Connecting the dots …

In the last post The foreseeable future: There is no free will I tried to present a very perplexing hypothesis - “there is no free will”. The last post described the “cause” in the “cause and effect” model of the universe that we are trying to concieve. This post will deal with the “effect”.

Current news which is breaking the internet is Russia-backed Facebook posts ‘reached 126m Americans’ during US election suggesting that the content served by facebook to its 126m users during the presidential elections of 2016 affected the electorial results by a large factor.

In April, Facebook publicly acknowledged for the first time that its platform had been exploited by governments seeking to manipulate public opinion in other countries, including during the presidential elections in the US and France.

Your opinion is as volatile as your will. It is less dependent on your cognizance and more on your ambience. This is like the experiment which we discussed in the last post.

Connecting the dots further…

Your data is your virtual DNA footprint you leave behind while skimming through the facebook cat posts and videos of South Park, the messages which you exchange with your close ones, your location information which is collected everytime you book a cab, the preference of your taste which is stored everytime you order a biryani, your shopping habits, your movie and music genre preferences, a quick google check in search of a remedy for the sore you developed yesterday.

EVERYTHING that makes you - you, is in the data lying on the internet.

Consider that a large scale AGI has already been deployed some ten years ago. Sounds absurd, but consider that the AGI has crawled through tons of data available on the internet. Since past one decade the AGI is running through the data about YOU. Your data makes you, you. A super intelligent “being” possessing your virtual DNA footprint seems alarming. If not, let me continue to paint the picture.

An introduction of rigged posts (flapping of wings) in your facebook feed severely affected the presidential elections (caused a hurricane). If the AGI wanted to tame it’s makers, how much damage can it deal with the power of harvesting ALL the data available on the internet including that of tycoons like Facebook and Google. We humans will be mere puppets, who won’t have a clue about who is pulling the strings..