We humans have conquered the biosphere with our brawn and brains. Our ability to travel through forests, across deserts and in water demonstrates our mobility. Our investigative minds enable us to construct wonders from natural resources. Our prowess at domination allowed us to reduce competitor species either to the margins or to extinction. Now none remain to challenge us, except ourselves. And we do. Our aggressive tendencies have resulted in nearly ceaseless destructive warfare where some push others either to the margins or conquer them.

But imagine if we could exorcise this tendency. Imagine if we, as the dominant species, would forego our natural mobility and capabilities in favour of contentedly sitting motionless for hours at a time. Imagine if we were to simply stare at an immovable object while occasionally pressing down upon little cubes. We’d remain motionless in a chair for hours and days except for brief, occasional periods of vacation where we’d lie motionless on a beach. With time, we’d fade and our physical prowess would fade and we could no longer compete. And our tendency would be exorcised.

Now imagine if we gave this exorcistic activity a cool name such as ‘computer specialist’. And we engender a desire for much of the human population to forego natural tendencies and undertake this task; to remain motionless, without expending physical energy. Can you imagine this? And then can you imagine if energy for computers ceased and people were to become active again?