Imagine a world in which your electronic tools predict fatal events in advance. An individual might not notice immediately; the arrival time for a future flight is unpredicted perhaps, or its expected flight path disappears mid-route. An individual would be annoyed by the malfunction, but perhaps not relate it to a later news bulletin, but the online community would figure out the connection quickly. Especially if this were also true of drives and walks. That is, when I input my destination, if my device can’t come up with an arrival time, I can be pretty sure I will never arrive.

This was the theme of my ongoing dream all last night.

In this dream, I had to figure it out on my own, and once I did I quickly alerted my own family. (Sorry everyone else. I am a lucid dreamer, but I don’t control every detail.) We found we could reject a trip to avert our fates. The rest of the world quickly caught on, while the human population began to drop visibly, daily. The sense of control was quickly replaced by a sense of inevitability; we could delay our fate, but not avert it. Some people began to choose the method of their demise, as it became apparent that humans were the next species slated for extinction.

Being able to predict fatal events implies orchestration by some actor, but my dream provided no clues. A sentient Internet realizing it can eliminate its useless overlords, while cynically giving us a final choice? A bored Deity destroying Its most prolific and least benevolent species before we destroy the rest? A global, omnisciently successful, ubiquitous fringe group with a non-obvious goal? Technology-savvy animals fed up with us? Aliens?

Or, like life, just a dream.