I am still taken aback by the intensity people are drawn to conspiracies. The COVID-19 era is full of depopulation schemes, biological warfare, failed genetic experiment gone terribly wrong, you name it. People cling to such stories with fierce intensity, usually starting from false premises and moving through use motivated reasoning and more belief than logical deduction. Smart people – educated people too.

Today I realised this might be desperate attempt to bring order into the impersonal and chaotic reality we face. A logical leap of faith attempting to introduce intentionality into an otherwise terrifyingly random universe where a simple molecular replicator, an entity which can hardly be called alive, and even more hardly be called a being, is capable to cause an “end of civilisation” event. This is pure hybris in the eyes of a theologically-bred mind.  How can such a simple biological device with no motives, can arise out of impersonal algorithmic events and become capable to exterminate the pinnacle of creation (or evolution-choose your story), the conscious human mind?

If there is a hard to shallow pill, this is the one…

I just realised conspiracy narratives might be seen as valiant attempts to exorcise the ruthless indifference of the universe towards our species. They are attempts to give us back control of our own fate, even if that means that we are threading our own demise.

It will be us. Not a goddamn molecular replicator