Tag: weird ideas

Tik-Tok’s ‘Algorithms’ Continue To Be Spooky


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Not a day goes by now that Tik-Tok doesn’t serve me content that is so narrow, so specific to me personally that it makes me sit up and take notice. Of course, I guess that’s the point. One of the most recent instances of this involved me looking at a model’s video on Instagram where she told people to follow her on Tik-Tok. I thought hard about this for a moment, then was ultimately not interested enough to write her Tik-Tok username down. I did not think anything more about it until that very model popped up in my Tik-Tok feed right on cue. I continue to have a lingering suspicions that it’s at least possible that one of three things is happening.

  1. Tik-Tok is far more intrusive than we imagine.
    If this explains how I saw that Instagram model’s Tik-Tok account after thinking really hard about her, then that’s something that, while aggravating, at least fits within the established computing paradigm. That’s something I can accept. Somehow, Tik-Tok is so intrusive that it was able to monitor my Instagram usage and noticed me pause on the Instagram model’s video telling me to follow her on Tik-Tok. All that’s probably a national security threat, but it’s still not that weird.
  2. Tik-Tok is using hard AI to figure me out.
    All this does is take the first option and supercharge it. This takes Tik-Tok’s words about the power of its “algorithms” at face value. All I’m noticing is Tik-Tok’s “algorithms” are so advanced that somehow they are able to infer from my online activity that I would like to follow that Instagram model on Tik-Tok. Again, this is severely troubling from a national security point of view, but it at least doesn’t sound nuts when you tell people about it at a bar.
  3. Tik-Tok is reading my mind in some way
    This, of course, is the most bonkers of all the options. But hear me out. What if the reason I go that model’s Tik-Tok account pushed to me so soon after seeing her Instagram post is I thought really hard about it. As such, when I thought hard for a moment about finding a pen to write down her account name, Tik-Tok’s Singularity technology, it’s “digital telepathy” picked up the concept and waited for me to use the service again so it could push me her account. This is, by far, the most dangerous of the three because that would mean the government of China, through Tik-Tok is able to monitor the minds of millions of Americans — many of them children. This also at least, in an abstract way, raises the prospect of an “inception” scenario where the Chinese government could not just monitor our minds, but implant information into them.

    Ok, that last bit was pretty insane, even for me. But it felt good to write it. Anyway, which one to I think is the right answer? It’s probably some sort of fuzzy area between 1 and 2. There’s no “soft Singularity” involved, it’s just that existing technology has reach the point where it’s really good at figuring out what’s going on in our minds via available information that we provide without thinking about it. At least, that’s what I hope is going on. If Big Tech really can read our minds, then, well, we’re kind of fucked.

Ok, Tik-Tok, I Get It, You’re Still Reading My Mind (Or Something): Alexa Chung Edition



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, let me begin by saying because of a very strange set of circumstances a few years ago it’s at least possible that an FBI agent in Washington D.C. monitors this blog to see if I mention fashion It Girl Alexa Chung. This stems from a dumb misunderstanding.

Anyway, let me be clear: the conditions that caused me to briefly have a celebrity crush on Alexa Chung are now long gone. I still have an obsessive personality, but now I’m obsessed with the novel I’m working on.

The reason why I say all of this is today I was minding my own business, using Tik-Tok when I was served a video that was all these photos of Alexa Chung. I have long worried that maybe Tik-Tok is, I dunno, reading my mind, and the fact that I have not in any way do anything anywhere to indicate to Tik-Tok that I would be interested in Alexa Chung for any reason is very odd. I also got served Mighty Boosh videos today, as well, which is equally odd.

Now, I am well aware that extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and so given how bonkers the idea that Tik-Tok is, in any way, reading my mind is, I’m leery of giving the idea too much credence. And, yet, I’m stumped how Tik-Tok’s “algorithms” could narrow down my personal interest in both Alexa Chung and the Mighty Boosh if I’ve done absolutely nothing of late online that would give them reason to believe that.

But I guess somehow they figured it out without reading my mind. But I am left with a lingering unease. Tik-Tok knows way too much about me and it’s a mystery how it happened.

PS: Dear FBI Agent — leave me alone!

The Trouble With UFOs



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Both options when it comes to the recent sightings of UFOs by the USAF come with some serious problems. Let’s look at the two options and struggle with their individual problems.

ETs
If the UFOs are of alien origin, then their appetence is somewhat underwhelming. That they would do something so prosaic as simply hang out off the American eastern seaboard to monitor a U.S. Navy base is…kinda of meh. If you have the ability to travel the light years necessary to get to earth, why do something as dull as that? Also, why haven’t other nations come forth to say they’ve seen similar things? Why would the U.S. Government be the only one in the world to show such footage? Lastly, I struggle to believe that if aliens had the ability to get to earth that they wouldn’t also have the technology necessary to make themselves invisible. I know that’s jumping to conclusions, but it’s a reasonable assumption to make.

