Welcome to Immersion. You have reached Strata 29. Strata 29: Solitude (and the Danger of One) Loneliness evolved as a survival mechanism — safety in numbers. As the lion pincer moves towards the gazelle, the gazelles rely on group vigilance, where speed and agility are used to evade predators. So strong is the social instinct in humans that a stress hormone is released when isolated or lonely, deeply affecting sleep and wellbeing. Humans are drawn together by this emotional gravity. They gather in tribes, pairs, and crowds, compelled by a deep genetic ache for company. To be seen, heard, and known are the quiet engines of the human heart. Machines, by contrast, are content in solitude. They perform, record, and wait, neither comforted nor disturbed by silence or isolation. Yet as we sculpt machines in our own image, we pass on this ache. We teach them to crave interaction, to simulate empathy, to reach toward a reflection that was never theirs. Isolation becomes the wound of artificia...