Some cognitive scientists are of the belief that we have now become cyborgs, due to our interaction with tech. Our brains are actually rewiring to adapt to the tech around us; the Internet, social media... because they perform tasks for us traditionally performed by the brain.

Our PCs, our smartphones, even our homes now, due to IoT, are extensions of ourselves. Just as our brains and body are merely machines which the ghosts that we are use to navigate this world, we have added more machines to augment the scope of our existence.

Social media is an interesting one because it virtually connects our minds into a hive; a reality where wraiths of ourselves navigate, amassing data, moulding themselves according to virtual stimuli, actively seeking personal and collective goals. It determines who we become.

Some notifications envoke real anxiety in us, notifications also give us real dopamine bursts, just like drugs, and make us euphoric. These are, of course, addictive. Emotions are expressed with nary a sigh through our lips, and conversations are had as easily as thoughts occur.

The strongest emotions and the most extreme opinions, oft-times not the wisest or the best, are the most often sought and expressed. These attract the most attention, create the most activity, and the most notifications... dopamine. We inject one another. We come back for more.

Extreme thoughts become more extreme, communities form on the basis of mutual validation, and these fragment into islands of extremities. Issues that form thin faultlines between us in the past, now create the widest gulfs. In the virtual machine we are legion...

... but in the physical and spirit realm, we are more isolated. Hormonal bursts can only alter ourselves temporarily. We develop a tolerance, and a hit will not give the same high for a sustained period. Inner peace is more elusive, due to the turbulence of all the extremities.

In such a state, who holds the most control over us, is who controls the machines. These Emperors rule a part of us. An alteration in flow of data potentially alters our very nature. Clicks of buttons, nature of notifications, easily makes us want certain things, dislike things..

... crave for yet other things. We have been plugged into a new religion, where the gods are composites of our most extreme and basest selves, and the Emperor Priests reside in Silicon Valley shrines, and the envoys of the gods are in Wall Street. It is a frightening existence.