The human race has gotten its layoff notice, and now we're only training our replacements

Hey there, I hope you got every present you wanted, that all your friends and family are well, and that you have a warm cup of something laced with pumpkin pie spice close at hand. Because this may be the gloomiest, soot-stained story to come down your chimney this holiday season.

Because, not to sound like one of those late night ads pushing gold coins (or 20 years worth of dried food), we’re right on the edge of disruptive event that threatens to absolutely sink our economy, toss a good deal of society into chaos, and take us swiftly into a new Age. That’s big-’A’ Age. As in the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. You know, the one that historians still talk about as “the Bronze Age collapse” in which every major civilization that had defined the previous age either went into steep decline or disappeared outright.

The threat is taking us there—and I’m dead serious about this—is not MAGA or Q-Anon. It’s not even COVID-19. It’s something that slipped out in the last few months that hasn’t received 1/1000th the concern it should be getting. It’s a chatbot.