Social Media Social Credit - Your Primer on Big Government by By Numbers

Welcome to the New World Order - once we initiate the Great Reset, that is.  The big reveal will be, that you all already have your place in the system.  We know each and every one of you by name.  We know where you belong, and we have tailored everything just to your liking.  Since we already knew everything about you, it wasn't hard.

We all know that social media is fake - we know they use algorithms to influence and divide us.  But did you know there is something much more sinister going on behind the scenes?  Very few people have talked about this - they are classifying us.  That means, everything you do is being monitored, not just to determine your preferences, but to determine your CLASS.  Where you will fit in the new society.

It also means that they are testing, scoring and gate-keeping your digital experience.  As you engage with certain communities online, you may find yourself feeling as though you've been ushered into a new dimension, a 'higher level.'  That means, when the AI determines that you are getting the right responses from your chosen circle, it will unlock new content for you, new conversations.  It may appear as though the quality of online discourse has suddenly improved, or that people are waking up.  No, it's just that you've been identified with a certain group, and perhaps moved up a rank within that group.

I've peered behind the curtain, and what I saw disturbed me to the core.  People have strange ideas about AI - that it will surpass humanity, that artificial consciousness is just around the corner.  Well, as a professional software engineer and AI enthusiast, I am about to ruin your sci-fi fantasy: AI is just statistical modeling.  It's nothing more than a giant, complex spreadsheet.  No matter how big, or how complex your spreadsheet gets, subjective consciousness will not emerge.  It will always just be probabilities. A sentient project budget-tracker would be a hilarious premise for a Dilbert comic strip, however.

As I explained here, statistics are not the be all and end all of decision making.  They should only be one factor of decision making.  First of all, YOU are not a statistic, you are an individual who doesn't fit neatly into any mathematical model.

Secondly, data doesn't tell us the whole picture.  Some things are just subjective - such as values.  Even if we both agree on the data and even if we both agree on the statistical outcome of a given course of action, that doesn't mean we both want to take that path.  Your values, subjective experience and judgment are all unique, and cannot be predicted, replicated or controlled on an individual basis with any certainty.  Life happens in the cracks between the data.  It just so happens that those cracks are a vast reality, while the data is more like a thin venetian blind.

I suspect we are all about to be 'saved' by the data on COVID and vaccines.  We are going to love it, and we are going to demand our leaders to follow the data next time. But remember - this was all just part of the plan.

Running the numbers

 As promised in my earlier post on making your own choice, I have run the numbers on myself, and the most vulnerable person I know - my 85 year old, seriously ill grandmother.

I used this research-backed calculator from Oxford University.

My own risk profile came in at 1 in 111111 chance of death from COVID.  I'm pretty sure I've come closer to death from coffee consumption since lockdown started...

My grandmother, who's health issues I obviously won't disclose, but they are myriad - she came in at 1 in 203.  So her odds of survival are still massively in her favor.   

We should also consider the risk/benefit trade-off for the vaccine for our respective demographics.  My grandmother has already had the vaccine, so it's a moot point for her.  I'm glad too, because her group need it more, and seem to suffer less side-effects to boot.  I'll look into my own risk/reward in a follow up post.

Strangely, there was one key question missing from this calculator - vaccination status.  I wonder when they will update it.

In the end, I was astounded at how low the risks really are.  We are basically on house-arrest for two years and have shutdown the global economy, to avoid my grandma having to curl up at home with some chicken broth for a few days.

Anti-Propaganda

I wrote a list of items that we should be teaching people to inoculate them against this shit ever happening again:

I grew up with my grandparents who were fairly well read, and whose parents and grandparents fought overseas, having immigrated from Europe. I remember many things they spoke of, but most relevant would be otherwise unimaginable concepts such as police states, martial law, curfews, famine, hyperinflation, genocide.

Mum completed her psychology degree while homeschooling us - she taught us many fascinating phenomena such as: peer pressure, by-stander effect, the Milgram experiment, Stanford Prison experiment, paranoia, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorders, and cognitive biases (there are many - an entire taxonomy, if you're interested)

My degree is in computer science, which includes some math, logic and philosophy. One key aspect of logic is understanding the logical fallacies - one very relevant example is argument by authority.

My studies also lead me to further reading in cynicism and skepticism, but also to understand that all models and abstractions are inherently limited and flawed (see Goedel, and also 'The Law of Leaky Abstractions'), and that all man-made systems are prone to failure (with 100% predictability - it's a matter of when, not if), and that one of the most common causes of failure is human factors.

