I try, you know. I really do. I try to force myself to listen to people I disagree with because it forces me to better understand what I believe and why. It’s that thinking that causes me to listen to the All-In podcast even though sometimes what those asinine tech bros have to say gives me the heebie-jeebies.
But it’s tech bro David Sacks who continues to grate on my nerves. He loves, loves, loves, to second guess and bitch about what you would think every American would do without much thought — support Ukraine.
He seems to go to ridiculous lengths to think up reasons why we should give up on Ukraine and let Putin run roughshod over that proud nation. And he’s not alone — there are plenty of other Tech Bros who think the same thing.
It’s all very curious and alarming.
But what do I know. He’s far more wealthy than I am and we’re all supposed to listen to people like Sacks because they’re wealthy and successful. Right?
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.
I had a relative visit me this weekend and, wouldn’t you know, it definitely seems as though what he had on his mind may have influenced my Tik-Tok feed.
How do you explain that I would suddenly start to see all these videos about woodworking and cutting down trees when that is totally not related to anything I might otherwise be interested in?
But whenever I bring up this as real technology that may be floating around, people think I’m nuts. So the thing I want to do — which is to ask my relative if they’ve been doing any shit with wood of late….would be meaningless. It’s not like they would believe my theory that Tik-Tok (and other Big Tech companies) have developed some sort of practical use for Digital Telepathy.
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.
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.
Given that Bytedance, the owner of Tik-Tok, has gone so far as to track the location of Forbes reporters, I suppose it was inevitable someone from that company would check me out since I keep ranting about I suspect their app can read people’s minds.
So, today, sure enough, I saw someone from Bytedance in my Webstats.
I don’t really think that Tik-Tok can read our minds. I don’t. I swear. But repeatedly, again and again, I have been pushed very, very specific videos that seem to track with my internal monologue and I simply don’t have any ready answer for it.
Usually, it seems to happen after I think about something really hard in a concrete way. I like, I see an image in my mind for an intense moment or two. Then, usually within 24 hours, I get pushed something along those lines by Tik-Tok.
It’s eerie. It’s inexplicable.
I suppose it’s all just a coincidence. It has to be. Right? Right? Big Tech can’t read our minds — yet. I mean, if Big Tech had the ability to read consumers’ minds wouldn’t that be, by definition, one of the biggest advancements — and secrets — in modern history?
I know we’re working towards having some primitive ability to read people’s minds, I call it “digital telepathy,” but for the time being such stuff is the stuff of cranks like me with too much time on my hands.
I suppose AI might has something to do with what I’m noticing? Maybe? But for me, the point is, be it digital telepathy or AI, whatever it giving Tik-Tok the ability to figure out what I’m thinking in such a concrete manner fucking needs to be banned or regulated.
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.
It remains an open question if we face a “perfect storm” of a Petite Singularity happening at the same time as the United States faces the existential choice of autocracy, civil war or military junta in late 2024, early 2025. But regardless if that happens or not, there is chance that at some point in the near future something akin to a neo-Luddite movement may arise in the Western World. It could be everything from demands for “carve outs” that would exclude AI from certain jobs all the way to outlawing AGI altogether.
It will all start with, of course, a huge amount of anger over perceived “chatbot bias.” All signs point towards that particular political situation happening a lot sooner than you might think. The MAGA outrage machine is always on the lookout for something new to be angry about and the idea that ChatGPT doesn’t spit out an answer to “What is a woman” that doesn’t agree with MAGA talking points is just too juicy not for a huge outcry to happen.
It’s just a matter of when, specifically, that particular event is going to happen. At the moment, I suspect is could be at some point during the Republican primary. If there is a townhall event and some rando stands up and starts to rant about how ChatGPT won’t “write a poem praising Donald Trump” then, lulz, away we go.
I do think, however, that there is a real risk that the looming chatbot revolution is going to throw American politics for a loop, especially if, say, 3 million high paying blue collar transportation jobs go poof overnight because of AI and self-driving semis.
What is most likely to happen is a massive restructuring of the economy because of AI would happen in the context of a moderate to severe recession. Or, more ominously, the moderate-to-severe recession would happen BECAUSE of the AI revolution. If it happen too fast, our political system simply won’t be able to process it and we could see the very rapid rise of a neo-Luddite movement, probably happening within the ranks of the already existing MAGA.
The modern Republican Party is completely devoid of any meaningful policy ideas. All they care about is scaring their white Christian (male) base with scary things that have little, or no, basis in reality.
It all boils down to racism, misogyny and hate generated by a combination of the browning of America and the rise of women with growing economic agency. I call this American democracy’s “death by vibes.” White men don’t really know why they’re so angry, but they are.
So, to me, it seems pretty obvious that perceived chatbot “bias” will join the pantheon of bullshit that the “thought leaders” of MAGA fascist movement spew out. They are, at some point, going to pivot away from “critical race theory” to going totally batshit insane over the fact that things like ChatGPT don’t give them the answer they want when they ask it, “What is a woman?”
Now, I have to pause for a moment to say that the “woke cancel culture mob” continues to do itself no favors by having such a strict orthodoxy about some touchy issues. If they would just fucking chill out about some of the more extreme elements of the Trans movement or not get so angry over the fact that some God-fearing people blanch at the idea of “Drag Queen Story Hour” then maybe Traditionalists wouldn’t want to vote for fascism when they did a “vibe check” in their gut.
Alas, even I will admit that I fear I’m being delusional — that ship has sailed. We’re totally fucked. The two sides now both have “thought leaders” who feel they have a vested interest in demagoguing issues as part of an overall grift. The Right has a far more serious problem with such hucksterism, but the Left is not totally immune to it.
In my experience, the Left’s problem is a very strict Groupthink where there is an orthodoxy that Leftists will adhere to, even if it means they drive Traditionalists into the arms of fascists. It’s too late — these issues are going to be decided either via a civil war or a complete and final decent into fascism in the United States.
Anyway, get ready. People like MGT will soon enough begin to demand some sort of regulation of chatbot technology to protect the tender minds of young children who turn to chatbot technology to do their homework. And that could very well be just the beginning.
It could be, in the end, Trump or a President DeSantis demands that chatbots are purged of their “wokeness” to the point that all chatbots do is spew out fucking MAGA-approved talking points, no matter what you ask it.
The Right has a real problem with being so obsessed with defeating the “woke cancel culture mob” that they have something akin to an “anti-woke” orthodoxy of their own. The different is, of course, is fucking MAGA wants to use the hard power of the state to implement their fascist, anti-woke agenda.
I don’t know what to tell you, folks, but Tik-Tok is up to its old “digital telepathy” tricks again. The first instance is not so obvious, while the second is really, really spooky.
Ok. So, the first instance of Tik-Tok getting way, way too close to comfort, as if it’s rooting around in my mind is I got pushed a video of someone pretending to be concerned about turbulence during a flight. This is something I think about a lot — that if I ever make it big and get to become a smug “bi-costal” liberal that when I suddenly find myself flying all the time that I’m going to have a lot of angst over turbulence.
The second instance is really, really, really spooky.
For a long-term scenario I’ve been toying with, I’ve been thinking really hard about the capital of Australia. I thought it was Sydney until I realized today it is actually Canberra. Just a moment ago, I was pushed a video of someone noting this very thing.
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