What has AI and social media done to us?

Something has broken us, something has taken hold of our minds. We call this state where we are unable to exercise moral judgment Severed Conscience. This state of mind is the by-product of social media and psychological manipulation aided by artificial intelligence. It has so hindered our ability to think we are in a state of confused thinking, unable to assess our environment, unable to discern that we react instead of thinking. Technology is a tool, not a master.

Who Am I?

I am David Robbins, a husband, father of two grown children, and a software developer.  During the COVID pandemic my software helped counties and the state communicate test results to COVID patients.  I had a good career.

I saw our state and our neighbors behave in ways I considered unimaginable during the pandemic, and I wanted to wake people up after we re-elected the same people who were so eagerly destroyed our rights.  The fact that there have been so few changes in the bureaucracy and political rosters was also a motivation.

Who Has Worked With Me?

I am blessed to have worked with two great people in pursuit identifying and understand what we see in behavior. 

Kelly Trowhill has been foundational for our ideas our thesis, she was integral to our understanding the psychology and mechanisms of the human mind.  Kelly’s knowledge and experience are irreplaceable.  She joined in our video documentaries and has written for use

My podcast co-host.  While she wants to retain privacy and goes by the name Orange, she was the one who pushed for the three of us to document Severed Conscience.  Many of the themes and ideas for our OZFest podcast are from her creative mind.

Premise 1: AI and Social Media Are Conditioning Us

Premise 2: Technology lures us in exchange for our sovereignty

Premise 3: Decades of Studying Human Behavior, Coupled With AI, Manipulate Us

One of the principle creators of Facebook freely admits to having designed a system that leads to behavioral addiction.  We become accustomed to being entertained, delighted and able to express outrage within moments.

Endless scrolling - Dopamine Release To the System

Glittering Prizes and Endless Compromises Fosters the Illusion of Integrity

https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/social-media-statistics/

  • The average US citizen has 7.1 social media accounts.
  • The average person spends 145 minutes per day on social media.
  • If current usage rates persist, a 74 year old will have spent 5.7 years online. 

Blue Light From Screens Disrupts Sleep Cycles

Health consequences of circadian disruption in humans and animal models

Daily rhythms in behavior and physiology are programmed by a hierarchical collection of biological clocks located throughout the brain and body, known as the circadian system. Mounting evidence indicates that disruption of circadian regulation is associated with a wide variety of adverse health consequences, including increased risk for premature death, cancer, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular dysfunction, immune dysregulation, reproductive problems, mood disorders, and learning deficits. Here we review the evidence for the pervasive effects of circadian disruption in humans and animal models, drawing from both environmental and genetic studies, and identify questions for future research.

Result Can Be Seen Online

While this is ultimately up to one’s own judgment, the reaction of so many to Gov Kristi Noem revealing her story about putting down her dog have displayed more outrage that her passing Hate Speech Laws and not filling lawsuits against sponsors of trans-women competing in female athletics in her state.

https://twitter.com/search?q=kristi%20noem%20dogs&src=typed_query&f=live

Result Can Be Seen In Teen Girls

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1740144519303754?via%3Dihub

Teens spend 4.8 Hours per day on social media

  • 51% of U.S. teenagers spend at least four hours daily on social media
  • Older teens, girls exceed the overall average in social media time
  • Personality traits, parental restrictions are key factors in teens’ use

Rise of Tourette’s Like Symptoms

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/tiktok-causing-tics-in-teen-girls

https://www.uhhospitals.org/blog/articles/2024/03/why-tic-like-behaviors-are-on-the-rise-in-children-and-teens

https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/%E2%80%98outbreak%E2%80%99-of-sudden-tics-among-teen-girls

Tammy Hedderly, M.D., an acute pediatric neurologist who specializes in movement disorders at the Evelina London Children’s Hospital, told Psychiatric News that the brains of people affected are often highly suggestible. “Watching tics on social media may therefore be a perpetuating factor that makes symptoms worse.” Factors such as social isolation, pandemic stressors, and loss of routine in relation to the pandemic is also playing a role. “I was surprised at how many children and young adolescents were also engaging in self-harm and the percentage that reported suicidality, which demonstrates the level of distress the children and families are experiencing,” she added.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

AI has been with us for some time.  Fuzzy logic which is used in our cameras that helps sight the main subjects and auto focus are examples of vision systems that are considered AI.

