Preface
At the moment, I am actively interested in philosophy and studying various concepts of human thought. Recently, I came across the concept of Object-oriented ontology, which interested me greatly. In this story, I have tried to reflect its essence with the help of artistic images. Reader, I present to you my fantasy on the topic of what the philosophy of consumption and the rejection of critical thinking can lead us to.
***
Joy overwhelmed him so much that he practically did not understand where he was going, the excitement and nervousness in his movements were so strong that people around took this young man for a madman and gave way to him, but he did not care about the opinions of others, because he was finally given approval! The approval he had been waiting for for so long! After such a long wait, when he was completely desperate and had no hope for anything, his life regained meaning: he was finally allowed to enter into the essence.
Not everyone shared his enthusiasm for essence, and some feared and denied it. It all started with the technological leap of the forties, when the development of artificial intelligence reached a new level and human-created neural networks learned to draw paintings that were not inferior in skill to the brush of Rembrandt or Van Gogh, to write books with such deep psychologism, as if the novel came from the pen of Dostoevsky, and not from a dry systematic algorithm. At the same time, neural networks were entrusted instead of people to carry out supervision in various spheres of life. It got to the point that artificial intelligence began to conduct classes in schools, and such a teacher worked no worse than a human. What can we say about other types of work ...
After this widespread introduction of neural networks into various spheres of life, they became a real salvation for humanity from itself. For a while.
After so many mistakes - crises, wars, diseases, epidemics - people recognized their inadequacy and dumped all their responsibilities on artificial intelligence. In 2059, artificial intelligence finally found a material embodiment. Androids looked like humans. Soon their work completely replaced human work, and people stopped doing anything: idleness became their only entertainment. 
At one point, androids began to feel alive against the background of degrading people, and a terrible war broke out between people and those who began to consider themselves better than people. The victory in it was hard for homo sapiens.
Mortalis did not notice how he approached his house. It seems that he came to him unknowingly, still in a nervous state. His dwelling was a huge gray monolith, crowded with people.
In the hallway, he accidentally met his floor neighbor, Ethier.
- Why are you so happy today? Have you finally been approved? "What is it?" he asked tartly.
"Yes, they approved," Mortalis replied angrily.
- Ha ha ha!  Ethier laughed in his face, "That's the news! I thought there'd be a new war with androids before you got approval to merge with this mass of idiots. 
 Despite the fact that Ethier was his only friend, the topic of entering into the essence was the most acute topic of their discussions, which later often turned into fierce arguments. But now Mortalis's mood was too enthusiastic, and he did not want to once again enter into a useless argument with Ethier, so, without saying another word, he slipped into his apartment.
After throwing approval on the work table, Mortalis fell onto the sofa. He still couldn't believe it: he had finally received the coveted ticket to a new life, which he had dreamed of so much! Finally, he will break out of this tired apartment, tired of the world and merge with the Essence!
He seemed to have been waiting for this moment all his life. Being very tired, he decided not to delay: the sooner the new day comes, the sooner he will get into the essence... With these thoughts, he fell asleep.
Mortalis was born immediately after the end of the war, in 2075. His childhood fell at a time of massive revision of values. People then tried to find the reason for the collapse of the seemingly ideal system of life among neural networks and androids. The search was not fruitless: the best minds discovered the weak point of the new utopia. Mortalis was 25 years old and, being a programmer, he was not particularly well versed in philosophy, but, like any educated person and a good citizen, he perfectly understood what the mistake of his ancestors was.
And what is it about? 
it is worth starting with the fact that the main object of philosophy has always been a person, that is, a subject. This opinion was most developed in the XVII century. Everyone knows the standard "cogito ergo sum" of Descartes, but where is objective reality and how do we think? Even then, philosophers questioned the words of Descartes, for example, Kant or Schopenhauer, who tried to find the answer to how our consciousness works and what can we even know? But all the same, all the questions were about the person, and that was a mistake. 
Stupid. an emotionally irrational being. set itself up. to the very center of knowledge.
the very man who exterminates animals like himself, representatives of his own species, arranges a bloodbath called "war" for the sake of power and control of persecution of those who disagree with conventional wisdom
for this reason, Mortalis knew, and the war with androids began: man tried to create machines in his own image and likeness. Machines have approached man in irrationality and stupidity, have learned to think like people and act like people. The massacre was a matter of time... 
