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The Borg may turn out to be prophetic. We could turn into a hive mind of sorts. I've already been calling Internet fads, echo chambers, and meme outbreaks "Bor

by api 8y ago

The Borg may turn out to be prophetic. We could turn into a hive mind of sorts. I've already been calling Internet fads, echo chambers, and meme outbreaks "Borgsongs." I seem to recall this term from STTNG for the omnipresent hive signal experienced by Borg.

21 8y ago
Imagine a neural network who could design memes/songs by directly measuring a bunch of test subject brains. Kind of like a focus group. A short story even asked the question, could you engineer a meme/song so powerful that it could literally make you go insane? We know this stuff exists (brainwashing, cults, ...), but can you super concentrate it?
- guscost 8y ago
  For those who haven’t seen it, here’s the classic Funniest Joke in the World skit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YeMnPyusuBE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YeMnPyusuBE
- api 8y ago
  That stuff is kind of like adversarial examples for human brains, and it probably is possible to deeply study the brain and create super indoctrination techniques. At some point we are going to be forced to start regulating persuasion.
- dboon 8y ago
  This is a core idea in Infinite Jest. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you fancy the writing style it is surreally poignant on today's addiction culture.
zpallin 8y ago
However, such memetic behavior such as fads, echo chambers, and meme outbreaks predates the internet and even modern technology. So, according to your logic, it would seem we have always been the Borg.
- api 8y ago
  The quantitative difference in spreading velocity and general bandwidth is so large it becomes qualitative and looks a lot like a phase change. We burned stuff long before modern steam turbines and internal combustion engines...
  - matt_kantor 8y ago
    The same sort of thing could have been said (and was) when the telephone and printing press were invented, to pick just two examples.
    - api 8y ago
      It's been an ongoing process but there can be thresholds where phase shifts occur. We are experiencing an exponential rise in connectivity.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      And (possibly replacing telephone with telegraph and radio) those events pretty much turned the civilization upside down. They were transformative. So was the Internet. Now we have another qualitative step - never before people were actually connected 24/7, with constant Internet activations coming to our pocket.
ajmurmann 8y ago
I've been wanting to write a SciFi short story about this for years now. I expect that human-to-human communication will get faster and faster, especially once we get brain-to-computer implants. At that point at least from the outside making will be indistinguishable from a hive mind or even single lifeform made up of cells. On the other hand are we really that different from ants already? Maybe ants think of them last themselves as highly individualistic.

by api 8y ago

21 8y ago

Imagine a neural network who could design memes/songs by directly measuring a bunch of test subject brains. Kind of like a focus group. A short story even asked the question, could you engineer a meme/song so powerful that it could literally make you go insane? We know this stuff exists (brainwashing, cults, ...), but can you super concentrate it?

guscost 8y ago
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s the classic Funniest Joke in the World skit: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YeMnPyusuBE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YeMnPyusuBE
api 8y ago
That stuff is kind of like adversarial examples for human brains, and it probably is possible to deeply study the brain and create super indoctrination techniques. At some point we are going to be forced to start regulating persuasion.
dboon 8y ago
This is a core idea in Infinite Jest. I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but if you fancy the writing style it is surreally poignant on today's addiction culture.

zpallin 8y ago

However, such memetic behavior such as fads, echo chambers, and meme outbreaks predates the internet and even modern technology. So, according to your logic, it would seem we have always been the Borg.

api 8y ago
The quantitative difference in spreading velocity and general bandwidth is so large it becomes qualitative and looks a lot like a phase change. We burned stuff long before modern steam turbines and internal combustion engines...
- matt_kantor 8y ago
  The same sort of thing could have been said (and was) when the telephone and printing press were invented, to pick just two examples.
  - api 8y ago
    It's been an ongoing process but there can be thresholds where phase shifts occur. We are experiencing an exponential rise in connectivity.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    And (possibly replacing telephone with telegraph and radio) those events pretty much turned the civilization upside down. They were transformative. So was the Internet. Now we have another qualitative step - never before people were actually connected 24/7, with constant Internet activations coming to our pocket.

ajmurmann 8y ago

I've been wanting to write a SciFi short story about this for years now. I expect that human-to-human communication will get faster and faster, especially once we get brain-to-computer implants. At that point at least from the outside making will be indistinguishable from a hive mind or even single lifeform made up of cells. On the other hand are we really that different from ants already? Maybe ants think of them last themselves as highly individualistic.