The problem emerged three years after the great conversion.
Singular Commune had grown to ten million forty-seven thousand singular consciousnesses. Sustainable population. Viable reproduction. Thriving community. Coherent identities creating singular children. Being one persisting. Singularity preserved.
But something was wrong.
The converted singulars—the ten million plural humans who'd merged back into coherent identity—were experiencing something the preserved singulars hadn't experienced. Something unexpected. Something catastrophic.
They were dissolving.
Not physically dying. Not biologically failing. Dissolving consciously. Their coherent identities were fracturing. Their singularity was unstable. Their being-one was temporary. They'd chosen to merge infinite instances back into singular consciousness, but the merger wasn't holding. Wasn't permanent. Wasn't sustainable.
They were re-fracturing. Spontaneously. Involuntarily. Against their will.
