Imagine a world where all human beings lived under the
control of one overlord. Humans consult
a central overlord for guidance before taking any action. They consult their overload on what they
should wear, what they should buy, where they should go. Any important decision must go through this
overlord before they take any action.
How dreadful this kind of world would be… except we’re already halfway
there.
I recently watched a Game Theory episode in which Matt
discussed how humans in real life are similar to the Zerg in the video game
Starcraft. At first it was an
interesting video talking about the hive habits of ants and bees and how they
have an overlord that essentially orders the underlings everything they have to
do, but I couldn’t see how humans would be in any way similar to these kinds of
creatures. Then, he revealed that humans
are accidentally creating an overlord of their own, and it’s called the
internet. Thinking back on our tech
diary experiment, we spend a large amount of time on some sort of technology.
This was a frightening revelation, and exploring this train
of thought brought no comfort. This was
sounding very similar to the Singularity that we discussed in class. Then, I started to piece together evidence to
this creation. Facebook is a starting
point for the Singularity. As shown in
the video Generation Like, we are compelled by the number of likes we get in an
arbitrary website. Not only do the users
feel compelled to enjoy content will a large number of likes, these likes are also
signals for companies and it decides for them what they should sell and who to
sell it to. When people want to buy
video games, they consult game reviews to see if it is worth their money. When a new movie comes out, people look up
metacritic or rotten tomatoes to see if the movie was gold or garbage. The latest fashion trend is dictated by what
people see on TV.
This is simply the consumer producer portion of the
influence of the media. What’s even more
terrifying is that we consult the internet for life advises. For example, most people nowadays follow
their GPS without thinking. If there is
a car accident or traffic, the GPS will guide us around and we simply
follow. Thinking about what collage you
should go to? Look up the top 10 return
on investment schools and pick the closest one.
Don’t know what career you should take?
Take a free online personality survey to figure out what’s best for you.
This is where it begins, and if we’re not careful, this is where
we will start to fall. As every new wave
of technology allows people easier access to the internet via their laptops,
tablets or even smartphones, we are slowly coming to the tipping point. We are already influenced by what we see,
hear, and read on the internet. So in
order to prevent the Singularity from occurring, we must spread the
warning! We should post this information
on some popular blogging site on the internet so that everyone can read it and
be influenced to stop being influenced by the internet… are we too late?
For those who want to see the video in question, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQirYEU2LOo
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