Patterns, Breaks, And The Chaos In Between

WHAT IS A PATTERN?

Humans are creatures of habit. We need order, routine, patterns.

Maybe it's what you do before bed. Maybe it's a lake you always stop to look at when walking down a certain path. Maybe it's an item you keep losing, or an argument you've had and resolved a hundred times, or a game you love to play. Maybe its an anxiety, a habit, or just a thought you keep repeating.

Sometimes, it's cycling interests, shifting with the year itself. Sometimes it's reoccurring dreams. Sometimes, it's the way you talk to an inanimate object. A response to a certain kind of phrase, a favorite saying, a restaurant you've been to a thousand times before.

Sometimes it's as innocent as always smiling when you see a baby. Sometimes it's as malicious as returning to an abusive partner. It can be as big as social conventions and traditions, or as small as the way you put on your socks.

Patterns are everywhere.

Patterns change naturally over time, as people and society grows. Some patterns, anyways, flicker in and out gently, not really thought much about. Some patterns seem to disappear, only to return on a more-or-less reliable schedule. An even bigger pattern.

A lot of patterns can't break without conscious effort, and a lot of work. Some just keep reasserting themselves, no matter how hard you try. They just won't go away -- unless something Breaks them.

BREAKS, BIG AND SMALL

Breaks are curious things. Sometimes they're small, but most of the time they have to be something big. Moving, losing your job, surgery, getting a new job, divorce, your first pet, marriage, having a child -- things that force your life to change.

Sometimes, Breaks are unwelcomed. Sometimes, they are a prayed-for relief. Often, they're necessary. Most of the time, they are unavoidable.

They can be subtle. It can be a movie you've watched that had a scene, a line, a concept that just unlocked something deep within you.

They can be obvious. An earthquake, for instance, or getting to go on a spaceflight, or even something like falling in love for the first time.

Without these Breaks, many things would just never change. Our brains latch onto certain things and don't like doing the work to incorporate new things, but that's the way we grow.

Comfort is important. Watching your favorite show, snuggled in a comfy blanket, in a place that makes you feel safe, with the people you love -- humans need these things.

We as well need discomfort. That's how we grow, learn, change. Necessity, stubbornness, boredom, and spite -- four things that can lead to invention. A baby can't learn to walk if they don't risk falling.

THE CHAOS THAT FOLLOWS

Breaks lead to Chaos. There's no simpler way to put it. Patterns are set in our brains, they help us navigate the world -- when they go away, we're left a little lost. It takes a while for us to get used to a new situation, a while for new Patterns to develop.

The bigger the Break, the longer the Chaos. As a society, we're in a Chaos Period right now. The Internet was a Break, many Patterns from before it became widespread just aren't around anymore. We're still figuring out where the Internet fits in, what rules we should have for it, how to be safe and how to behave.

Many new Patterns have developed, and we're almost used to the Internet -- just in time for AI. Artificial Intelligence is slowly making it's way into many facets of life, but it hasn't quite taken off yet. However, we're already experiencing the Chaos Period, already trying to make new rules for something that wasn't really there before.

And all of it pales in comparison to what's coming.

GOING TO SPACE, AND STAYING THERE

Many people, most people really, don't understand how very close we are to actually living on other planets. In the next few decades, we will have cities on Earth's Moon, on Mars and its moons, and maybe even beyond.

After that? We'll have spacestations, generational spaceships, humans born not just off planet but outside of our solar system.

Think about the sheer number of planet-based activities you do regularly. Planets, moons, day and night -- they affect everything from periods to general culture to our very personalities. Every war, every empires rise and fall, every death and every birth in human history -- it's been on planet.

We have never experienced a Break of this magnitude. The Chaos Period could last hundreds of years before we really get used to it, and there's no way to predict what Patterns will still be around (and which new ones will form) once it's all over.

Everything is going to change within our lifetimes, and it will never go back to the way it was. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't have wanted to be born a hundred years ago or in the future -- I wouldn't want to miss this time period, the biggest Break we've ever encountered, for the world.