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Tangentially related is the concept of a memetic hazard, although this would be more something that targets the collective hivemind rather than weapons that tar

Tangentially related is the concept of a memetic hazard, although this would be more something that targets the collective hivemind rather than weapons that target individual human brains. https://memetics.miraheze.org/wiki/Memetic_hazard https://memetics.miraheze.org/wiki/Memetic_hazard https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/understanding-memetics https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/understanding-memetics

Hayarotle 5y ago
For a more serious, non-fiction take, I find this article by Nick Bostron on Information Hazards and their typology a quite interesting read too: https://nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf https://nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf
umvi 5y ago
I like to call these "thought prions" - infectious thoughts that near-permanently alter the way you perceive the world. I've seen several extended family members (on both sides of the political spectrum!) completely alter their worldviews based on political thought prions planted in their minds during covid.
- Angostura 5y ago
  The word "meme" as originally defined by Richard Dawkins (in The Selfish Gene) fits the role well - a self replicating belief or set of belief. He gave religion as the prime examople of an infectious meme - 'you must believe these set of things - you must also transmit the beliefs to others, or they risk eternal damnation'.
- anonporridge 5y ago
  Red pills might be another term.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- throwaway81523 5y ago
  The novel "Snowcrash" is about something like that. It is great.
  - fineIllregister 5y ago
    My recollection is that the process in Snowcrash is different in a significant way. The language that hacks people's brains is a protolanguage which the people hearing and speaking it don't understand. That limits who can wield it for their own ends. It works on a subconscious level. Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them.
    - ben_w 5y ago
      > Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them. Some memes work like that — pictures with text in particular — but “common sense” is also a set of memes, memes which are, in my experience, mostly approximations with failure modes that (in any given instance) most people are ignorant of, and where those with knowledge can exploit that ignorance. “Everything that goes up must come down“ except spacecraft. “You can’t be in two places at the same time” except where your body is straddling the border between the two places, or one place is nested inside the other, or places like the Hala'ib triangle where two countries both claim sovereignty. And stage magic, street magic, and scams like the shell game or Victorian seances, where “common sense” denies the audience in the first two cases and the victims in the last two any significant awareness of the effort put into the illusion. Or the homeopathy, Bach flower “remedies”, “healing” crystals, etc. that my mum believed in. And then you have cognitive stop signs and applause lights: politicians saying “for national security”, “think of the children”, “brexit means brexit”, or even just “9/11”.
      - HPsquared 5y ago
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3...
- HPsquared 5y ago
  I think "mind virus" is the most commonly used term. That or "meme".
mgdlbp 5y ago
"Understand", "Story of Your Life", and "Division by Zero" are short stories by Ted Chiang featuring similar concepts, including a deadly information weapon and other radically mind-altering ideas.
kongin 5y ago
> Tangentially related is the concept of a memetic hazard, although this would be more something that targets the collective hivemind rather than weapons that target individual human brains. >>The only body-related information warfare element considered by the United States is psychological operations (PSYOP)[5] >>What technologies have been examined by the United States that possess the potential to disrupt the data-processing capabilities of the human organism? The 7 July 1997 issue of U.S. News and World Report described several of them designed, among other things, to vibrate the insides of humans, stun or nauseate them, put them to sleep, heat them up, or knock them down with a shock wave.[9] The technologies include dazzling lasers that can force the pupils to close; acoustic or sonic frequencies that cause the hair cells in the inner ear to vibrate and cause motion sickness, vertigo, and nausea, or frequencies that resonate the internal organs causing pain and spasms; and shock waves with the potential to knock down humans or airplanes and which can be mixed with pepper spray or chemicals.[10] It literally isn't. This is the equivalent of attacking a network switch by running main power into the Ethernet ports. I have no idea why they are using the word firewall here, a much better title would be 'Human senses have no fuses'. >>According to Solntsev, one computer virus capable of affecting a person's psyche is Russian Virus 666. It manifests itself in every 25th frame of a visual display, where it produces a combination of colors that allegedly put computer operators into a trance. The subconscious perception of the new pattern eventually results in arrhythmia of the heart. Other Russian computer specialists, not just Solntsev, talk openly about this "25th frame effect" and its ability to subtly manage a computer user's perceptions. The purpose of this technique is to inject a thought into the viewer's subconscious. It may remind some of the subliminal advertising controversy in the United States in the late 1950s. The whole thing reads like the National Enquirer but for spooks. I seriously hope that this is not the level of discourse in the military and 3 letter agencies (but expect it is with dread) because we'd be better served by a troop of chimps flinging shit at a chart when it comes to deciding what new technologies to finance. At least it makes the last 5 years of insanity around Russia, Trump, Facebook and everything else we are having a moral panic over seem sane by comparison.
samwilliams 5y ago
That first link is an incredible rabbit hole. Thank you for sharing.
- Vingdoloras 5y ago
  You might enjoy "There Is No Antimemetics Division", a story (told in a series of short stories) about the idea of "Antimemes" (if memes are ideas that spread like viruses and can't be forgotten, antimemes are the opposite, they're not invisible but you can't remember them). https://qntm.org/scp https://qntm.org/scp
i_am_proteus 5y ago
The novel XX by Rian Hughes explores this idea in great depth.

