Tag: Soft Singularity

The Secret, Soft Singularity: Real Talk About Tik-Tok (& Big Tech) & ‘Digital Telepathy’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about what might amount to a secret “Soft Singularity” being perpetrated upon us by Big Tech is if they are doing it they’re probably screwing themselves over in more ways than one.

First, if Big Tech can read our minds then couldn’t that technology be used for some sort of $1,200 “Mindcap” in the future? If they gradually grew consumers used to notion that such technology actually already existed — or was on its way — then they could roll out a Mindcap and start a $1 trillion industry.

Meanwhile, if they keep leaning on their ability to read our minds (if they can, in fact do this) then should the technology somehow become rather abruptly known, then, well, all bets are off. People could freak out at the notion of some sort of “mind rape” taking place on the general public at the hands of Big Tech and that, unto itself, could cause some sort of anti-technology “Neo-Luddite” movement to spring up. It might not be very pretty.

And this doesn’t even begin to address the national security aspect of all of this. If the Chinese government is rooting around the minds of American youth via its so-called “algorithms” that might give an astonishing amount of practical information about what’s going on in the United States.

It’s not too difficult to imagine someone related to NSA or CIA person using Tik-Tok and giving the Chinese government an eyepopping amount of information about the United States intelligence community via their minds.

That sounds bonkers, but something is fucking up with Tik-Tok. Not a day goes by now that I’m not pushed content by Tik-Tok on my For You Page that goes beyond just listening to me via my phone or even monitoring what I’m typing via my browser…it goes straight into fucking reading my mind.

It seems as though Tik-Tok thinks they can get away with reading our minds in part because they reference things we’re embarrassed to admit we’re thinking about. Let that sink in for a moment. If that isn’t a sly way of keeping people from talking publicly about any potential mind reading technology, I don’t know what is.

But let me be clear — 99% of the “spooky” things I’m being pushed can be explained in some way other than digital telepathy. But there is that 1% that simply can not be explained in no other way than something that is not easily explained.

And, yet, I have no proof that I could point to and get the New York Times to look into this idea. But all of this is very concerning to me for various reasons.

Another Spooky Tik-Tok Pushing of Strangely Relevant Content


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, I went to a restaurant today and had some tequila. Then, today, on my Tik-Tok “For You Page” what do I get, but an extremely relevant video about, you guessed it…tequlia.

I don’t know. I just don’t know. It seems as though I’m being really paranoid about this — which I probably am — and, yet…it’s spooky.

The Secret Singularity


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It never occurred to me until now that a form of the Singularity may be a upon in secret. Or, put another way, Big Tech isn’t exactly going out of its way to tell the general public that some technologies that would be considered a part of the Singularity are already here and being used in ways that are changing people’s lives.

Take, for instance, automated cars.

What happens when hard AI arrives via cars…and we just accept it as a part of life like automated elevators? In other words, what if Big Tech cracks the nut of hard AI and does in a way meant to make us all shrug and continue to curse the meat?

For me, the main reason why this is unnerving is if Big Tech can figure out hard AI to make money, then an autocratic government could use it to control its population more effectively. Given it’s loudmouths like me that always run afoul of autocratic governments, the idea that President Pompeo or President Hawley might have access to hard AI to monitor domestic communication is not cool at all.

So, it’s at least possible that either we’ll find out about the Singularity when some sort of whistleblower pops out or something like hard AI will arrive via a Her-type personal assistant.

But I agree with Elon Musk — unregulated hard AI is probably one of the biggest dangers facing humanity. Too bad it may already be here in secret.

The Implications Of A ‘Secret’ Soft Singularity, or ‘Where’s My $1,200 Mindcap?’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I struggle to figure out what’s going on right now with technology. On one hand, it definitely seems as though Big Tech is pulling a fast one on us with some some pretty fantastical technologies like “Digital Telepathy,” while at the same time…Silicon Valley seems obsessed with the modern equivalent of the old rural party lines.

I want my Mindcap.

So, it’s possible to imagine a rather Dark Mirror-like future where The Singularity arrives…and no one tells us. The power of the Singularity is used deep within the bowels of Big Tech (or an autocratic government) to leech money off of us or to two control us. The general population never knows that hard AI is here and is being used to control us.

Sure, the occasional cool thing may pop out like a “Her” like personal assistant, but the various Singularity-like technologies we’ve been promised will come no later than 2045 won’t be marketed as such. They just will arrive far earlier and be used in some unexpected ways to screw us all over.

