The scariest thing lurking in every corner of the Chaos Map.

In summer 2022, I paused essays to explore chaos mapping in small groups. We mapped technology, business landscapes, careers, and more. Mapping together felt like playing an engaging board game that surfaced real-life insights. The real-time collaboration helped me evolve the Chaos Map in an interesting direction — thanks to all who participated!

Here’s a tongue-in-cheek dark take on what lurks for us in each space of the Chaos Map if we’re as naive and unfortunate as the hapless victims in a horror movie.

The social safety in this space feels like home with friends and family gathered around a warm fire… but violate its unwritten norms and you might ignite. Here, we’re one rogue spark away from public shame, shunning, or scapegoating. But if we abide by the norms too closely, we’re destined to become social relics whose aged wisdom is limited to complaining about the kids these days.

The abstract, impersonal nature of the laws, data, and systems we find here appears a welcome escape from the fickle feelings above. But concepts “don’t care about your feelings” and transform humans into predestined cogs in a machine—robots on an assembly line. Even the most skilled are tossed aside like an old iPhone when a newer model arrives. (And before too long, we’ll be replaced by an actual robot or AI.)

The cultural ideals here are as inspiring as they are naïvely indulgent. But most of these revolutionary expressions won’t manifest in reality regardless of how many real-life relationships we burn to cinders for our cause. And the precious few ideals that come to pass eventually become the dry tradition that kindles our grandchildren’s revolt.

The technological innovations and theories emerging here give us a god-like feeling of “changing the world” with bits, bytes, and pure reason. But these ideas swell from a naive hubris doomed to pop like a 90’s dot com bubble. And the few ideas we grind into reality quickly become a legacy tech everyone’s copied and no one thinks twice about.

The ecstatic visions here are as beautiful as they are worthless in our lifetime. Even if they inspire a few revolutionaries decades later they’ll only do so in the glow of our self-immolation. We’ll never reach the promised land. Social prophets get thrown out of the camp — or killed — and have a hand in their own undoing.

The deep meaning of everything we seek here is indistinguishable from madness and often leads to it. We strain to see a grand theory of everything but more likely find nothing. Then we either slip off the edge into nihilism or build a madhouse out of indiscriminate intuitions.