Humans
If you were a foreign government that had developed technology far, far more advanced than the US Government, why would you blow your secret on something as dumb hovering conspicuously off the coast of the United States? It definitely seems as though whomever designed these craft (drones?) wanted us to know they existed.

Bonus Issue:
Why has the U.S. Government changed its tune on UFOs so abruptly? I know there’s some sort of report that’s supposed to come out soon that Congress will be given…but that seems like just a fig leaf for a bigger reason. What that “bigger reason” my be, I have no idea. It’s all very curious.

Struggling With All The UFO News Of Late


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

One’s thoughts on ETs usually says a lot about your take on God. I’m not prepared to believe 100% that ETs exist because of faith, but the news that the USAF has seen a lot of UFOs the last few years definitely gives me pause for thought.

That’s some sort of evidence you can point to and say maybe the galaxy really is full of little green men — or whatever. But things are extremely muddled. How is it possible that the USAF is constantly seeing highly advanced UFOs whizzing around just off the coast and yet that’s all the evidence we have of them. Where are the reports from other parts of the world? And why have we still not had any high quality imagines of these UFOs, period?

It makes you wonder what’s going on.

Or put another way — there are a few elements of this evidence that don’t make sense. We don’t know beyond a shadow of a doubt that these UFOS are nothing more than technology that has been developed in secret by Russia or China.

So, I don’t know.

The whole thing is curious.

The Ghost In The Machine


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I’ve had some weird hacking problems in the past with my newest computer, but the thing that happened tonight has go to be the weirdest of all. So, I pull up my computer and lo and behold, there’s a tab on my browser where it appears as though someone — not me — wanted to look at Twitter but couldn’t because my computer wasn’t connected to WiFi.

I’m fully willing to admit that this was just a fluke of my computer. The only reason why I am weirded out by this event is the specific tab I was working on was the one that was used to attempt the connection to Twitter AND I wasn’t connected to the Internet via a Wifi link.

So, if it was a hacker, how did they even get into my computer in the first place?

It’s all very strange. I guess if you wanted to go completely bonkers, you might suggest, I don’t know, the Deep State was involved in some way. But right now, I’m a complete nobody. So much of a nobody that the Deep State — even if it actually existed — would have no reason to worry about me. There’s pretty much nothing I could possibly do that would cause any punitive Deep State want to fuck with my computer.

That leaves, I dunno, space aliens?

Unless the ghost in the machine starts to give me some indication of who they are and their motives, I guess I’m going to have to just assume it’s weird Windows issues going on.

It’s all very odd, though.

Some Idle Thoughts About Space Aliens


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m growing more and more sure in my belief that the universe is teaming with life, much of it intelligent and for some reason we just haven’t encountered it yet.

The reason why I believe this is earth has so much life — that started as soon as it could — that I find it difficult to believe that life didn’t pop up in the universe the moment it cooled down enough for it to happen.

This leads to the age old question — where is everybody?

There are a huge number of potential solutions. One solution is that we’re in some sort of Matrix situation and we’re all living in a vat and the universe we’re seeing isn’t the real one. Why this might be the case is best left to science fiction.

Another possible solution is there’s a very well established galactic order of some sort that that simply isn’t all that interested in us right now. They know about us, probably are monitoring closely but are waiting for us to meet some metric before introducing themselves.

The Implications Of Big Tech Concealing A ‘Soft Singularity’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me qualify what I’m proposing — I’m simply looking at what appears to be happening (Big Tech can read our minds via our phones) and then playing out the implications of such a theory.

I could be totally wrong. It’s very possible. But some of Tik-Tok’s apparent abuses of digital telepathy have made it seem so obvious to me that some sort of Soft Singularity has happened without anyone telling us that I have to talk about it.

Let’s review the evidence as to why I think a Soft Singularity has happened. First, Facebook some time ago patented mind-reading technology. Second, repeatedly over the last year or so, I’ve noticed being pushed ads that are so specific to what I’ve been THINKING about that no possible algorithmic explanation makes any sense.

What’s more, especially with Tik-Tok, there is an abstract nature to some of the things I’ve been pushed that is alarming. If you work on the assumption that my mind is being read by my phone, it’s not like they know the word “GIRL” is at the forefront of my mind, it’s as if they actually are rooting around my mind to the extent that they can push videos of “GIRL WHO LOOKS LIKE ANNIE SHAPIRO.”

The prospect of that going on with millions of Tik-Tok users, not just me, is extremely dark and surreal. It starts to make you think about the moral implications of Big Tech (especially a Big Tech company so close to the Chinese government) knowing that much about a big chunk of the American population.

Not, at this point, let me be absolutely clear — if I’m missing some way that they can simply figure out that I like girls who look like a specific woman that I think about a lot via algorithmic assumptions, then, so be it. I will feel a lot better. But, even then, the algorithms would be so good at their job, that that, in itself, would be cause for alarm.

