and your darkest fears. Now picture the number of other people with those same horrid tendencies and what would happen if they were somehow unlocked.

All we’re saying is that to a hive-mind can be productive, but at what cost? Something to think about.