While AI is the overall term for computer analysis and decision making in the place of a human, the ability to understand written text and then responding with phrases that match the context and meaning of a conversation is Natural Language Processing (NLP). This is a vastly different technology than face recognition, also a form of AI.

AI Technology That We See

AI From Google Seeks To Replace Decision Making.  The user is “brought information” out of convenience, but this can cut you off from your surroundings.  You can imagine ordering your driver-less car to take you to this destination. 

Again, this presents a route of the environment to the user, no discovery.  How does this effect spatial memory?

Surveillance: Recognition of Objects and Surroundings in Real Time

Personal Data Collection Made Cool

Replacing People - Chat GPT

Last year the FDA approved an AI application for mental health counseling.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220512005084/en/Wysa-Receives-FDA-Breakthrough-Device-Designation-for-AI-led-Mental-Health-Conversational-Agen

BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wysa, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) based digital companion for behavioral health, has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Device Designation for its AI-based digital mental health conversational agent for patients 18 years and older with a diagnosis of chronic musculoskeletal pain (defined as pain lasting longer than three months) and depression and anxiety.

Wysa has held over half a billion AI chat conversations with more than five million people about their mental health across 95 countries. The worrying trend we saw in employee mental health led us to conduct in-depth studies of employees in USA and UK, as well as Wysa’s user base, to understand why current models aren’t working.

This report documents one of the largest observational studies of its kind globally, and examines the data from over 150,000 conversations that 11,300 employees across 60 countries had with Wysa.

AI Technology We Don't See

Anticipatory Intelligence is the use of AI to predict if a concept will go viral, or become so wildly popular that a storm of information sharing will result.  The visibility of that information will, temporarily, be limited. 

This has several effects:

  • The originator of the information will not be as likely to claim censorship.  The FaceBook post or tweet will remain available. 
  • The number of people who will see the original post / tweet will not be for extend period after the information is first made available.
  • Other scripts for “organic” counter information can be generated and distributed for humans to “get ahead of the issue”.

In Medicine, medical outcomes are now predicted based on models that train AI to look for trends.  Many claim triumphantly that the future is predictable. 

 

The Dead Internet

In our book we devoted a chapter to the Dead Internet Theory, the idea that most of the interaction and activity you see is created in part by AI.  This excerpt is from our book.

And while the media claimed there was no targeting of unpopular views in disfavor with the left, we all saw examples of the egregious censorship.  What we didn’t realize was the extent to which social media was propped up by Artificial Intelligence.  This is not merely the accounts that swarm you when you express outrage over COVID policy.  Increasingly AI is used to create articles supporting central themes as well.  The online publisher CNET has been using AI to write content for you. 

AI has begun nipping at the heels of the traditional media business for months and even drawn blood from it in some cases. CNET, a longtime staple of technology journalism, laid off 10 percent of its employees earlier this month, with its editor-in-chief changing her title to “senior vice president of AI content strategy.” Red Ventures, owner of CNET, had been using an AI to generate articles on basic subjects within personal finance and other topics. The move attracted little fanfare, and CNET did not publicize it, until the outlet had to issue corrections on nearly 80 articles, half the AI’s output. In spite of the fiasco, Red Ventures plans to continue publishing AI-written articles on CNET.

Consider that an article consists of many paragraphs, then remember the fact that Twitter only allows you 240 characters in your message, and it is easy to see how a conversation can be automated.  Orange and I demonstrated how easy it was to utilize AI for creating essays which appeared crafted by a human.  We published those results for you here.  AI has also demonstrated that it can pass MBA exams and the US Medical License exams.  So consider again in that light:  an application with can generate answers that pass an MBA exam certainly can produce realistic responses limited to 240 characters.  If you look at the output of AI systems like Chat GPT, could you really distinguish an article generated by a human versus AI?  Would any of us have the time to try?

Nudging Us - Behavioral Studies From the Tavistock Institute

It has taken decades of studying human behavior to arrive at the capability of understanding how people can be influenced.  If kept in a constant state of fight or flight – extreme agitation – an individual is driven to react.

COVID drove us into isolation, and the fear of the virus started many of us to remain online far longer than ever before.  Doing research.  The following is from Chapter 13 of our book about the Tavistock Institute and it’s history of psychological studies and behavioral programs.  The Tavistock Institute today is involved in 1000 law suits in Great Britain regarding it’s involvement with gender re-assignment.

History of Tavistock

Tavistock was formed in 1920 as a response to wartime trauma.  Soldiers suffering from PTSD were subject to study in hopes to find treatments.  Behavioral studies resulted in discovery of various mechanisms to cure trauma.  

