The day the world lost its mind started like any other.

The earth speeding along its solar orbit, happily spinning on its axis, dragging the moon with it on its path. Satellites sending and receiving data, bits and bytes that records and coordinates life on the ground.

The night-line receding as the sun chase it to the far edge of the world. Like every other day Earth is bustling with activity. Every living thing scurrying around on missions of their own. Their activities directed by basic needs like hunger, lust or the need to pee. Many more abstract undertakings guided by the data of the day often generating new data for others to react too. Bodies waking up to start their daily missions, or retiring to bed because they are done.

Something went wrong with the sun on this particular day. A different kind of fusion occurred in its core, pumping out strange new electromagnetic waves at never before seen frequencies.

Unlike every other day, everything under the sun with a brain woke up to the new day with their minds altered.

Millions of beings went to sleep the previous night with their lives intact in their heads, with lists of things that needed to be done, feared, changed, fucked, eaten or ended. They woke up with changed minds, damaged beyond repair.

Many were commuting, walking or flying when they fell victim to this condition. Some operating vehicles or airplanes when they experienced a sudden dizzy spell, their ears painfully ringing, their eyes rolling in the back of their heads, bodies convulsing and then left confused and surprised to find themselves suddenly with no idea what they are, where they are or what they were doing.

Everything with a brain suddenly completely clueless. Every memory gone, all skills wiped away, all learned knowledge gone. Devoid of instinct, their very nature wiped away. The voice in their head quiet.

Physically every body was still fine with perfect motor skills, able to walk and run and climb, but with the ability to communicate lost. No one able to read and write anymore. Letters and numbers became just symbols with no meaning. The purpose of switches and buttons and tools and devices completely unknown. Humans and animals made equal by the new radiation emitted by the sun.

Chaos ensued.

At any given time there are anywhere from eight to twelve thousand commercial planes in the air. These aircraft were suddenly all without a competent pilot. Those landing or taking off under manual control crashing into other planes, airport terminals or plowing into cities. Their pilots and passengers clueless as to where they are, and what is happening to them. Most of them dying in a state of puzzlement. Taxiing planes kept on moving, colliding with buildings and each other. Trained technicians suddenly helpless, spilling fuel and crashing vehicles. Many planes on autopilot, doomed to keep flying until they run out of fuel, their idiot passengers unaware of their fate, puzzled by their surroundings.

Fires raged uncontrolled everywhere. Mindless fireman unable to respond, their minds blank.

Surgeons found themselves with their hands inside the bodies of others, dentists halfway though procedures not able to complete their work, some of their patients attacking them because they cannot remember just how they ended up on this chair with someone digging or drilling in their mouth. Some self preservation instincts still present in some people and animals.

Cars caused the most destruction. Millions of vehicles at speed suddenly without control, their now incompetent drivers unable to operate with some pressing on accelerators or brakes at the wrong time, causing tremendous pile ups, killing and maiming many. Emergency response not possible because the first responders were also reduced to mindless drones.

Many maintenance intensive installations left suddenly without skilled workers.

The many nuclear reactors used to create steam to generate electricity will eventually melt down. These reactors are housed in concrete domes that will trap most of the radioactive material. The loss of electricity more problematic, causing rot and ruin.

Miners trapped underground will mindlessly die of asphyxiation due to ventilation systems shutting down. Pets, farm and zoo animals succumbing to thirst and hunger, their own faculties reduced to dazed confusion. People wandering around without purpose, turned into zombie like characters, some walking in circles, others not moving at all. They too will be dead in a week.

Without daily codes being entered by their human minders, the operating software of nuclear weapon silos assume the worst and many nuclear warheads are launched, triggering counter measures.

The earth continues to speed along its solar orbit, still happily spinning on its axis, forever dragging the moon with it on its path. Giant fires visible from space. Satellites sending and receiving data for a while before shutting down completely.

Everything with a brain will eventually die from hunger, thirst, fire or exposure. Only insects and other brainless creatures surviving.

A new evolutionary cycle has begun.