This morning's post by @Undisciplined in the tough questions for Libertarians series got me thinking about this article, which I read a while ago. It's about how the lines about what's real have blurred; it's about how to one degree or other, we're all curating our own private worlds, and the consequences that play out when those worlds crash into other worlds.
Perhaps this helps to explain why fact-checking seems so pitiably unequal to our moment. Yes, unlike a genuine game, QAnon followers assert claims about the real world, and so they could, in theory, be verified and falsified. It isn’t all confirmation bias — surprise is still possible: The Pizzagate believer who in 2016 brought a rifle to a D.C. pizza place to rescue child sex slaves from a ring believed to involve Hillary Clinton was genuinely shocked that the building didn’t have a basement. But ARGs can keep going because there are a myriad of possible solutions to puzzles in the game world. Debunking only ever eliminates one small set of narratives, while keeping the master narrative, or the idea of it, intact. For QAnon, or contemporary witchcraft, or #TheResistance, or Infowars, or the idea that all elements of American life are structured by white supremacy, one deleted narrative barely puts a dent in what people are drawn to: the underlying world picture, the big story.
If you liked this morning's question, or this topic more generally, you may dig this article. It's one that has stuck with me for a while.
356 sats \ 5 replies \ @freetx 27 Mar
AI is going to amply this by 1000x
There will be complete fictional "news" reports, with all elements (including backstory historical references) which are completely AI generated. These will be composed to satisfy each target demographics viewpoint.
So the haters of Trump will get news reports showing his extensive connection to Nazi germany (along with AI generated Wikipedia links). These will include AI generated video and interviews. Admissions of guilt, testimony from court cases, etc.
Likewise a similar playbook will exist against Obama, except this time showing that it is Obama supporters (his stay-behind network) that are generating these fake "Trump is a Nazi" reports. These too will be completely fabricated by AI.
The final end-goal will be a society in which it is impossible to determine what is real - and further - a society in which every single thing said is completely fabricated.
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I think that's right, and was just talking to my wife about it last night. Here's the optimistic thought that I gave to her: all of this has happened before.
The foundational institutions, and critical cultural practices of society, are always upended around significant technological revolutions. The printing press, which we think of as an amazing creation of almost Platonic virtue, imploded people's lives and introduced massive death, carnage, and upheaval into the world.
And then, over decades and centuries, the world adapted to the new forces that had been set free. The same will happen again; and given the pace of change, it's possible we won't have to all crawl through blood and shit to get there.
My wife did not find the comfort in it that I had hoped for, however.
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37 sats \ 1 reply \ @freetx 27 Mar
Yes we will muddle our way thru this.
Personally, I think that "God" will make big come back. When faced with a very low-trust world, people will go back to the primacy of spiritual belief, since it transcends mere human truth.
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Hopefully but I think it will be small comeback
I hope I am wrong
First time for everything
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The only thing you will be able to trust is what your Bitcoin node says.
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Seems deliberate 🧐😎
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Yeah, this piece is fantastic and has me thinking about a ton of things. Thanks for sharing.
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Thanks for sharing this article.
Extract:
The most contested subjects in human history have arguably not been land or fortunes, but symbols, ideas, beliefs, and possibilities. As much blood has been spilled over products of the mind as of the body. The growing dominance of the Internet metaverse over “the real world” is just the next step in the story of man the myth-making animal.
You do not have to surrender your commitment to facts to participate in an alternate reality. You just have to engage with one, in any way. If you are a user of digital systems, if you allow them to provide you recommendations, if you train them on your preferences, if you respond in any way to the likes, downvotes, re-shares, and comment features they provide, or even if you are only a casual user of these systems but have friends and family and people you follow who are more deeply immersed in them, you are being formatted by them.
You will be assimilated.
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And this closing quote in turn makes me wonder what the author thinks of a site like SN, where we certainly respond to the likes/downvotes (zaps/downzaps) and comment. I think we all agree that this is a better environment than FB/Twitter/Etc, but how much of an alternate reality are we engaging in?
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Always has been
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For QAnon
There is no such thing as QAnon. There are Anons. There are Q posts. Which one are you talking about?
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10 sats \ 16 replies \ @anon 31 Mar
indeed, it was either a psyop, or one dude’s game on the internet fucking with the world
everyone should watch the hbo series on qanon, if they want to know more Q: Into the Storm
even joe rogan mentioned it once, that he found it worthwhile, for what its worth
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Which it are you talking about?
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the qanon phenomenon
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As I said, that is not a thing. There is Q, and there are anons. There is NO QANON.
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whatever, watch that doc series if you care to, or dont
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what ill add is that for all those got caught up in the qanon thing, it seemed quite real, even if as you say it did not exist like a big internet LARP
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Seen it. They are talking about Anons. Sometimes, they talk about Q posts. Which one do you think is the psy op?
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whatever the Q character was doing, likely some sort of disinfo campaign possibly
In 2015 I had a shared experience with my husband. We started to notice synchronicities happening at an accelerated rate. We both had previously noticed them before and passed them off as coincidence, however this was different. In one example we were watching the 'Devils Double', a movie about Saddam Hussians son who used the joker card as his calling card. At that moment his mother sent him a text of a joker she had drawn (she is an artist). This sounds nominal to the average person, however this was timed so precisely. It was the icing on the cake of all coincidence.
I this is far far more than what people realize is happening. I think people like to make neat understanding packages for things they can not explain. I can tell you that the experience we had and continue to have has caused us to draw very close to the roots of our faith.
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My post in the saloon seems to echo a lot of what is being said in this post. Realities are created and destroyed based on larger interests. Maybe not, maybe it's just what people want to hear. Is it? We shouldn't believe everything we hear, we should always question and act according to our principles.

The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he's in prison

🔗 #482404
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Note buy muturam on nostr about a completely ai generated lady sitting in a car talking to the camera. Literally cannot tell the difference between reality and ai now.
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I saw that one, it is freaky.
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