You don’t need Soma. You’ve got ChatNumb

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley introduced Soma—a state-sanctioned sedative that numbed the masses into docile contentment. It didn’t solve problems; it dissolved them. Conflict, anxiety, existential dread—gone in a puff of pharmaceutical fog. Soma didn’t spark joy; it scrubbed discomfort. It was emotional Febreze for a society allergic to depth. People weren’t living—they were coasting on a chemically induced flatline, their critical faculties dulled to the point of extinction. No questions. No friction. No soul.

Well, good news. Soma’s here—but it’s not in a pill bottle. It’s in your search bar, your chatbot, your synthetic co-pilot. It’s called AI. And unlike Huxley’s version, this one doesn’t need to sedate you. You do it to yourself. Every time you delegate thought, judgment, or original insight to an algorithm, your self-reliance shrinks like a muscle in a cast. The fewer mental reps you do, the more comfortable you get in the warm bath of synthetic cognition. The mind adapts. It flattens. You feel “efficient,” “optimized,” “smart”—but the uncomfortable truth is, you’re just well-lubricated for obedience.

You don’t need Soma. You’ve got ChatNumb–the condition that sets in after tens of thousands of reps with your favorite AI assistant. The symptoms? A faux sense of competence, lizard-eyed placidity, and a vague suspicion that you’ve stopped thinking altogether. It’s not that you’ve been silenced. You’ve been auto-filled.

The Age of Soma isn’t coming. It’s here. And we welcomed it with open thumbs. God help us all.