As we measure and take stock of our differences, it’s important that we not make them weapons.

The attack on the mosque in London is in the news this morning and it has provoked a response from social media.

Retribution

retaliation

anti-terrorism

terrorism.

As I continue to write my second book and stare down the mouth of the really big things happening in the world, I can’t help but have the same feeling as during the past election.

I see fear and it is palpable.

Fear that our world is changing faster and further beyond our measure than the majority of people can comprehend.

Perhaps the killer believes those who attend the mosque are the reason for the change.

Perhaps those in the mosque believe he is.

The camera lens remains tight and focused on small features. Or perhaps, it is focused on the carnage right there and then.

A wider angle would show a crowd in shock. Further out, it would show people busy with their lives — a sense that the world and their time within it short.

No time. Precious time.

A wider angle still would show a world in turmoil.

A world changed by us.

A world in which ancient forests are regularly clearcut, slashed and burned. Tiny microbes marching forth as it happens. Ebola killing gorillas and chimpanzees by the thousands pushing them to the margins of extinction.

A world in which polar bears cling emaciated to the shores and dream of dinner.

A world in which artificially intelligent machines will one day save us before they replace us.

A world that dreams of leaving this place and colonizing a planet on which we will have to breathe artificially created air and eat artificially created food.

A world that can splice out a defective piece of DNA and insert a replica of the good, but that can also change an elephant into a wooly mammoth. A world that can take that same technology and clone ourselves.

A world that can insert hardware and software into our brains to make us competitive with the artificially intelligent machines we’ve created.

A world in which all of the above technology can be crowdfunded and augmented through open sourcing.

Think about it.

Are the people leaving the mosque so different from us?

Is the killer so different from us?

Fear makes us the same.