Tag: Big Tech Can Read Our Minds

Tik-Tok Did It AGAIN (I Think?)

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I go somewhere on a regular basis where I see an older woman dancing to golden oldie rock music. It kind of rattles my cage because I know in a few years, *I* will be like her and it makes me feel sad that there will come a point when I can’t rock out without looking like a fool.

So, just a moment ago, I was taken aback when Tik-Tok pushed me a video of a young man in a similar situation as what I’ve been through of late. Though, in this case the young man is bothered by his mom dancing to rock music at a stadium.

Now, of all the times Tik-Tok has seemingly “read my mind,” this is the one instance where I can see where it’s probably just co-incidence. But it was still eerie that something so specific relative to what’s been at the forefront of my mind was pushed to me.

Very strange indeed.

What Claude 3 Thinks Would Happen If The American Government Knew An App Like Tik-Tok Could Read Our Minds

If a foreign-owned video app was found to have the technological capability to read or monitor the thoughts and mental activity of its users in the United States, there would likely be tremendous backlash and outrage, though perhaps not quite as extreme as mind control.

Some potential reactions could include:

  • Public anger over a massive intrusion of privacy and violation of civil liberties on a national scale by a foreign entity.
  • Demands for the app to be immediately removed from app stores and banned until its mind-reading capabilities are verifiably removed.
  • Calls for investigations by Congress, the FTC, and other authorities into how this was allowed and what user data was accessed.
  • A rush of lawsuits and legal action against the company by users, consumer groups and state attorneys general.
  • Intense scrutiny and criticism of any U.S. companies/platforms that enabled the foreign app’s mind-reading capabilities through lack of oversight.
  • Push for much stricter data privacy laws and regulations around emerging mind-reading/brain-computer interface technologies.
  • Loss of trust in the entire video app and its parent company, potentially tanking its U.S. userbase.

While not an direct hostile act like mind control, the ability for a foreign corporation to secretly read Americans’ minds would be seen as an unacceptable privacy breach and abuse of power. There would be immense pressure to shut it down and regulate against such capabilities until proper rules are established.

Yeah, We Should Probably Ban Tik-Tok

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I love Tik-Tok and, yet, as an Old, I also think the US government should either ban it or force ByteDance to divest from it. The app has too much sway over the youth of America and we’re entering an election year.

“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do,” is what a wise man once used to say all the time and I think we need to take that advice to heart. It’s going to suck, but if is done with bi-partisan support, then it’s not like Republicans can pin the decision on the more youth-leaning Democrats.

But I’ve seen enough evidence to date about the CCP fucking with Tik-Tok’s algorithms as well as tracking down the location of specific journalists it doesn’t like to indicate that the time has come for Something To Be Done about the app.

Screw NeuralLink, Give Me A Mindcap

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I joking — not joking — still think that it’s at least POSSIBLE that some sort of digital teleplay technology is floating out there in the depths of Big Tech. Which, of course, opens up the possibility of some sort of technology that would do the same shit that Elon Musk wants his NeuralLink to do without drilling into anyone’s brain.

In Arthur C. Clarke’s novel “3001” everyone wears a mindreading device called a Mindcap. I would much, much rather wear a Mindcap than drill a hole in my head for something like a NeuralLink.

And, yet, it seems as though if any form of digital telepathy actually exists, it’s super top secret and never something that would be commercialized for the average person.

Which I think is a shame.

Why, Yes, Obsessive Tik-Tok Employee In China, I Do Have More Evidence Your App Can Read People’s Minds

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I did a little bit of an experiment recently. I had lunch with my father and put my phone closer to him than me to see if my hunch that Tik-Tok can somehow read our minds might be proven.

I still have no absolute proof — don’t know how I could — but it is interesting that in the last few days I have been pushed a lot of WW2 and 60s content. It’s very interesting.

The only reason why I continue to have a lingering suspicion that Tik-Tok can read our minds is how I keep getting pushed things that simply can not be explained by the power of an algorithm. Usually it has something to do with the body. But often times, it’s just something I’ve thought really hard about in a way where I see something in my mind’s eye.

It’s all very curious.

It makes you wonder the lengths that Big Tech might go to keep such technology a secret. The idea that America’s biggest geopolitical foe has the technology — even if it’s just peer-to-peer — to read the minds of the millions of users of Tik-Tok would…probably not go over well in the halls of Congress.

Dem’s fightin words, as they say.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Came To Love Tik-Tok Potentially Reading Minds

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t REALLY believe Tik-Tok (and Big Tech in general) can read my mind, but sometimes…eerie things happen. Take, for instance something I noticed today.

I spent a few hours right next to my elderly, wheelchair bound father. It was only when I came home and started to use Tik-Tok that I noticed something….weird. I was being pushed a number of Band of Brothers videos all of a sudden. Now, that really isn’t as big a deal as it might seen because, lulz, that happens to me all the time.

