So, here we are, again, with me mulling my favorite scenario. The scenario is — a Galactic Empire comes to humanity and says, “We’ll zap a few billion of you to three lush, habitable planets in a new solar system, but there’s a catch — you have to bootstrap yourself. No help from us.”
One day, President of Hollywood, one day.
Ok. After nearly 20 years of thinking, here’s what I’ve come up with. There is only one solution to this particular problem that makes any sense — you seed the three planets with Americans, selected by a diverse, large group of global “stakeholders.”
I keep vacillating between thinking you would need just a few people in each various settlements on each planet — maybe 100? — to thinking you could get away with maybe 60,000 each planet divided to settlements of 10,000. It only works if you use Americans, though.
This would ENRAGE everyone else in the world, but it’s the only solution because America is a nation of laws, immigrants and a huge, well educated population. But I think if you had a large group of global stakeholders actually PICK the Americans who would be the first inhabitants of each of these three planets, then it works.
Now, the fun part — the gist of any novel or screenplay — would be all the fucking drama about the specifics of how all of this was done. That’s why this scenario is soooooo addictive. I think I keep discovering different elements of game theory over and over again as I try to think of different ways the different groups would fight over exactly who would do what.
Anyway. Maybe I can write this novel or screenplay when I finally sell my novel.
While it definitely would put a pep in my step if First Contact happened because the U.S. Government shutdown what it thought was a Chinese spy balloon over Alaska, I find the entire idea very, very dubious. So, to that extent, what I’m writing at this very moment is a huge waste of time.
But, lulz, I have a little spare time on my hands, let’s waste time and imagine what the consequences of First Contact might be in this situation.
First, I would note that America is so divided that I can’t even have a jovial conversation about this dumb story with my Traditionalist relatives because the story would inevitably pivot a pitched rhetorical battle over Biden not shooting down the first balloon. It’s all very sad.
Anyway, what makes this particular incident different is there is wreckage to inspect. So, theoretically, once we have an opportunity to examine that wreckage we will know one way or another what the fuck was shot down. Now, if it was of non-terrestrial origin, the natural inclination of the U.S. Government would be to classify the whole thing and act like nothing happened.
So, if there was anything of note about the object shot down out of the ordinary, then the U.S. Government would be in something of a sticky wicket. If they classify everything — for any reason — then a thousand conspiracies are born. Meanwhile, if they tell what really happened — if it is not human — we face a rather abrupt First Contact.
The reason why this particular situation would be different is it wouldn’t be an abstract — there would be actual evidence that aliens have the technology to traverse the vast expanse of space to reach earth. The implications of that would definitely be a Day The Earth Stood Still moment.
The idea that not only are we Not Alone, but aliens have the technology to reach the humanity would be staggering.
Of course, if we learned that the balloon was actually some sort of alien probe, the wreckage would instantly be the most valuable in human history and there would be calls to turn it over to the UN (or whatever.) Then you have a huge battle over Who Owns It and who Gets To Study It.
I have my doubts that there would be any violence if we did have First Contact. And I suspect that instead of unifying humanity, we’re probably just going to be even more divided as different powers demand look at the wreckage.
In other words, everything sucks.
I will note, however, that I have a feeling that given all the weird things we’re learning (with no explanation) about what’s going on in skies around the globe. It’s at least possible that some sort of ETs are doing regular looky-loos of humanity, we just haven’t managed to shoot them down.
The short answer is, of course, no, of course not. This is a demonstrably silly idea and I am a fool — and maybe a bit of a kook — to even bring the subject up. And, generally, I just don’t believe in conspiracy theories. I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of actual conspiracies are well known and the public generally doesn’t care.
Ok. Having said that, let’s yet again ponder a scenario whereby Big Tech, and specifically Tik-Tok, is in some way able to not only monitor what’s rolling around in our minds but use that information to push content to us in an eerily specific way.
Up until a while ago, Facebook — now Meta — was, in fact, looking into how they could read people’s minds to the point that they even patented a way to do it. They have since scrapped this research and so, lulz, obviously they aren’t using any such technology to read people’s minds, right?
