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I've often wondered what happens psychologically to people who inject "noise" into their virtual personas to evade being identified. Does the fake persona start

I've often wondered what happens psychologically to people who inject "noise" into their virtual personas to evade being identified. Does the fake persona start to leak back into their everyday personality? If you do this long term does your personal identity start to erode?

nostrebored 11y ago
I'm of the opinion that the brain is very plastic. I feel like if you surround yourself with enough things that run contrary to your current beliefs your surroundings will leak in, without you being aware of this change at all. Psychologists have already shown that things such as violent media have immediate effects on the psyche, why would opinions etc. be any different? Also, you might find this interesting: http://www.seeing-i.co.uk/ http://www.seeing-i.co.uk/
walshemj 11y ago
The BBC did an interesting two part dramatization on Kim Philby recently not sure if its been on PBS http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0406w88 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0406w88 They actually showed Philbys press conference where he was proclaiming his innocence - still used as a training aid apparently
shalmanese 11y ago
Read A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick.
MichaelGG 11y ago
I've noticed that with lies I maintain personally, I start to believe them over time. This is why Eliezer (LessWrong) is so against lying - it's hard enough to reach the truth when you're explicitly trying, let alone when you sabotage it on purpose. With lies I need to keep, history starts rewriting itself. I remember things differently than reality. OTOH, that's how I maintain a few secrets (nothing that useful really) - I "truly" believe them when taking to friends and family. This might be why it's so hard for people to maintain cover. In this article, we see Ross dying to tell people. Now if he had been involved with a BTC exchange and done a few illegal things, I dunno, would that be enough? He could let that slip without letting on more. But it's super hard and I suck at it, so... I'm sure real agents have better training and ways to cope. It'd be cool to see training materials.

nostrebored 11y ago

I'm of the opinion that the brain is very plastic. I feel like if you surround yourself with enough things that run contrary to your current beliefs your surroundings will leak in, without you being aware of this change at all. Psychologists have already shown that things such as violent media have immediate effects on the psyche, why would opinions etc. be any different? Also, you might find this interesting: http://www.seeing-i.co.uk/ http://www.seeing-i.co.uk/

walshemj 11y ago

The BBC did an interesting two part dramatization on Kim Philby recently not sure if its been on PBS http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0406w88 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0406w88 They actually showed Philbys press conference where he was proclaiming his innocence - still used as a training aid apparently

shalmanese 11y ago

Read A Scanner Darkly by Phillip K Dick.

MichaelGG 11y ago

I've noticed that with lies I maintain personally, I start to believe them over time. This is why Eliezer (LessWrong) is so against lying - it's hard enough to reach the truth when you're explicitly trying, let alone when you sabotage it on purpose. With lies I need to keep, history starts rewriting itself. I remember things differently than reality. OTOH, that's how I maintain a few secrets (nothing that useful really) - I "truly" believe them when taking to friends and family. This might be why it's so hard for people to maintain cover. In this article, we see Ross dying to tell people. Now if he had been involved with a BTC exchange and done a few illegal things, I dunno, would that be enough? He could let that slip without letting on more. But it's super hard and I suck at it, so... I'm sure real agents have better training and ways to cope. It'd be cool to see training materials.