Notes from the edge of civilization: June 1, 2025 (dark edition)

The Bay is closing. So is Canada as we once knew it; the AI job-pocalypse is nearer than you think; we're ruled by a medicated elite.

What began as a fur trading post 355 years ago ends today with a whimper. The Hudson’s Bay Company — North America’s oldest corporation and Canada’s most iconic department store — is shutting its doors. All remaining employees are being laid off with no severance and no ceremony.

For those born and raised in Canada, the disappearance of The Bay, as it’s commonly known, means something — even if most won’t admit it.

“If you didn’t have any money and you didn’t have anything to do, you could walk through the Bay…” said one shopper in Victoria.

“The only thing I came here for was perfume — that’s pretty much the same price everywhere. I’m not going to miss it,” said another in Ottawa.

It’s hard not to see this as allegory. The Bay wasn’t just a store — it was a symbol. Of history. Of a shared national myth. Of a Canada that once believed in itself.

Now? Canada is vanishing. Is anyone going to miss it?

In just the first four months of 2025, 817,000 newcomers arrived — most with no memory of Eaton’s, Simpsons, Zellers, or Saturday walks through The Bay. No shared stories. No binding myths. Just endless strip malls, high taxes, rent hikes, and digital IDs. They won’t miss The Bay. And they won’t recognize what’s replacing it.

Maybe these folks will be around to see the next chapter. Not the 51st state, despite Donald Trump’s bluster, but something more efficient. More optimized. More obedient. Shall we say, more Canadian?

Welcome to the Technate, eh.

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Take this with a grain of salt (or a whole salt mine) if you want — but former Wall Street banker John Le Fevre just dropped a brutal forecast:

“Within 2 years, 90% of investment banking, consulting, tech, and law school jobs will be replaced by AI…
College degrees will be useless.
The only people worth hiring will be the ones with soft skills.”

He’s not just talking about finance bros and junior lawyers. He’s forecasting the collapse of an entire class of professionals — the class that was sold on the dream of going to school, working hard, and enjoying the fruits of that work with a white picket fence and 2.3 children.

Not anymore.

When AI can do the thinking, the writing, the analyzing, the designing, even the creating, what’s left for the poor, feeble human and his puny little brain? Building out the internet over the past 30 years has been the equivalent of loading up humanity’s collective knowledge into a series of 1s and 0s.

So what’s left for us, the fleshly-challenged?

Some will try to argue that we’ll always need accountants, surgeons, artists, chefs, storytellers, and craftspeople. And maybe we will… for now. What accountant can crunch numbers 24 hours a day, 365 days a year? What surgeon doesn’t need to take a break during an epic, lifesaving 24-hour transplant surgery? Even if these ‘trades’ are saved in the short term, what incentives exist NOT to replace them with AI and robots?

None, as far as we can tell.

What Le Fevre makes clear is that there is exponentially shrinking space for human economic relevance. So what fills that gap in the meantime? Universal Basic Income? Calculated depopulation?

The dystopian future is becoming harder to ignore. We’re at a pivot point, folks. If most labor — mental, creative, and even physical — becomes optional, then we have to ask: What’s our value? What do we build? Who do we become? Because if we don't answer those questions ourselves, someone (or some thing) else will.

You know that semi tractor-trailer barreling towards us at full tilt? Yeah, it’s driverless and it’s not stopping to save you.

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A few weeks ago we covered the ‘cocaine on a train’ caper, raising the question: Is the West run by a bunch of drug addicts?

A recent exposé from The New York Times doesn’t exactly soothe that concern. Elon Musk, arguably one of the most influential figures on the planet, is reportedly consuming so much ketamine it’s impacting his bladder — a known consequence of chronic use. Add in Ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, Adderall, and a daily pill box loaded with pharmaceuticals, and the picture becomes even more surreal.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. History is replete with rulers under the influence — Alexander the Great was a famous alcoholic, Marcus Aurelius loved opium, and Queen Victoria chewed cocaine gum. To say nothing of the wild meth and stimulant usage in Hitler’s inner circle.

The difference today is that our altered-state overlords control existential global tech platforms, digital currencies, space programs, artificial intelligence, and nuclear kill switches.

This isn’t just about Musk — a man most people either love or loathe. It’s about a broader trend: those reshaping society may be doing so from a warped headspace. And ironically, if our leaders are tripping while programming reality — not unlike Hitler — it begs the question: what kind of world are we actually living in and will leaders ever get sober enough to be clear-eyed about the destruction they’re unleashing?

In short: If the emperors have no clothes and no grip on reality, it’s time the rest of us got real. And quick.

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