So that should be that. Big Tech isn’t reading our minds and if they were, we would obviously know about it because it would be such a huge milestone in technology. The ethical implications of reading people’s minds without their consent would be just too big for Big Tech to overcome and so why are we even talking about this?
One thing I will note is how beneficial it would be for, say, the NSA or CIA to be able to monitor the minds of diplomats and other major officials in foreign countries. And, in general, some of the most cutting edge technology used in a practical way is developed not by private industry, but by government agencies like DARPA — which came up with the Internet.
This brings us to Tik-Tok
Tik-Tok is a Chinese company and there is little or no separation between Chinese tech companies like Tik-Tok and the security agencies of the CCP. So, if you were of a conspiratorial bent, you could definitely find yourself pondering the possibility that Tik-Tok is using digital telepathy is not only read the minds of America’s youth, but use that information to push them ever-more addictive content to keep them using what is now one of the most popular social media platforms on earth.
This is the point where you laugh at me and say all of this is just crazy talk. And, honestly, whenever I find myself talking to a tech person I go out of my way to try to get them to dissuade me of my paranoia. I explain to them what’s happening and I ask them to explain to me why I’m wrong. The most common explanation they give me is it’s all a coincidence and Tik-Tok’s algorithms simply now me so well that it just seems like it can read my mind.
This is similar to how there is the horror story of a young woman being sent pregnancy related coupons in the mail because of what she was looking for on a big box retailer’s website. Ok, I get it that makes a lot of sense and explains most — but not all — of what I’m noticing.
As an aside, I’ve started to try to keep these suspicions to myself — especially at bars — because, well, people think I’m completely insane and don’t want to talk to me anymore when I causally broach the subject. Which, all things considered, is probably understandable.
The only reason I keep thinking about the bizarre conspiracy theory is the fact that some of the video’s that Tik-Tok pushes me aren’t nearly as general as what happened with the pregnant teen and the coupons. I still struggle to understand how Tik-Tok’s algorithms can be so good as to narrow down a very specific thing I thought about intensely in passing.
Usually these spooky events have something to do with my body, something I haven’t told anyone about. And sometimes, it’s something I just think about really hard for a moment or two out of the blue. It’s those specific type of incidents that give me pause for thought when I get pushed a video on Tik-Tok that is about that very specific thing.
But I have no proof and probably never will. And even if it was happening, it is the CCP we’re talking about, so it’s not like we’ll ever find out. Though if Big Tech in the United States was also reading our minds, then, I suppose the secret might pop out eventually.
Which leads you to wonder what the reaction would be. I’m of the opinion that after the shock wore off, there would either be a huge outcry where the population demanded some sort of regulation crackdown of Big Tech — or nothing would happen.
It would just be another thing that we all knew about, but didn’t care because, in general we got better products and services because of it. Though, of course, if it was proven that Tik-Tok — and by extension the CCP — was reading the minds of America’s youth….I suppose that might be considered something akin to an act of war?
Relations between the US and China would definitely suffer.
Anyway, this is all nuts. There’s no way Big Tech can read our minds. I’m just noticing really good algorithms.
I do not believe any of this is really happening, but it is entertaining to think about. I have a lot of questions about how feasible it would be to hide Queen Elizabeth’s death for a few months.
Who knows.
The Crown could have used deep fake technology for the Queen’s Christmas Address. And, really, if they wanted to shut people up, all they would have to do is wheel her out and let her wave a little bit in public.
It seems like there are two scenarios in this possible conspiracy theory.
The Queen is just really, really ill In this scenario, the Queen is lingering on her death bed, or is bed ridden and what the Crown did was have her give her address then use deep fake technology to make her look far more well than she really is. So, her voice was real, but her image wasn’t.
The Queen is dead. In this scenario, the whole thing is a lie.
How they would get away with that last one is anyone’s guess. But I would propose that unless they’re willing to start murdering people to protect such a secret, that it would inevitably come out at some point — and result in the destruction of the Royal Family.
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