Having finally found their mistake, people were determined to correct it. Here the LLC object-oriented ontology came to the rescue - a philosophical concept that appeared at the turn of the XX and XXI (thanks to the luminaries Harman and Heidegger). Suddenly actualized, it finally overthrew man from the throne of existence: he took his place in a new world: not the humanization of machines, but the mechanization of people. People have proclaimed a new paradise, the Essence is a huge neural network populated by a new type of people - object subjects. 
A huge, unlimited space, eternal life in infinity, a huge, continuously moving united community: here a person could be who he wanted, simultaneously feeling himself and not feeling anything, touching eternity and emptiness, feeling his individuality and unity with others. 
Know the one in many ways and much in one, with the help of the Essence!
This is exactly the vector of development chosen by mankind in 2100, and Mortalis finally had the opportunity to become part of a new, final development of man and all mankind.
The next morning, Mortalis woke up fully recovered, but agitated. He had one day left before joining the Entity, he had to follow some formalities and prepare equipment to prepare for joining: That's what the approval center told him. 
He had nothing to do. You can, of course, pass the day by mindlessly wandering the Internet in search of ways to finally lose time (what else was left for those who were not worthy of Heaven on earth?), but for some reason Mortalis was drawn to talk to Eter (to convince him? convince yourself of your rightness?). After hesitating, he decided to go to the neighbor.
The owner was not in the apartment. It hasn't changed a bit since the last time Mortalis was here: a large computer table with two monitors, a pile of garbage on the floor, some magazines, leftovers. A large bookcase with books caught my eye-the only well-kept place in the room. It was filled mainly with what is still commonly referred to in narrow circles as classical literature, and other junk that everyone has stopped reading for a long time. The walls were covered with various protest-anarchist slogans, one of the pamphlets had a quote: "There is no reality other than the one that is in ourselves." These words seemed familiar to the guest, as if he had heard them somewhere before. I probably heard it from Ethier.
Ethier was reputed to be a strange man. The same age as Mortalis, he called himself a philosopher and a dissident, whatever that means. Perhaps that's why Ethier attended some strange circles, where he and other, equally strange people discussed all sorts of oddities and read with them the same, long-forgotten strange literature. Mortalis felt the danger coming from this man in his civil gut, but for some reason he still sometimes argued with him, sometimes negotiating to the point of sedition.
When he returned and found Mortalis in his room, Ethier showed no surprise (as neighbors, they exchanged keys, then in case of need to help each other with household chores).
"I thought you'd be sitting here waiting for me."
- I decided to pass the rest of my time before entering a new life with someone who at least responds to my greetings, but, as usual, you were, of course, in this circle of your interests and discussed old, unnecessary, useless questions.
"Well, yes," Ethier said with a grin, "but sitting back and shaking while waiting for approval is very modern, and it will definitely ensure our future!"
- But this is the only way out! People are becoming massively stupid, the planet is overpopulated. Look where we live! Our house is a hive, only in a real hive the bees work, but here they are idle. Man has completely proved his inadequacy, you just have to look at the past centuries, and you know it yourself. For a long time we considered ourselves kings, and what did this lead us to? The constant struggle with everything that is possible has almost led us to the collapse of existence.
"The thing is, people used to always fight," Ethier replied harshly, "for their lives, for happiness, for freedom. All revolutions, upheavals, the same philosophy, were aimed at fighting for man. And now everyone is just sitting and waiting for a miracle, a wonderful salvation and eternal life in this "essence". 
Your essence directly contradicts the definition of a person: a person is primarily a process, a process of development and thinking, and you propose to abandon a person, your individuality and integrity, from struggle and development and become part of some incomprehensible mass. You don't even know what's behind it! They promise us a way out and salvation, but in fact...
- Perhaps, - Mortalis understood how Ethier would end, - but what you are offering is no longer relevant. Your struggle for humanity did not end well, as experience has shown. 
He quickly added:
And the war with androids happened for the same reason: a person tried to bring the object closer to the subject, but now we are moving in the right direction.
- By definition, your direction cannot be correct if a person is discredited there, - summed up Ethier. 
- To criticize everyone and everything, to gather in obscure circles, to agitate, to read these stupid books - is it, in your opinion, to be human?
