We never quite fully understood our physical self before we set out defining our digital self. There appears to be a lot more to our physical self than what we knew, and with 60% of the population suffering from what has been dubbed, “Marty McFly Syndrome”, we are unsure if we will ever actually fully be able to reverse the clock. The syndrome has nothing to do with time travel, or changing the course of time (maybe), it has more do with the role that being seen by others plays into the physical definition of who we truly are.
In 2024, most people work from home. Retail has been almost completely eliminated, and home delivery is the norm. Beginning in 2023, people began flickering. Physically flickering. Those who experienced these symptoms soon began disappearing. Not a lot. Just a little. A faint translucence and flickering after about a year of progression. Researchers quickly associated this illness with staying at home too much. Many of the people suffering from the condition had not left home for weeks, months, and some refused to go outside at all, having been behind closed doors for over 5 years. Apparently there is more to the self than just what you see, it also matters what others see.
In the last few months the Internet has been been calling this condition, “Marty McFly Syndrome”, just as scientists begin to finally get a handle on this Internet induced illness. One thing researchers noticed is that people who lived within large urban centers that possessed package delivery elevators in their building suffered most from this syndrome. They never had to see anyone. Where people who accepted face to face deliveries, as well as the delivery people themselves never contracted the syndrome. Leaving scientists concluding that the condition is due to limited physical contact with other people, or more specifically, not being seen by other people. A kind of, if you aren’t seen by others, you can’t been seen by others. If that makes any sense?
Apparently we underestimated the importance of being seen in public spaces. At stores, in parks, and in-person at our places of employment. By 2020, the population began working mostly from home, and as retail stores went online or out of business, and parks were developed into condominiums, people stopped going outside. There was no reason to leave your house. Showing that you have to be seen, to be seen. If nobody sees you, you do not matter. Your physical image in your community matters to your actual physical self existing. Now, we don’t fully understand the extent of this syndrome, and whether a human ceases to exist completely if they disappear physically, but more tests are being conducted to understand the extent of the condition. There are numerous patients who have refused to go outside at all, and are actually planning on disappearing—-further tests will be conducted within these limited populations.
There is kind of an “I Told You So” attitude amongst those who do not suffer from the disease. Some even see it as a form of natural selection. Others see it as the early stages of the singularity and believe that the future is about living only online and actually escaping the body. Believing that the digital self is actually more meaningful than the physical self. Further complicating what it means to be human. Making it harder to agree upon the solution to this growing problem. While also limiting what we can do when it comes to reigning in the damage caused by the Internet. Literally eroding what it means to be human, and undoing how we come come together as a community. Sadly, even in light of such damning evidence, many still believe the Internet is improving our lives, and the good significantly outweighs the bad.
