My lifetime has seen a fundamental change in the way humans are viewed and interact with one another. The physical has be usurped by the virtual. Approaching 100% of the time, people sit next to each other on trains, across from each other at dinner tables and interact with the virtual world.
It is a temporary, comfortable retreat from reality with the end result being 100% painful, illusory, “self”. The ego takes center stage when completely separated from reality.
Here real becomes the unconscious “self” through repeated digitization: