We are lost. We have become unmoored, decoupled from our anchor, strangers to our true north. We wake each morning driven by the same unresolved obsessions that carried us over the threshold of the previous day. We strive to complete a list of ever-growing tasks, no longer sure of why we are striving to complete them at all. The rhythm of our lives begins to resemble the syncopated clatter of a production line rather than the sweet refrain of a melody.

I write this now knowing that it is little more than a desperate plea from the other side, a yelp at the passing flicker of the moon, a transitory glimpse of the celestial map that has been drowned out by the light and smog of the city, of modernity. And yet I write it still, drawn to the elusive memory of what could be.

We pass our days as cogs in a machine, as neurons in a network, as pawns in a game played by forces that have outgrown us. We invented money, and the markets, and the social system that now controls us. They were all part of a plan designed to serve the rich and powerful… but now even the richest among us are forced to bend to its will. People fear the rise of intelligent machines but the algorithms we created already control us.

We have been humbled by religion, controlled by capitalism, enslaved by consumerism… but the promise of freedom still exists within each and every one of us. You simply have to break the rhythm, jumble the pattern, turn off all the lights and find your path in the stars again. It won’t be easy – the sounds of modernity are loud and perplexing – but don’t be distracted by the expectations and false obligations of a society engineered to manipulate you. The dizzying sense of imbalance that you feel is not the result of some personal failure… but the symptom of a system that no longer serves you, an algorithm that has spiraled way out of control. Break free if you can. For your own sake, and for mine. Break free so that eventually the rest of us can break free as well.