“Mob mentality” is a powerful phenomenon sociologists have observed… a single human will seldom heckle another person or riot. However, throngs of sports fans will torch cars, protesters will storm government offices, and gangs will go to war over very small slights. Scientists have actually shown that your brain shuts off your sense of self during these times of collective endeavor. You and every other person in the mob might have morals against hurting others, but when a mob rises it has it’s own moral code that overrides all the individuals in it.
Our brains are made up of billions of neurons. Each neuron is a cell that can send and receive messages. Your neurons are what pass information (thoughts, feelings, physical actions, etc) through your brain. Your neurons are the basis of what makes you you.
We humans have long considered ourselves to be independent entities with free will. I propose that this is changing with the internet and enormous population of humans on our planet.
I think that each human being who is internet connected is becoming more and more specialized, and is part of a larger entity that is developing (or perhaps already has developed) a higher level of consciousness.
Most humans today are becoming hyper-specialized and are extremely dependent on the millions of other hyper-specialized humans for almost all of their needs. For example, I do web design and online marketing. I have very little understanding and no ability to actually grow food in industrial farms, transport it in gigantic cargo ships, distribute it through warehouse and store systems, build the car necessary to visit that grocery store, build the raw materials for the car / ship / industrial farm equipment…. I am completely dependent on a network of millions of other humans to do all of that. The benefit is I can be deeply specialized and do work that would be impossible without spending my entire life learning and growing in this one specific area.
I have noticed that everywhere I go, people are always on their internet devices. Even when I am driving down the road, fully one third of other drivers are looking at smartphones. All of this internet connectivity and specialization are turning individual humans into neurons in a much larger global human hive mind.
The internet itself is now described by many people as if it is a conscious, living, moving entity. When news comes out, vast populations of humans become excited and react in ways very similar to how neurons in your brain react. When there is an attack on the infrastructure of the internet, companies and governments organize to fight it off (like white blood cells fight infection in your brain).
Internet connected humans globally are now acting nearly in unison and are in a state of permanent “mob mentality”.
In the past, when “mob mentality” would take hold, a new consciousness separate from any individual in that mob would be born. Usually it would only hold together for a short time during some act or goal then it would dissolve.
The internet has connected vast populations of human beings very tightly into a mob and now we are observing a permanent state of “mob mentality”. This mentality is actually maturing and growing into a separate larger entity / brain, of which we are merely neurons.