The above points lead me to maintain an appreciation of both the limits of, and the beautiful practicality of human intuitive reasoning - essentially all human thought is intuitive, even when formalized, at which point it is necessarily corrupted by abstraction (eg Newtonian physics vs relativity vs quantum)

I attended a number of marketing lectures, and also studied cults like The People’s Temple, which impressed me with the malleability of social opinions, the tools and techniques applied to that end, and the human cognitive biases they leverage. One fascinating example is the principle of selective attention (single focus), which pickpockets and magicians heavily rely on. Another great one is 'negative space', ie our predisposition to overlook what is NOT there. A wonderful kiwi author wrote a great story illustrating this one beautifully - "Schnitzel von Krumm - forget me not", haha

Since 2014, I became interested in hypnosis (not in the sense of a trance, but rather the persuasive power of words), and I began to learn about the tools and techniques of persuasion and propaganda at both the individual and societal level, and how they were applied by those very regimes my grandparents taught me about.

As a systems designer, I recognize the importance of resilience, redundancy, checks and balances. Its amazing to me how often such systems show up in nature, such as ecology and biology. I believe people such as myself are a natural example of such systems existing in human societies. Its not something I set out to do, I'm just like this. Maybe it's the ADHD?

Vaccine Choices

This decision isn't just about the numbers - even if the statistical probabilities point one way, we can't measure everything statistically, such as the terrible shitty political climate surrounding the vaccines. That stuff justifiably sways our opinions, is highly relevant and raises understandable doubts about whether we can even trust the data, the doctors, the experts, the manufacturers and so on.  People fall into group-think, and with the numbers in my country being so low, I have no idea how our medical professionals can be so powerfully under the spell of this disease. 

There's also something to be said for probability vs certainty.  The data may give us a 99.999% certainty.  That still leaves open the possibility that reality fits in the .001%.  It happens all the time - in fact YOU are .001% in thousands of statistical outcomes - hair/skin/eye color combination perhaps.  So mere numeric probability is not good enough for life-changing decisions that involve values, subjective judgement and hedging our bets.

Hedging our bets you ask?  Yes - nature always hedges her bets.  That's why we are all so different from one another.  That's why we don't all run in the same direction - in case there is a cliff at the end, some of us will have gone the other way.  We always need those people in any healthy society - we can't demand the same course of action even if we're all looking at the same data.

That said, I've reached a turning point. I'm over all the noise. I'm over all the politics. I'm sitting down and doing the math, for myself.

I'm done rebelling for the sake of rebelling. But - to all you rabid pro-vaxxers out there - your rhetoric, your callous disregard for human rights, disrespect for individual autonomy and hatred of independent thinkers - you couldn't have done a better job of putting smart and insightful people off the jabs.  To all the unvaccinated - go you.  I fully support your rights, and you should not cave to the pressure, no matter how bad it gets.  They are in the wrong - you need your time and space to figure this thing out for yourself and make your own decision.  I get it - you are your own person, with individual rights and medical agency.

I've decided to ignore all the noise surrounding the pro- and anti-vax debate - including the disgusting politics (mandates, passports, law changes, manipulative propaganda, peer-pressure), in order to investigate the stats, mechanism of action, risk/reward for myself.  It feels great.  I feel calm, clear, rational.  Let's do this.  Not for the politicians, not for grandma.  For ourselves.  I'm making a decision for myself, to support your right to make a decision for yourself.

Leadership

Have you ever wondered why leaders so often speak so much without saying anything of substance or detail?  Why does everyone seem satisfied with that?

In business, communication is key.  But what makes for good communication?

The answer is brevity, simplicity, elegant minimalism.  A good rule of thumb is to remove every word you can without losing the meaning.  Less is more.  Also, use basic language over jargon.  Familiarity aides comprehension and readability.

With this in mind - what is the boiled down essence of leadership?  The simple answer is to move a group towards a common goal.  To set priorities and to generate consensus.   This is the purest aim of leadership.  Information and details are often the enemy of consensus.  Details muddy the waters, and create openings for disagreement.  Thus "Big picture thinking" is what leaders specialize in.

Then what is leadership not?  A leader is not a teacher, a friend or a problem solver.  The larger the group, the less relevant any such status becomes. In a small group, where one-on-one interaction with the leader is more relevant, like-ability and other traits may be more useful.  Everything else - if it doesn't directly contribute to group consensus, then it's not leadership.  This includes accuracy, detail, like-ability and other niceties, which can even work against that goal.

Even if you personally don't like your leaders, you'll probably still follow, or at least co-operate with your group that does, which is the desired outcome.