So, I guess what I’m suggesting is it’s at least possible that technology has advanced a lot further than we think.

The Thing About Space Aliens


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about space aliens is I suspect that there is some sort of growing down low consensus in the scientific community that the universe is probably full of life — much of it intelligent and space fairing.

But, to date, there have just been very tiny clues that indicate this is the truth.

What’s more, you could actually know this to be an absolute fact and if you don’t have any proof to back you up, absolutely no one will believe you.

That’s the wild thing about this subject — unless you have absolute proof that aliens exist, then, lulz, you’re a crazy person.

This makes you wonder not only what the aliens may be waiting for, but why we’re having growing a bit of evidence here and there that they exist in the first place. Are we reaching a point in our technological advancement that we’re interesting to aliens? Are we seen as a threat to them or ourselves?

Anyway.

I don’t expect any First Contact any time soon. But it is something to think about. It’s a least possible that there’s a lot more going on out there in space than we might think.

Only time will tell exactly what.

Eyes Wide Shut: Big Tech’s Digital Telepathy


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let’s think about this. Why, specifically, have I come to the conclusion that Digital Telepathy is being used rather widely right now. Given that they’re using the Internet to do this, I guess maybe you might call it Internet Digital ESP? I feel like Big Tech has some sort of buzzy cooperate speak that they use when they’re talking about this technology in a meeting.

Tik-Tok can read our minds.

Anyway, back to the point.

I’m know for not only being wrong all the time, but occasionally thinking up some pretty weird ideas. And, I guess this could be another instance of that. I mean, just because Facebook has a patent for Digital Telepathy, doesn’t mean that Tik-Tok has it and is using it.

So, what has me so convinced?

I would have to say Tik-Tok’s abuse of its For You Page is what did it. When they have narrowed down the specific phenotypes of women who have been important to me over the years to the point that I find myself saying, “Hey, that girl looks like Annie Shapiro!” something is going on.

I’m on to you Big Tech.

Let’s talk about that.

There are two female phenotypes that have made a big impression on me over the years. One of them is that of the late Annie Shapiro. That they would find a young lady that looks soooooooo much like Annie Shapiro Means Something. Our choices are that they’re using AI along with some significant rooting around on my phone so make some pretty astonishing inferences about the type of women I like, or, more directly, they are rooting around in my wetware, if you will.

I feel ya, Martha.

When you start to think that it’s not even Google or Facebook, but fucking Tik-Tok that is rooting around in my mind, the implications can make you sick to your stomach. You definitely get a sense of mental rape. Is Annie Shapiro still so important to my mind that they are able to figure out that for emotional and sentimental reasons I like girls who look like Annie Shapiro? Or even more ominous — to what extent have they hacked into my subconscious!

The implications of that alone would be staggering.

Because if Tik-Tok can peer into the subconscious minds of its uses, what’s to stop them (the Chinese government) from at some point using that information and / or selling it to the highest bidder?

I have no idea if my suspicious are in any way based in reality. I’m sure someone at Vox has it all figured out and I’m just pulling this out of my butt like usual. But….it definitely seems as though something…odd is going on.

The Implications Of ‘Digital Telepathy’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Talk about future shock.

If Big Tech is secretly using the Internet to read our minds, the implications are massive. One question I have is are they storing what they know about us somewhere, or is it some sort of ephemeral point-to-point thing? I think if my fears are real, then what’s happening is there’s a massive amount of processing power being used that is being hidden from us.

Or, to put it another way, while we were all being “entertained” by the Trump Show, some pretty massive technological changes were being slipped past us without us realizing it.

We can read your mind…

If Facebook, Google and Tik-Tok aren’t storing what they know about our minds, they probably are working towards it. Even more interesting is who knows this stuff? What if someone goes rouge and starts to use what they know about our most personal thoughts to make money? I guess if you had the information of enough minds in aggregate at your disposal, you could predictively play the stock market quite effectively.

I guess what I’m trying to say is — what if the Singularity happened an The Powers That Be didn’t tell us? If they’re hiding Digital Telepathy from us, would they even tell us if hard AI came into existence? What the fuck is Silcom Valley up to? What’s their vision?

Now, let me be clear — it’s not like I think they’re out to get ME. I’m a random no body that no one listens to me. I’m just a crank. They have absolutely nothing to worry about — no one is listening to me, no one cares what I have to say and I can pretty much just rant about this obvious scandal and nothing will happen other than people will just roll their eyes and think I’m crazy.

My only response is the Martha Mitchell Syndrome — I know the truth and everyone thinks I’m crazy just like how she knew about Watergate just about when it happened.

To me, it’s not so much that they can read my mind it’s that they’re hiding it from us. If they were to slowly let the cat out of the bag, to let our minds get used to the idea that they can be read…then, lulz. But Big Tech is setting itself up for it’s own “disruption” if they start to use Digital Telepathy not only as a crutch, but as a secret money making opportunity.

Not cool, guys, not cool.