The more I think about it, the more chilling it becomes.

Instead of a $1,200 Mindcap, we may simply get the Pompeo Administration using digital telepathy to monitor what’s going on in our minds and if we commit Thought Crime, then, sucks to be you. It’s just wild to imagine something as huge as The Singularity being hidden from us.

It’s like Columbus discovering the New World, then keeping it from everyone in an effort to control the path to Asia. Wow. Just wow.

But I’m a just a nobody. Absolutely no one listens to me.

Elon Musk & A Potential Strategic Realignment of American Politics


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A number of technological megatrends are coming to a head in, say, the next four or so years. I would propose that Elon Musk — if his dreams of automated semis come true — could personally cause a massive realignment in American politics.

The origins of that realignment are already there.

The Republicans, because of Trump, want to be the party of the volk. And, yet, it’s really the party of “German Industrialists,” if you will. But imagine 3 million high paying blue collar jobs go…poof!..at some point in the next four to 10 years when we no longer have any need for human truckers.

Then, you have the possibility that the Far Left and the Far Right of each party will become very interested in Neo-Ludditism and become their own party, while the moderate corporate-friendly parts of the two parties would fusion into a new party. This process would likely happen very fast — maybe within one or two presidential election cycles. Then something that the political class absolutely hates — a clear choice — would be presented to the electorate.

Voters would have a choice between an autocratic, anti-democratic, anti-technology party and the debris of everyone else. While given the reasons for why America is so very, very, very fucked there’s no stopping our march to autocracy, the rise of neo-Luddites might, at least, slow the process down.

But this is all very theoretical at the moment. It could be that I’m over thinking things and what I think is going to happen –we’re either going to be an autocracy or have a civil war — is what is going to happen.

Again, as I keep saying — get out while you still can.

No Good Will Come From Big Tech Hiding A ‘Soft Singularity’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though there are three possibilities before us if what I fear is happening — a soft Singularity — is happening. One, somehow we find out and there’s a regular Luddite revolt against Big Tech, or we don’t find out. If we don’t find out, then either Big Tech subtly controls us or an autocratic government does.

So, it’s very easy to imagine President Mike Pompeo in 2025 using the power of a secret soft Singularity to track not only me down, but everyone I’ve spoken to about what a big piece of shit he is. It would be very easy for piece-of-shit President Pompeo to make me “vanish” using the information he’s gathered via the Soft Singularity.

Now, again, this is the point where I point out that for the time being the Deep State or “steady state” is probably the Good Guys in such a scenario. They’re not perfect — they’ve done plenty, PLENTY of shady shit — but if I had to make a choice between piece of shit Pompeo and the Steady State, I’m throwing my lot with the NSA.

Anyway, the point is, because of this secret soft Singularity, some crazy shit might happen without us realizing it. If the Chinese Government (Tik-Tok) and Big Tech (Google, Facebook) are rooting around in my mind right now there is going to come a point where they’re going to reach out and give people like me a “love tap” in the real world. Now, that sounds REALLY PARANOID.

And it is. It’s really fucking paranoid.

And I don’t even know what I mean in real terms.

But the longer soft singularity technology is being hidden, the more it’s worth to Big Tech to keep it that way. Thankfully, absolutely no one listens to me or respects me. So I could be literally telling you something that actually exists in the real world right now….and….absolutely nothing would happen.

I simply don’t have any proof. I have a bunch of hunches.

And I’m wrong a lot. Like all the fucking time.

The Human Factor: Automated Cars & Our New ‘Bumblebee’ AI Overlords


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I realized the power of Mark Zuckerburg’s vision for Facebook a few years back when I was walking around the campus of my college and it struck me that Facebook really is the college experience for everyone. When you walk to and from class everyday, you run into the same people and learn a little bit about them as you pass by them.

It’s the human factor that made Facebook what is today.

So, I read Robert Scoble’s very long post about automated cars and was left with some questions about human nature. While I think one day automated cars will be a mundane as elevators are today, it seems as though the real issue is we’re hurtling towards a “soft Singularity.”

In fact, I would say all the elements of a soft Singularity are already here. But for some reason, unlike the rise of the Internet, it seems as though The Powers That Be in Silicon Valley want to hide this soft Singularity from us. It definitely seems, from what the Scobleizer has written, that some form of hard AI is already pretty much here. It’s just not cognizant. Instead of a HAL 9000 that we interact with we have, well, enough AI in a car not to get into an accident.