Some world leaders have caught their biggest critics by surprise with their inter-personal charm in smaller settings.  This is not to say personal charm is a needed trait, but demonstrates that they have understood the irrelevance of certain traits on the larger stage.  Adaptable leaders are able to tailor their persona and their messaging to the context.  “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time”  A leader who understands these points will not waste their energy or their words trying to achieve the impossible. When dealing with a large group, they understand their goal - not to be liked, but to direct the group.  Since it's impossible to tailor messaging to everyone at once, it becomes necessary to sacrifice detail, like-ability and other irrelevant niceties.  

Chess and climbing

I played the best game of chess of my life the other day.

It was the first time I had played in years, so I was pretty relaxed going in, since I was expecting to lose.  That relaxation allowed me to think more clearly without judging and doubting every thought and every analysis, and avoid making simple errors.  It allowed my thoughts to just flow, and to keep moving without getting stuck on something or fixated on an idea or a problem.

I kept this principal in mind throughout the whole game: good moves are NOT impossible to find, and in the opening stages, I just wanted every move to count.  Don't waste your early moves.  Don't bring out your Queen or Bishop only to have it driven back immediately.  Hold your best pieces back, but get them into striking positions where they can work together.  Control the center of the board.   Know where you want your pieces to be and simply start working towards that position without wasting a move.  The best way to make your moves count is to force your opponent to keep responding to them rather than advancing their own agenda.  Following these principals will create tactical opportunities you can't anticipate.

And the final principal was - choose the _fun_ moves.  The moves that created drama, complexity and interest.  If a move was interesting, I played it, even when I wasn't 100% confident in it.

In the end, this led to one of the most complicated and interesting middle games I've ever played, with action in three out of four corners, and the cleverest checkmate combo I had ever come up with.  The strong strategic position created that opportunity.  It's hard to find water in a desert.  I wish I had recorded the game.

Climbing

I did the best climb of my life today.  The key was _keep moving_.  Whenever I stop to rest on a wall, it ends up draining more strength.  When the time comes to make a move, just make it.  Trust your body and go for it.  If you can do it, you may surprise yourself.  If you can't, try again next time.  But the point is, true rest comes from movement.  Keep things flowing and relaxed and you'll last a lot longer.  If you can't make the big move yet, just keep adjusting until you find a better vantage point.  You'll get a lot more creative in your climbs if you move by instinct and just keep moving.

Happiness

Make the moves that feel good, that lead to fun, interest and challenge.  Happiness is not a fixed state, a stasis, a static position.  Happiness is a process.  A river is not happy when it gets stuck in a hole.  It wants to keep flowing.  You've got to keep moving, progressing and flowing.  This is life.  Life moves, life flows.  Life needs to keep moving to be happy.

Persuasion in the bible

Well, I do fear that this is delving into the realm of soul-power, which the Bible opposes. This is the current of the age, and more people are learning to tap into this kind of manipulation of others. This was predicted in the Bible.

In the Bible everything begins from two sources, represented by two trees.  On the one hand, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, with attractive yet poisonous knowledge, reasonings and doubtings of the Serpent.  On the other hand, we have the tree of Life, with the promise of identification with God in His very essence.  The whole Bible then, is a war of persuasion - with God trying to persuade us to His side, and Satan trying to persuade us to any side but God's.  So then, I take no issue with any form of persuasion, as long as it's source is in God.  This implies that there is real substance, truth and life underlying the message, not emptiness, vanity, death and lies, as in the case of Satan.

Jesus said his followers are the salt of the earth, and if they lose their saltiness, with what shall they be salted?  Salt tastes strong.  It can be good or bad, but in any case it has a little power, a little influence.  Salt is pure, almost elemental.  It's taste derives from it's constitution.  Salt can heal wounds and kill germs.  If we are genuinely 'salt', we will have a genuine and strong 'flavor'.

In the Bible and all Christian writing, you will find all of these methods applied, to persuade us either to God's side or to Satan's. Sometimes it's hard to tell which - remember the subtle serpent is a master of disguise, while God Himself likes to remain hidden, even outwardly repellent, and let His core virtues attract us...  The greatest gift God gave to man, His Life, came from His pierced side.

Suffice it to say, I believe relating well to others is the key to influence. The level of relatedness is determined by the level of maturity and socio-emotional intelligence. The level of maturity and the level of socio-emotional intelligence are determined by the level of life - eg Dog life versus Human life or Baby life versus Adult life, all versus Christ and the Divine Life.