We live in a simulation.
But not like you think I mean. I don't mean we are bits of data on some extra-dimensional hard drive, I mean that our perceptions are distorted and controlled and the reality we see isn't the reality that's really there.
This is a perfect example of an even more pervasive condition.
I'm not saying there is a secret cabal shaping our destinies from behind closed doors, they are all out in the open. We all know that there is a governing elite that shapes parts of the world at scale to encourage compliance. They freely admit to it.
In HyperNormalisation, a 2016 BBC documentary by British filmmaker Adam Curtis, we see how this sort of thing came about and is perpetuated.
And the biggest advantage that these billionaires have over us besides more money than we could ever hope to have, which itself is unlimited power, is Narrow Artificial Intelligence Systems.
We all feed an immeasurable amount of data into these predictive algorithms minute by minute, and with enough of this data, a sufficiently advanced predictive AI could easily start tweaking values here and there to predict what stimulus could produce almost any desired effect. We have proof of this sort of thing right in front of us too.
The Great Hack on Netflix delves into this topic by looking at Cambridge Analytica's role in the Brexit and Trump Campaign. There are clear lines of collusion that can all but be proven between the world's largest companies in almost every sliver of our so-called reality, and these predictive AI's are all up in it. Even your grocery store is controlling you!
There is no secret conspiracy, this is all very out in the open, we just ignore it because we are slaves to our distractions. We see the protests in Hong Kong, and the genocide that is taking place, and let's not sugar coat it, there are many genocides taking place all around the world right now, and we feel as if we are informed, but then we keep scrolling and we see a cute family of foxes playing in someone's backyard and all is okay. Every terrible and horrific truth comes with a chaser to soften the blow. The controlling elite knows that it can't hide in the shadows, because if everything smelt like roses we wouldn't accept that everything was okay. We live in the matrix and we don't even need to be stuck in a pod hooked up to wires.
We have apps that develop a profile of what we individually find attractive, and that feeds the AI and our individual digital experience is evermore tailored to our experience. Targeted Ads, Instagram and Facebook Algorithms, Tinder and Spotify, YouTube and Netflix, fucking AMAZON! There's a reason Bezos is so fucking rich, He's got the literal biggest goldmine in the west! And yes, even Reddit is all a part of the machine, it is probably the biggest cog next to Amazon. We upvote what we like, and it feeds the machine. Hell, we don't even need to upvote, our downvotes feed it just as well. Fuck that, we don't even need to vote at all, we just need to engage and spend our attention and the algorithm is sated. Even not spending our attention on content has the same computational effect.
We are all simple binary logic gates within this Simulated Reality, an integral and interconnected, yet biological counterpart component to the digital AI system.
We are the Hive-Mind. Resistance is futile.
When looking at the whole picture it becomes easy to see that we vote with our attention every second of every day, and these algorithms learn to predict our behaviour using that information. Each time the variables are adjusted here and there the AIs learn from it. By using location data and cross-referencing it with the other 10,000 data points these AIs have on each and every one of us it all of a sudden becomes a small logical step to assume that you are not just being observed and marketed to and by this process, but we are in fact being controlled by these AI systems. No wonder our information is such a valuable commodity. It informs these Mega Corps of what they can get away with.
Or did the chicken come before the Egg?
By stepping back and examining the bigger picture of the implications that predictive modelling will inevitably lead to, it is clearly evident that we are truly living in a simulated reality. This is why controls needed to be put in place around AI systems. Don't listen to Musk tell you that the real danger is in the future and we can't let general AI out of the box, we are already getting railed by these systems.
Of course, it's not all doom and gloom, AI has tremendous potential to slingshot humanity into a more benevolent future, but unless these Mega Corps are leashed, we will never get out from under their thumbs. And how can we do that if they are holding all the cards? This is not a boring dystopia, it's a perfect dystopia, the wool IS pulled over us and there isn't really anything we can do about it. At this point, we can't even unplug from the matrix.