Life… or Simulation?

Modern life increasingly feels like the kind of dream where you’re late for work, but the train never arrives and your shoes keep melting into the pavement. We are supposedly more connected than any generation in history, yet loneliness and anxiety are now the defining currencies of the digital age.

It wasn’t always like this. Previous generations lived in smaller, noisier worlds where community was not something you curated but something you were stuck with. You knew your neighbours, you knew their business, and you could not mute them. Now AI and algorithms build invisible walls, carving society into neat personalised bubbles that look like freedom but quietly function as echo chambers.

These AI bubbles do not make us happier. They make us restless. We scroll through feeds that drip-feed us isolation and validation in equal measure. The outside world feels unstable, but inside our feeds everything is ordered, tidy and suspiciously tailored to our preferences. That should be comforting. It isn’t.

Which brings us to the uncomfortable question. Is this simply the inevitable consequence of modern complexity? Or is it something stranger, a design not for living but for leaving.

Imagine this is not a mass simulation like the Matrix but a personal one. A single-player game where reality only loads when you pay attention. The point of it all is not to win but to one day exit. And when that time comes, the system doesn’t rip you out. It carefully prepares you. It makes you more isolated. It reduces human contact. It replaces friendships with glowing digital replicas. It convinces you that letting go won’t be traumatic.

Absurd? Of course. But also eerily familiar.

So maybe digital isolation is simply the by-product of AI, social media, and the endless expansion of human systems. Or maybe, just maybe, we are being shepherded towards an off-ramp designed to ease us out of the simulation without complaint.

🎥 Watch the full BurstComms breakdown here