As a result of psychological lessons learned during World War I, the Tavistock Clinic was founded in London in 1920. Originally known as the Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology, the clinic was established as “one of the first out-patient clinics in Great Britain to provide systematic major psycho-therapy on the basis of concepts inspired by psychoanalytic theory

https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=a2d73b42a277421904841312dc36c6c433f3c349

For decades Tavistock has had the goal of influence in group dynamics.

“the two main thrusts of the emergent strategy are to enlarge the nucleus of staff competent to work with the ‘system psychodynamics’ perspective and to take roles in the educational activities of the Programme and, during 1993–94, to extend the range of these activities to include events specifically designed for industrial, commercial and other sectors and not confined to the experiential method” (1992/93 Review, 1993, p. 42).

At the onset, Tavistock has had lofty goals, many that sound as though the transformation of everyday life is at the center of their mission.  Indeed, clinicians at the Tavistock Institute have the practice of creating a positive feedback loop while collecting observations through the application of their theories.  The article THE TAVISTOCK PROGRAMME: THE GOVERNMENT OF SUBJECTIVITY AND SOCIAL LIFE  relays the evolution of the Tavistock Institute from the 1920s through the late 1970s.  The goal of is to create new ways of thinking regarding group dynamics, which do not focus solely on describing current conditions, but focus more fully on what could be created.  In many instances conditions for this new way of thinking resulted from crisis.  That was the area of interest that could produce insight to new possibilities.

Tavistock Today

The National Health Service and Tavistock institute have come under scrutiny.  The idea of studying group dynamics had evolved to something more sinister:  transgender reassignment therapy.  Social influence specifically from groups whose goals are to “nudge” people toward specifics ends is achieved through social media content designed to steer decisions and shape ideologies.  An evolving framework of control that also actively recruits new members and then funnels them to experts.

Matt Rey, a patient who transitioned back to his biological sex, has now entered into a lawsuit against the National Health Service and the Tavistock Institute, claiming the therapist at the clinic conduct unsafe, predatory practices.

As a confused and isolated teenager, Rey looked to the internet for answers. FTM individuals who shared glamorous stories about transitioning convinced Rey that a new identity was the solution to happiness.

Turning to the gender identity clinic at the Tavistock Institute in the UK, Rey was surprised to learn that access to “gender-affirming care” was so easy—one visit with a primary doctor, two consultations at the gender identity clinic, then bloodwork—were all it took to begin the transitioning process.

Rey’s bloodwork indicated high levels of testosterone. “One of the doctors said I was ‘intersex’ because of this, but that is not how you diagnose that,” said Rey. “I probably had PCOS, which was not diagnosed at the time. I didn’t even question it, because when you go to a doctor, you expect to be told the truth. When they told me that I was intersex, it made me want to transition, because it made sense as to why I experienced all this confusion all my life.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/hidden-side-gender-affirming-care-driving-transgender-mental-health-problems-and-suicide

Other victims have been coaxed into attending clinics, and the recruiting process began online.  A isolated child who has not under careful supervision from an adult can succumb to peer pressure and depression based on their over use of social media.  Layla Jane was approached when she was 11.  Her transition process began two years later.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/girl-sues-hospital-removing-her-breasts-age-13

Is Severed Conscience at Work

As stated earlier, Severed Conscience results from social media profiling a person and with AI, then funneling information that is curated for specific profiles.  This is the same concept as psychodynamics providing behavioral recommendations based on the study of group interactions.  The difference is that technology allows this to be conducted on a planetary scale.  These profiles have not been kept private, as we have seen in the Twitter Files and lawsuits from Dr Shiva that demonstrated specific individuals were studied.  We are all studied – the platforms tell us this, and we naively assume that our data is not supplied to those like the Tavistock Institute.  Technocrats who have the goal to improve the efficiency of the workplace or who feel that gender reassignment is not the decision of parents fathers from a matrix of characteristics gathered and calculated now have the tools to irrevocably change or even destroy lives.  Behavioral data helped build the social platforms, and the condition of Severed Conscience keeps people engaged, enticed, and sometimes delivers them into the hands of those who feel entitled to transform them.

Why do we let them continue to poach?  Trends in the Millennial generation indicate that they want to be lead and are embracing collectivism at higher rates than previous generations.  Centralized watering and feeding troughs are easier to manage and influence.

Conclusion