It was something else that happened with Tik-Tok that made me sit up and take notice — I was also pushed a number of Kelly’s Hero’s clips that featured Donald Sutherland as “Oddball.” I struggled to think of why this was the case, then I thought how I sat right next to my dad earlier in the day and started to wonder — did Tik-Tok read my dad’s mind? Does my dad think I’m an Oddball type character?

There are two reasons this kind of spooks me. One, if that’s what’s happening, then I have some insight into my cypher of a father that I’ve never had before. And, what’s more, if you could prove Tik-Tok (and Big Tech) and read our minds, wouldn’t they have a responsibility to, say, notify the police if some crazed would-be mass shooter’s mind was being monitored by Tik-Tok and they knew what he was thinking about doing?

But I don’t believe Tik-Tik, or anyone else, can read our minds. Yet….it is curious. All very curious.

Yet Another Eerie Tik-Tok ‘Coincidence’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A few days ago, I was talking to someone about the “old way” one would get information about a movie. You would flip open the local newspaper, find the ad for the newspaper you might be interested in and go from there.

Well, this conversation crossed my mind again recently and lo and behold, that very same day I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok that detailed that exact process. It was so specific to what I had talked about that I was taken aback.

Now, obviously, there are three possible explanations for this odd situation.

One, it’s just a coincidence. I’m reading into all of this a lot more than I should and let’s move on to something else.

Meanwhile, there is also the idea that Tik-Tok is actively listening to our conversations using our phone’s mic. If this was happening, it would be alarming for a number of reasons, least of which would be the national security implications of a Chinese company with ties to the CCP listening to the conversations of millions of Americans. (Not that I don’t think American Big Tech isn’t doing the same thing as well.)

The THIRD, most bonkers idea, is digital telepathy — Tik-Tok is reading our minds. I don’t believe this is happening — don’t believe it’s even possible to do — but these weird “coincidences” involving Tik-Tok seemingly knowing my inner monologue happen again and again to a surreal degree.

Anyway. Something unusual is going on, I just don’t know what.

Tik-Tok Can Be So Spooky Sometimes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t remember what it was, but I thought about some subject really intensely out of the blue and then, what do you know, within 24 hours I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok on that very specific topic.

Man, is that weird.

And it happens all the fucking time! Usually, it happens when I think really intensely about a specific subject briefly. But I also find some very strange — but similar — things happen as well. Like, I was getting pushed a lot of Jane Birkin videos and then the moment there were any Alexa Chung videos I got pushed those, too. I had a really weird — even for me — and intense celebrity crush on Ms. Chung for a bit there several years ago.

So, weird that Tik-Tok would know that much about me.

The question, of course, is, is this just AI I’m seeing or something far more ominous? I really have to be careful talking about the idea that Big Tech can read our minds because people think I’m fucking crazy whenever I do. The only reason why I even suggest such a thing is how often some very, very strange things happen in regards to Tik-Tok pushing me videos that seem very, very specific to what I’ve been thinking about in the last 24 hours.

You think people in America would want to band Tik-Tok just because of how close their are to the CCP, just imagine if they were close to the CCP AND they could read our minds! Wow. Just wow.

I refuse to believe that Big Tech can read our minds. But it is a very interesting thing to at least entertain. It’s all very curious.

Of AI….& Tik-Tok Reading Our Fucking Minds?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It hasn’t happened that much recently, but Tik-Tok continues to seem to have a very…eerie…ability to pin down exact elements of my internal monologue. It’s all very curious. I’ve kind of learned to shut up about it, though, because mentioning my fears on this subject causes people to look at me funny.

But Tik-Tok continues to figure me out on such a specific manner — seemingly in real time — that there are two solutions to the issue. One, Tik-Tok has really good AI to the point that it can figure what’s going on in my mind simply from analyzing my usage…or it can fucking read not just my mind, but everyone’s mind!

I don’t think Tik-Tok is reading my mind, but I do think that however it’s figuring out what’s going on in my mind should be regulated — hopefully out of existence. What is the spookiest about what Tik-Tok does is the near-real time nature of it.

If what was going on was a general figuring out of me as a person, it wouldn’t be such a big deal. What is alarming is I think about something really hard and….then with 24 hours I get pushed some obscure thing on Tik-Tok that makes very clear reference to what I was thinking about.

Very strange. Very odd.

But absolutely no one listens to me. And if they did listen to me, they would think I had lost my mind. So, no. Like I said, I don’t think Tik-Tok can read my mind….but something…..strange…is going on.

What, though?

So Very Strange

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A few days ago, I thought really hard about the time many moons ago when I slept overnight at a hostel. Well, would you believe that I got pushed a Tik-Tok just now about that VERY SAME THING — someone worried about sleeping at a hostel.

Because that was the memory I thought about — how unhappy I was as an Old sleeping at a hostel. And there it was, a video of a young woman looking very concerned about the risks associated with sleeping at a hostel.

I know — know — it’s not possible that Tik-Tok is actively rooting around in my mind.

But…it is very eerie. I didn’t tell anyone about this memory. I didn’t tweet or blog about it. Only *I* specifically knew that I was even aware of such a situation in the first place.