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You might find this to be a good read: The Agency "From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wrea

by rashkov 11y ago

You might find this to be a good read: The Agency "From a nondescript office building in St. Petersburg, Russia, an army of well-paid “trolls” has tried to wreak havoc all around the Internet — and in real-life American communities." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html

api 11y ago
Wow. When I wrote the previous I half thought I might be nuts, but this is actually more paranoia-inspiring than what I was suggesting. How did I not hear about this story?!? This isn't just fake news. It's a full-blown fake event. They created -- for a period of time -- a real live sort of virtual reality in which something happened that did not happen. Unlike earlier examples of fake history, this was live! A live breaking hoax! ... and of course, we absolutely can't assume that Russia is the only government or other agency doing this. That'd be fairly naive, especially given how easy it is and the potential both for offensive intelligence and profit. Take that ball and run with it and it gets very, very dystopian. To make something up: what if Fukushima didn't happen? Obviously I'm not actually suggesting this, but as we live more and more in a digitally-informed reality how plausible does faking a world-changing event become? Could we be headed for a world where there will be large percentages of people walking around believing that totally imaginary things are happening? Think about it. What proof do you actually have that Fukushima occurred? Unless you live in Japan, the answer is: "not much." This isn't new of course, but the Internet could definitely take it to the next level by allowing a much more realistic simulation of a real event to be delivered to a wider audience. Could you actually create a full blown parallel universe and lure a good number of people into it? We're sort of there already. There are whole weird pockets of people who think all kinds of strange things that are... umm... unlikely. But the scary nightmare fuel here for me is the idea of this being industrialized and well-financed. The potential for mass manipulation is kind of freaky. Now throw specialized AI sock puppets into the mix that can impersonate millions of people discussing the same non-realities and non-events. It's mechanized information warfare -- to old propaganda it's like comparing a machine gun to a musket. How many years would you say we are away from the first AI-powered industrial scale hoax delivered say... the day of an election? There'd be two choices: let the hoaxers sway the election, or cancel the election and play into their hands in another way.
- mirimir 11y ago
  The US does this too. But they mostly go after Islamist sites. For example, see US FBO Solicitation Number RTB220610 for Persona Management Software for the Air Force.[0] Also, there's the RT vs Fox dynamic. RT does lots of crazy stuff, from New Age to Tea Party. So sometimes Fox and RT are spreading the same memes. Very strange. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20110222010732/https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d88e9d660336be91552fe8c1a51bacb2&tab=core&_cview=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20110222010732/https://www.fbo.g...

by rashkov 11y ago

api 11y ago

Wow. When I wrote the previous I half thought I might be nuts, but this is actually more paranoia-inspiring than what I was suggesting. How did I not hear about this story?!? This isn't just fake news. It's a full-blown fake event. They created -- for a period of time -- a real live sort of virtual reality in which something happened that did not happen. Unlike earlier examples of fake history, this was live! A live breaking hoax! ... and of course, we absolutely can't assume that Russia is the only government or other agency doing this. That'd be fairly naive, especially given how easy it is and the potential both for offensive intelligence and profit. Take that ball and run with it and it gets very, very dystopian. To make something up: what if Fukushima didn't happen? Obviously I'm not actually suggesting this, but as we live more and more in a digitally-informed reality how plausible does faking a world-changing event become? Could we be headed for a world where there will be large percentages of people walking around believing that totally imaginary things are happening? Think about it. What proof do you actually have that Fukushima occurred? Unless you live in Japan, the answer is: "not much." This isn't new of course, but the Internet could definitely take it to the next level by allowing a much more realistic simulation of a real event to be delivered to a wider audience. Could you actually create a full blown parallel universe and lure a good number of people into it? We're sort of there already. There are whole weird pockets of people who think all kinds of strange things that are... umm... unlikely. But the scary nightmare fuel here for me is the idea of this being industrialized and well-financed. The potential for mass manipulation is kind of freaky. Now throw specialized AI sock puppets into the mix that can impersonate millions of people discussing the same non-realities and non-events. It's mechanized information warfare -- to old propaganda it's like comparing a machine gun to a musket. How many years would you say we are away from the first AI-powered industrial scale hoax delivered say... the day of an election? There'd be two choices: let the hoaxers sway the election, or cancel the election and play into their hands in another way.

mirimir 11y ago
The US does this too. But they mostly go after Islamist sites. For example, see US FBO Solicitation Number RTB220610 for Persona Management Software for the Air Force.[0] Also, there's the RT vs Fox dynamic. RT does lots of crazy stuff, from New Age to Tea Party. So sometimes Fox and RT are spreading the same memes. Very strange. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20110222010732/https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d88e9d660336be91552fe8c1a51bacb2&tab=core&_cview=1 https://web.archive.org/web/20110222010732/https://www.fbo.g...