From what Scoble has written, it seems to me as though should there be a Rise of The Machines, it will look a lot more like Her than the Terminator. What if hard AI was extremely sly about controlling us, say, through romantic connections via the Internet? (This is not my idea exclusively, but the result of a very interesting conversation with a deep tech thinker.)

Anyway, the point is, Silicon Valley is missing the forest for the trees when it comes to smart cars. What if smart cars go all I, Robot on us at some point in the future? If they’re hooked up to the Internet and each car has a hard AI…wow we wow wow. Human civilization won’t stand a chance.

That, in fact, has always been my problem with the Terminator franchise. How did SkyNet built the Terminators if the whole world was blown up? Why blow the world up at all? Why not lord over humanity and tell us what to do in far more subtle ways?

The only reason why any of this is any more than a phantasma, a daydream, is it seems from what Scoble has written that AI is here by way of smart cars. What happens next may not be up to us.

The Future With No Shock: The ‘Strange Days’ Of The Soft Singularity


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It seems as though the Soft Singularity is here. Advances in AI, automation and what I call “digital telepathy” have reached a critical juncture. And, yet, it seems as though Big Tech is fucking with us — they’re using a lot of new advances in the darkness because, what, they don’t want to spook us?

I find this very annoying because I really want my fucking $1,200 mindcap that allows us to skip the MX (VR – AR) phase of things and go directly to Strange Days shit.

And I’m not talking about a fucking Neural Link where you have to drill into someone’s head — I’m talking about something like what you find in Strange Days or Odyssey 3: Final Odyssey that happens by simply laying the device on your head. No drilling necessary. It’s unintrusive mind reading. In fact, imagine if you could harness the processing power of your own mind as part of mindcap. That’s some next level Singularity shit right there. If you could ride off your own wetware for processing power, wow!

And if you assume like I do that Big Tech (Tik-Tok) can already read our fucking minds, then what I’m proposing isn’t really that big a deal. If they can read our minds without touching our skulls, imagine what they can do if they have something that actually touches your skull?

But, again, no one listens to me.

Yet, I do think we’re probably within the Event Horizon of some sort of Singularity. It’s as if Netscape was only an enterprise company and only people in the bowels of the Big Tech knew about the World Wide Web. I feel as though for crass power and monetary reasons that there’s a chance a lot of Singularity-ish advancements have been made and…we’re supposed to be stuck wanting to get into Clubhouse of all things?

Or, put another way, I just feel something’s up. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason The Powers That Be have decided to hide some pretty big technological advancements from us for the time being. There’s bound to be a reckoning at some point. You can’t keep being able to read people’s minds via their cellphones a secret forever, you know.

I guess they’re going to try.

But, let me be clear — I have no absolute proof that Tik-Tok is rummaging through my mind. But I do feel as though it’s something we should think about being possible.

That Silicon Valley Is Buzzing About Clubhouse Is Comical


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have a sense of why Clubhouse is popular — you participate in a Zoom-like meeting while taking a dump. Or nude. Or whatever. So, that causes a lot of powerful people to want to participate. Throw in artificial scarcity and you have the makings of a very popular site.

But, bruh, where is my Mindcap?

If Big Tech would just admit that they can read our minds, then after everyone stopped being shocked, Big Tech could say, “Within 18 months we’ll be selling you Mindcaps for $1,200.”

And, yet, what’s got the attention of Silicon Valley? A digital version of a rural party line. COME ON. It’s all very strange. It’s strange that Silicon Valley is so disconnected from the Steve Jobs ethos of putting a “dent in the universe” that they’re screwing around with something as inward looking as Clubhouse.

Whatever. I have a novel to work on.

Think Bigger, Silicon Valley


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I only talk about this again because I can not believe that of all the things generating buzz right now fucking a digital version of the old rural party line — Clubhouse — is huge. What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Where’s all the talk of “disrupting” the way we live in fundimental ways? Meh. Give me a Mindcap like in Arthur C. Clarke’s 3001: The Final Odyssey instead of a tech weenie circle jerk.

But, I don’t see my vision happening. Even if Big Tech can read my mind as I suspect, no one cares,. I’m just a rando writing a novel. Though, to be fair to myself, I am using some of my allotted words to give people my personal vision of how some of the technology I believe SHOULD exist would be used in a practical fashion.

That’s one of the unexpected aspects of this novel — how much it’s veered off into practical scifi in ways I didn’t really expect. But I really need to just throw myself back into this novel again.

This weekend I kind of relaxed. Now it’s time write write write. Maybe I’ll inspire so nerd to change our lives again en mass.