Hayarotle 5y ago

For a more serious, non-fiction take, I find this article by Nick Bostron on Information Hazards and their typology a quite interesting read too: https://nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf https://nickbostrom.com/information-hazards.pdf

umvi 5y ago

I like to call these "thought prions" - infectious thoughts that near-permanently alter the way you perceive the world. I've seen several extended family members (on both sides of the political spectrum!) completely alter their worldviews based on political thought prions planted in their minds during covid.

Angostura 5y ago
The word "meme" as originally defined by Richard Dawkins (in The Selfish Gene) fits the role well - a self replicating belief or set of belief. He gave religion as the prime examople of an infectious meme - 'you must believe these set of things - you must also transmit the beliefs to others, or they risk eternal damnation'.
anonporridge 5y ago
Red pills might be another term.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
throwaway81523 5y ago
The novel "Snowcrash" is about something like that. It is great.
- fineIllregister 5y ago
  My recollection is that the process in Snowcrash is different in a significant way. The language that hacks people's brains is a protolanguage which the people hearing and speaking it don't understand. That limits who can wield it for their own ends. It works on a subconscious level. Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them.
  - ben_w 5y ago
    > Memes work on a conscious level in that people know and can explain what the meme is saying, and more people can create them. Some memes work like that — pictures with text in particular — but “common sense” is also a set of memes, memes which are, in my experience, mostly approximations with failure modes that (in any given instance) most people are ignorant of, and where those with knowledge can exploit that ignorance. “Everything that goes up must come down“ except spacecraft. “You can’t be in two places at the same time” except where your body is straddling the border between the two places, or one place is nested inside the other, or places like the Hala'ib triangle where two countries both claim sovereignty. And stage magic, street magic, and scams like the shell game or Victorian seances, where “common sense” denies the audience in the first two cases and the victims in the last two any significant awareness of the effort put into the illusion. Or the homeopathy, Bach flower “remedies”, “healing” crystals, etc. that my mum believed in. And then you have cognitive stop signs and applause lights: politicians saying “for national security”, “think of the children”, “brexit means brexit”, or even just “9/11”.
    - HPsquared 5y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3...
HPsquared 5y ago
I think "mind virus" is the most commonly used term. That or "meme".

mgdlbp 5y ago

"Understand", "Story of Your Life", and "Division by Zero" are short stories by Ted Chiang featuring similar concepts, including a deadly information weapon and other radically mind-altering ideas.

kongin 5y ago

> Tangentially related is the concept of a memetic hazard, although this would be more something that targets the collective hivemind rather than weapons that target individual human brains. >>The only body-related information warfare element considered by the United States is psychological operations (PSYOP)[5] >>What technologies have been examined by the United States that possess the potential to disrupt the data-processing capabilities of the human organism? The 7 July 1997 issue of U.S. News and World Report described several of them designed, among other things, to vibrate the insides of humans, stun or nauseate them, put them to sleep, heat them up, or knock them down with a shock wave.[9] The technologies include dazzling lasers that can force the pupils to close; acoustic or sonic frequencies that cause the hair cells in the inner ear to vibrate and cause motion sickness, vertigo, and nausea, or frequencies that resonate the internal organs causing pain and spasms; and shock waves with the potential to knock down humans or airplanes and which can be mixed with pepper spray or chemicals.[10] It literally isn't. This is the equivalent of attacking a network switch by running main power into the Ethernet ports. I have no idea why they are using the word firewall here, a much better title would be 'Human senses have no fuses'. >>According to Solntsev, one computer virus capable of affecting a person's psyche is Russian Virus 666. It manifests itself in every 25th frame of a visual display, where it produces a combination of colors that allegedly put computer operators into a trance. The subconscious perception of the new pattern eventually results in arrhythmia of the heart. Other Russian computer specialists, not just Solntsev, talk openly about this "25th frame effect" and its ability to subtly manage a computer user's perceptions. The purpose of this technique is to inject a thought into the viewer's subconscious. It may remind some of the subliminal advertising controversy in the United States in the late 1950s. The whole thing reads like the National Enquirer but for spooks. I seriously hope that this is not the level of discourse in the military and 3 letter agencies (but expect it is with dread) because we'd be better served by a troop of chimps flinging shit at a chart when it comes to deciding what new technologies to finance. At least it makes the last 5 years of insanity around Russia, Trump, Facebook and everything else we are having a moral panic over seem sane by comparison.

samwilliams 5y ago

That first link is an incredible rabbit hole. Thank you for sharing.

Vingdoloras 5y ago
You might enjoy "There Is No Antimemetics Division", a story (told in a series of short stories) about the idea of "Antimemes" (if memes are ideas that spread like viruses and can't be forgotten, antimemes are the opposite, they're not invisible but you can't remember them). https://qntm.org/scp https://qntm.org/scp

i_am_proteus 5y ago

The novel XX by Rian Hughes explores this idea in great depth.