The Pendulum Crashed Through the Wall. What now?
Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible. How the Attack on Israel Brought Pomerantsev's Book Title to Life.
Every shift in the paradigm of information distribution has historically been accompanied by significant societal upheaval and a change in the social fabric of human society. How effectively we communicate and who has access to the distribution algorithm, the position of information authority, and the superior role in installing informational authority are the keys to the survival of the human beehive.
When the authority of the church over the interpretation of the Bible vanished after the invention of the printing press, every farmer learned to read and began interpreting the Bible in their own way. As many farmers, as many interpretations. Unfortunately, often individually ignorant. But the shattering of the cognitive space and consensus on the interpretation of the meaning of life and our existence couldn't be reversed. It was only a matter of time before the first farmer stood up in church during Sunday sermon and shouted, "Hold on, I just learned to read, and there's nothing like that in the Bible!" After that moment Europe would be swept by a hundred and fifty years of bloody religious wars over the "right interpretation," in which one-third of Europeans would perish.
Meanwhile, a plethora of communication revolutions have time-traveled us and toppled the previous order of society. The telegraph granted fairy-tale wealth to those savvy enough to be the first to secure exclusive information about the fate of commodities traded over long distances. Photography rewired the world of advertising, pulling us back towards a primal fixation on visual appeal. The invention of the radio allowed Goebbels to slip a radio set into every German household, just to make sure nobody missed out on some good ol' anti-Semitic propaganda.
And then came the internet. The joy of the early pioneers discovering new people and new connections resembled in many ways the delight of those farmers who saved up for a fresh Bible edition. But the dream of democratizing our communication and knowledge hit a brick wall the moment you could order a pizza online. At least, that's what Joan Donovan, co-author of the book "Meme Wars," insists.
As for how our civilization, which once ruled the world, took a nosedive into an apocalyptic scenario, that's a tale spun by Shoshana Zuboff, a retired Harvard economics professor and author of the modern explanation of how the World works. Instead of selling ads, the internet Gods started mining our psychological data, more valuable than uranium-235, the stuff needed for nuclear weapons. Whoever holds it reigns supreme, while those without it find themselves enslaved in the machine, being mined and nudged as sardines in the net. No human rights apply.
In this hyper-connected world, we're no longer the working class or illiterate farmers. We've become a mining mass, subjected to unethical psychological experiments, and the results are sold to private warlords and foes of our democracy as the most precious commodity in the world today: the human mind. That's right, folks, the wet dream of the "new Soviet man" that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union kept toying with, establishing and dismantling various psychological and sociological schools, all in pursuit of one obsessive goal – control over the minds of those "down there" – has become a reality, and it's up for grabs. We became a blind mass in the machine.
Take, for example, the destruction at the Al Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, on October 17. The pollution of the information space became unbearable.
And it's us who've lived up to Lenin's famous quote: "The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them." Here we are, folks. This is it.
What now?
"Never in history, except for the slow ignition of religious wars in Europe after the invention of the printing press, have we found ourselves in such a perilous situation. In my view, we've made these strategic errors:
Information distribution is critical infrastructure for our security and should not be left in the hands of private companies whose market power surpasses that of national states.
We allowed nearly 30 years of zero regulation in a space that dictates the cognitive security of our civilization. Section 230 is a dark stain on the map of ignorance.
Hyperconnectivity with countless accounts of unknown authenticity brings nothing but excessive amygdala irritation and a dependence on artificially induced tribal hatred. Hyperconnection must cease. Never in modern history has the human hive been so dependent on information distribution that doesn't stem from an individual's need (family, friends,community, state and their security) but from the greed of the distribution demiurge. It's imperative to bring hyperdistribution back to natural, human-scale dimensions.
We allowed the reshaping of the information space, replacing spontaneously evolved information authorities (the state, science, churches, institutions) with entertainment authorities (pop stars, propagandists, heralds of ignorance and hatred, false prophets, cult leaders, mobsters, openly corrupt politicians). The Silicon Valley demiurges have elevated every ignoramus who can shout loudly into the position of information authority. In such a chaotic space, survival, maintaining sanity, preserving cultural and scientific heritage, and ensuring the safety of pack members become nearly impossible. Nobody listens to anybody, and everyone listens to the roar of the Magogs."
We need to pause. Take a deep breath. And reconsider a couple of bad decisions. Perhaps the worst one we've made, and one that could lead to an all-out cognitive war, is the fact that we've done absolutely nothing when it comes to regulating information algorithms, their owners, there non-transparent money and their influence. And those who want to harness the new Force born from the accumulation of data, we call Artificial Intelligence, know it all too well. Stealing or buying our know-how has always been their "shtick." And in their world, it's not a reason to elevate their own nations. It's just the rope they'll use to hang us.
about
Alex Alvarova is Czech-Canadian author and communication expert, who lives in Boston, MA. A recognized authority in political marketing and public relations, a sought-after seminar leader, facilitator, podcaster and public speaker. In 2017 she wrote The Industry of Lies, a non-fiction work that introduces, outlines and fully supports a core concept: Russia used the 2013 presidential election in the Czech Republic as a trial run to perfect its hybrid-warfare aggression for altering the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential elections. In 2021, she published Feeding The Demons: The conquerors of America, a political thriller on behavioral propaganda. She wrote numerous expert articles on political marketing and algorithmic propaganda. Together with her co-host, expert on social media algorithms, Josef Holy, she hosts a czech podcast called Canaries In The Net, on algorithmic propaganda and AI.
"Photography rewired the world of advertising, pulling us back towards a primal fixation on visual appeal." Alex, as a visual creative and learner, I'm deeply offended. hahahahaha