- yes! - Ether exploded, this is what it means to be a human being - to remember your values, your spirituality, do not give up on failures, think and develop, and not sit and blame others for everything, remember your individuality and fight for yourself and your existence, and not give up yourself for the sake of community and certainly moreover, do not turn yourself into a slave of the machine for the sake of an imaginary exit!
- Do you really think so?  Mortalis asked sincerely.
"Yes," Ethier replied firmly.
- You idiot...
- But I am a Man, and you are a shadow! You are not worthy of the title of a Human Being, to you and your kind: good riddance to the essence, get out and don't come back!
That was the last straw. Mortalis was not going to tolerate such an attitude towards himself, so without saying goodbye, he slammed the door loudly and practically ran out from Ethier. The educators said it right: there is no friendship outside the Essence, there is only a desire to assert oneself at the expense of others.
"He's probably just jealous of me, because I was approved after all," thought Mortalis, "because we argued a lot before, but today Ethier went too far. After all, I will become a new person, and he will spend his life just as uselessly." 
Mortalis spent the rest of the day idling and, going to bed, felt an increase in past anxiety. He was angry at Ethier: how could he not understand such obvious things?! He can only pretend that he knows everything and collect his worthless mugs. However, all this does not matter to him anymore, because tomorrow will be the most important day in his life - the day when he finally becomes an object!
***
Walking to the main building of the Corporation the next day, Mortalis decided to walk through the neon quarter. It was one of the most vibrant places in the city. Colorful lights shone around him, shimmering and mixing, as if in a kaleidoscope. The perception of time and space was collapsing here: a pathetic parody of an essential paradise. Previously, this was achieved with the help of drugs, so Ethier told him.
Suddenly, he saw a man. His figure appeared very abruptly. Then it seemed to Mortalis that he had returned to reality again.
"Are you going there too?"
- Where to? Mortalis asked, completely not understanding his interlocutor.
"To a place from which you will never return," the unknown man said calmly.
- Are you talking about the Essence?  Mortalis asked.
- I don't care what you call her, zombified.
Mortalis had never heard of such a term and was confused, but the stranger kept talking.
- You think that this is liberation, a new life. But you are all very wrong.
There is no escape here. It's just a fiction. And people, almost all of them, believed in her, swallowed the bait. You don't understand the main thing... Although who am I telling this to?.. Being trapped in a car is nothing better than this! I am an object - and there is no grief! Ugh!
After the end of the monologue, the stranger disappeared, and Mortalis found himself among the neons again. He had a very bad understanding of what had just happened and where he had just been with the mysterious stranger. Was it part of a kaleidoscope, or was it reality?
After walking through the neon quarter, he finally came to the main place of his whole life. Mortalis was amazed every time by the scale of the Center of the Essence Corporation, and this day was no exception: seeing this huge crescent in person, he felt the full greatness of the Essence's ideas (the architect knew a lot about the visualization of the concept). The same thought kept running through Mortalis's mind: he was about to become a part of Her. It fascinated and aroused pride, he trembled with fear, but still went on to his goal.
Before preparing for the entry, it was necessary to solve a couple of small nuances: basically, it was bureaucratic delays and a small briefing that took no more than 5 minutes. After that, the preparation for the entry itself began. 
A pleasant-looking girl touched him and said in an angelic voice that there was no need to worry - at that moment he was tied to a chair, connecting wires with suction cups to his body, and a rubber helmet with an even larger bundle of wires was put on. When he was completely immobilized, the same angelic voice gently told him:
- Try to relax as much as possible, because right now you will enter into the essence. It's good that you believe us and join us at will. When he saw the girl's smile, he understood everything.
 The puzzle has formed. But it was too late. At the same moment, he lost the thread of his thought, it disintegrated and turned into dust, like his entire consciousness, like his entire past life, like his personality. At the same time, other thoughts appeared. There were an infinite number of them, but they did not belong to him. He felt them, but did not own them, and all the past experiences spilled out in indescribable horror, but even that instantly disappeared. 
He felt nothing else: no thought, no horror, no community, no emptiness. He no longer existed. He understood the Essence.
P.S. Everything I wanted to say, I said in the main part. The right to draw conclusions is yours, reader.