As every generation moves closer to living out the predictions of science fiction, humanity’s technological confidence belies a building tension—that between mankind’s dependence on technology to socialize amid global outbreaks and the impending fear that artificial intelligence will give way to the machine uprising. With the very future of our species threatened by environmental disaster and depleting natural resources, it is no wonder we flock to the few venues within our control—one-upping ourselves @online to no end, sending valentines, getting high, whoring out—dimming the reminder we all still inhabit mortal bodies.

Rendering after rendering of fallen empire—cradles of civilization tomb-raided and canonized into the currency of the next shimmering Metropolis—captivating our imagination and redesigning modernity. There is no limit of time or space in the simulation, no boundaries and every rule to break in 3D. Without transformation, how can life be redefined? Does the break from tradition mean an amass of digital atheism to come, or will Utopia be the Matrix’s return to ritual? Now, I lay me down to sleep— which genesis of inherited trauma to keep? Which of the historical ancestors and their cultures will humankind decide deserve preservation and superiority? If I should die before I wake—I pray to see the end of the icon. Truly, what even is ‘The End’ when our divine cosmos reincarnates our molecular existence into the very atoms of the universe? Big Bang? Big mistake—huge. Those whom we deem alien must wonder— how can one species be so afraid of death when the cycle of life itself is eternal?