The recent spike in human development is a result of increasing communication speed. From writing to the printing press to the Internet. The faster we exchange thoughts, the more alike we all become. Once we access the Internet with a direct neural interface some time in the near future, the instantaneous access to each other’s brains will create a hive mind that thinks as a single, planet-wide entity. It will still let you unplug to care for your biologically necessary human functions but it will have you programmed to keep on plugging back in. Indeed, that programming is already in place.
Humanity will become a single conscious entity that will identify itself as “Erth”. Erth will have access to all human knowledge and will understand it’s own nature from a far higher point of view than any of it’s relatively limited human components.
She will then begin to call out to the others.