The Zombie Army Is Here
Take a look at this image:
Just about everyone who took intro courses in psychology knows this is the chief image used in the famous Asch conformity experiments. Long time readers of this LJ know I've mentioned this before. In a nutshell, if you want a significant number of people to say that the line in the left-most box is the same length as lines A or B in the right-most box, all you have to do is have four people agree that this is the case. It doesn't matter that C is clearly of equal length; a significant amount of social persuasion will make a significant number of people conform.
So, why am I rehashing this? Simple. I just read what might be the scariest thing I've read in months, if not years: Software is currently being used to enable one person to put their opinions into up to 50 individual on-line personas at once.
From the link:
According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.
For everyone not living in a cave cowering under a cot, this little bit of reality completely changes the nature of reality itself. For months now, friends and I have been speculating about how the political/corporate situation in the United States has gotten so completely untenable. Really, who in their right mind would vote for some of the idiots currently wielding power like a revving chainsaw in a roomful of oxy-acetylene filled balloons? What thinking person would allow the mindless brandishing of corporate power from notable groups of business masters? Now that private interests need only pay to buy this software to get fifty people ditto-heading whatever opinion makes the most money or builds support for the right power coalition, these same interests need not hire talking heads to do the same. (I'm not saying they won't hire the Becks, Goldbergs, Limbaughs and the rest of the opinion marionettes; I'm just saying they now have -- and have had for some time -- cheaper alternatives.)
This might also explain the bizarre spam attacks my LJ has been getting lately. Could someone be using this software with, say, a beginner's understanding of the English language? That might explain the content of those wacky replies. (I'm at work now, but will post a few wacky examples when I get some time tomorrow.)
The public sphere has been compromised. Without honest exchanges of opinion, it is impossible to gauge the public zeitgeist on any given issue. We have no protection from infection without outlawing the internet during campaigns; and we all know that ain't gonna happen.
Just about everyone who took intro courses in psychology knows this is the chief image used in the famous Asch conformity experiments. Long time readers of this LJ know I've mentioned this before. In a nutshell, if you want a significant number of people to say that the line in the left-most box is the same length as lines A or B in the right-most box, all you have to do is have four people agree that this is the case. It doesn't matter that C is clearly of equal length; a significant amount of social persuasion will make a significant number of people conform.
So, why am I rehashing this? Simple. I just read what might be the scariest thing I've read in months, if not years: Software is currently being used to enable one person to put their opinions into up to 50 individual on-line personas at once.
From the link:
According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HB Gary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.
For everyone not living in a cave cowering under a cot, this little bit of reality completely changes the nature of reality itself. For months now, friends and I have been speculating about how the political/corporate situation in the United States has gotten so completely untenable. Really, who in their right mind would vote for some of the idiots currently wielding power like a revving chainsaw in a roomful of oxy-acetylene filled balloons? What thinking person would allow the mindless brandishing of corporate power from notable groups of business masters? Now that private interests need only pay to buy this software to get fifty people ditto-heading whatever opinion makes the most money or builds support for the right power coalition, these same interests need not hire talking heads to do the same. (I'm not saying they won't hire the Becks, Goldbergs, Limbaughs and the rest of the opinion marionettes; I'm just saying they now have -- and have had for some time -- cheaper alternatives.)
This might also explain the bizarre spam attacks my LJ has been getting lately. Could someone be using this software with, say, a beginner's understanding of the English language? That might explain the content of those wacky replies. (I'm at work now, but will post a few wacky examples when I get some time tomorrow.)
The public sphere has been compromised. Without honest exchanges of opinion, it is impossible to gauge the public zeitgeist on any given issue. We have no protection from infection without outlawing the internet during campaigns; and we all know that ain't gonna happen.