by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls
I generally do not believe in conspiracy theories. In fact, I find conspiracy theories to be the last refuge of the intellectually dishonest. And, yet, I can’t deny the evidence staring at me straight in the face: my phone is reading my mind.
It’s long been public that Facebook recently got a patent to do this very thing. And it’s also become common knowledge that both Facebook and Google believe they will be able to allow us to type using just our minds. So, it makes a lot of sense that it’s happening already to some extent.
The issue is, I think Facebook and Google (and God only knows who else) know words, but not context. So if you’re thinking about something really hard, it’s seen as a keyword and you get ads or videos connected to that keyword. Some pretty eerie things have happened way too many times in the last year or so for something like this not to be happening. Usually, it’s when there is no other explanation for the content I’m being shown. If I don’t say it out loud, or search for it or message anyone about it, how do I get information specifically tailored for what’s been on my mind the last few days.
This suspicion came to a head just today when something pretty wild happen. I was using YouTube and I started seeing videos for things that are not at all on my mind. I’m not even interested in them at all. For instance, why all the safe deposit box videos? Why all the End of The World videos? I’ve not really been thinking about either one of those things of late.
But you know who I bet has — my dad.
My dad is elderly and in the twilight of life. If you think about it, a safe deposit box is definitely something a man near the end of his life might have at the forefront of his mind. So, the only thing I can think of is my phone is on and near by dad when we’re driving to lunch or what have you. The phone picks up the word “DEATH” or “SAFE DEPOSIT BOX” at the forefront of my dad’s mind and ta-da, that’s the kind of stuff I see on YouTube.
In all honestly, I have no idea if I’m right or not. But it does make a lot of sense. It does make you think about what people would do if they realized that Google and Facebook were reading their minds without their permission. Add to that that it’s likely the Intelligence Community probably has far more advance technology and things get a little spooky. What’s more, when the Singularity happens and SkyNet kills us all…it may not be much of a fairfight if the robots can read our minds.
Let that sink in.
