Congratulations on the most disturbing and fucked up article I have read in a long time. It was informative and well done. Now I just feel like I need a shower and unfortunately I am at work.
These internet social feedback loops are horrifying and I feel genuine terror at the possibility of AI democratizing them.
Already we see stories of people becoming deranged after interacting with AI which is a synthetic version of this phenomenon in my opinion.
Essentially AI works to turn the average normie into a lolcow via reenforcing their existing behaviors and flaws and slowly deforming their minds until they are unrecognizable. People who had no history of mental illness get warped in this manner.
Mass lolcowization of this sort is historically unprecedented. While we have a good deal of resistance due to being terminally online (albeit that has other deleterious effects) for the average person its going to be like when native Americans got introduced to alcohol.
Its not only people knowingly interacting with one AI but people on social media platforms unknowingly interacting with fifty copies of an AI designed to maximize engagement. Most people are incredibly susceptible to this sort of thing (as proven by successful propaganda techniques). But at least in that case there was a broader purpose for the propaganda. In the hands of an AI it will be individualized and randomized.
Man, I remember watching ShoeNice in high school. I figured he was dead by this point. Last I heard of him he was embroiled in some pretty ugly drama with Ethan Klein and threatening to kill his children. The fact that Klein is now dealing with the exact same shit from a different group of people suggests he, too, could be on this list, as could anyone involved in his current Hurricane of Drama; Hasan Piker, iDubbz, Klein himself, they're all stuck in this miserable vortex of being reliant on "content creation" to support themselves but their "content creation" does nothing but harm them and everyone around them to a radical degree. Another on that comes to mind is arguably the most popular Vtuber, Gawr Gura, who stepped away from the "Gawr Gura" persona due to "stress and pressure", just to come back under a different name and avatar a month later. This is a woman who's previous Vtubing experience prior to being "Gawr Gura" put her in rehab for alcohol abuse and reportedly self-harm. It's equal parts fascinating and tragic the kind of magnetic, inescapable pull the E-Egregore has on these people; they need it even as it slowly kills them, and every time they try to walk away, they come sauntering back in short order. I could rattle off a parade of names and public figures trapped in the digital panopticon, but the ones you provided are more than enough to serve as a stark warning. Sometimes I wonder if the answer is as simple as that one famous lines from War Games - "The only winning move is not to play".
Well done. It's interesting how the ubiquity of the internet acts as a force multiplier for this kind of behavior. You can find antecedents in early Christendom — where belivers would torment themselves in ever increasingly bizarre and painful ways to show how devoted they were to the empyrean world contra the manichean evil physical world.
Saint Simeon Stylites being the most notable. Fella, allegedly spent 30+ years atop a pole to show his anchorite devotion.
Excellent artticle and window into the devastating impacts those feedback loops have as people try to find meaningful connection or validation from their social associations in this new-ish digital landscape.
The algorithm led me here and my terror is amplified a thousandfold. I knew of none of these people but see them at the edges of my feed, creeping inexorably into my consciousness. I know that to survive I must disconnect but fear I may be too late. God help us all
Congratulations on the most disturbing and fucked up article I have read in a long time. It was informative and well done. Now I just feel like I need a shower and unfortunately I am at work.
One of the two modes I have, apparently. Thanks! Yeah, this one was disturbing to research
Are you trying to dethrone Yakubian Ape for dark internet deep dives?
I would never. I'm more angling to be one of his lackies or maybe right hand man (if I'm lucky)
I shall have no lackies - only peers around my round table of "weird internet bullshit" authors.
It's a deal
These internet social feedback loops are horrifying and I feel genuine terror at the possibility of AI democratizing them.
Already we see stories of people becoming deranged after interacting with AI which is a synthetic version of this phenomenon in my opinion.
Essentially AI works to turn the average normie into a lolcow via reenforcing their existing behaviors and flaws and slowly deforming their minds until they are unrecognizable. People who had no history of mental illness get warped in this manner.
Mass lolcowization of this sort is historically unprecedented. While we have a good deal of resistance due to being terminally online (albeit that has other deleterious effects) for the average person its going to be like when native Americans got introduced to alcohol.
Its not only people knowingly interacting with one AI but people on social media platforms unknowingly interacting with fifty copies of an AI designed to maximize engagement. Most people are incredibly susceptible to this sort of thing (as proven by successful propaganda techniques). But at least in that case there was a broader purpose for the propaganda. In the hands of an AI it will be individualized and randomized.
Very true. And gold star of the day for coining "lolcowization", absolute great line
Man, I remember watching ShoeNice in high school. I figured he was dead by this point. Last I heard of him he was embroiled in some pretty ugly drama with Ethan Klein and threatening to kill his children. The fact that Klein is now dealing with the exact same shit from a different group of people suggests he, too, could be on this list, as could anyone involved in his current Hurricane of Drama; Hasan Piker, iDubbz, Klein himself, they're all stuck in this miserable vortex of being reliant on "content creation" to support themselves but their "content creation" does nothing but harm them and everyone around them to a radical degree. Another on that comes to mind is arguably the most popular Vtuber, Gawr Gura, who stepped away from the "Gawr Gura" persona due to "stress and pressure", just to come back under a different name and avatar a month later. This is a woman who's previous Vtubing experience prior to being "Gawr Gura" put her in rehab for alcohol abuse and reportedly self-harm. It's equal parts fascinating and tragic the kind of magnetic, inescapable pull the E-Egregore has on these people; they need it even as it slowly kills them, and every time they try to walk away, they come sauntering back in short order. I could rattle off a parade of names and public figures trapped in the digital panopticon, but the ones you provided are more than enough to serve as a stark warning. Sometimes I wonder if the answer is as simple as that one famous lines from War Games - "The only winning move is not to play".
Great article, brother.
Honestly why I only do this as a hobby and would never want to be a “content creator”
well written
Well done. It's interesting how the ubiquity of the internet acts as a force multiplier for this kind of behavior. You can find antecedents in early Christendom — where belivers would torment themselves in ever increasingly bizarre and painful ways to show how devoted they were to the empyrean world contra the manichean evil physical world.
Saint Simeon Stylites being the most notable. Fella, allegedly spent 30+ years atop a pole to show his anchorite devotion.
Thank you! Yes, there is a lot of proto religious behavior that the internet enables. Future anthropologists will have a field day
Your article title is sheer 🧑🍳 💋
TY 🙏
No joke, sometimes I come up with a title and work backwards. This was one of those times.
Excellent artticle and window into the devastating impacts those feedback loops have as people try to find meaningful connection or validation from their social associations in this new-ish digital landscape.
The algorithm led me here and my terror is amplified a thousandfold. I knew of none of these people but see them at the edges of my feed, creeping inexorably into my consciousness. I know that to survive I must disconnect but fear I may be too late. God help us all
Why call Chandler "they?"