Psycho Analytica

When our trust is a weapon used against us

It can be argued that horses are not the most rational of animals; it can be equally argued that people can behave a lot like horses. Horses can get thirsty, and when they do, they probably don’t feel suspicious or guilty when they drink the water they are presented. Horses might even have some equivalence of appreciation for kind assistance to the provisions of water. Normally, I sustain a similarly guilt-free and appreciative stance when offered fresh water. That is, unless the water is contaminated and I have been insidiously mislead about what it actually contains. Herein lies the greywater and why complicated laws exist to protect ourselves and each other -- from ourselves and each other.

It doesn’t take much to combine excitement, promise and fear into a compelling image of power and idol.

A remarkable book, aptly titled, Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay, was first published in 1841. It is a dark reflection on people’s ability to abandon reason in favor of seeking out novel treasures. The collection of true accounts tells of economic bubbles, fortune-tellers, bizarre investment hysterias, and a bouquet of other smelly artifacts – scattered along the pathway to fresh water.

There is a fascinating characteristic about the human condition that Mackay failed to lay bare, at least explicitly. His omission may have been because he, too, was a fan of pyscho-analytica, and perhaps was even leveraging the madness of crowds to build on his own celeritas, or haste to achieve fame – unscrupulous greed.

Regardless, his collection of peculiar stories show how we, as people, rely on faith, trust and our general good nature in our daily sojourns, and how a small minority continue to leverage our benevolence for their own unconscionable gain.

Early in 2018, we bared witnesses to the post-1841 publication amendment as headlines of Facebook and Cambridge Analytica were exposed for gross misconduct. Reading and watching these accounts unfold, fit snuggly into the linear evolution of control of nations and people throughout the past few thousand years.

There are four interesting junctures, or milestones, in this affair of short memories and a long history. Let us give each of these a humble and forgettable title, starting with the oldest first:

1.   The Power of One

For the sake of pure, intentional, unmistakable control of others, there is no better-documented strategy of exploitation than The Art of War (a Chinese military strategy treatise from 550 BC). This scroll is naked in its intransigent motivation: to study and understand the enemy, with object to take them down using your knowledge of them.

Everyone should have a copy.

It can be argued that Machiavelli’s work on political deceit, coined realpolitik, was even more influential in gaining footholds of control. ‘The Prince’s’ work was popular for its explicit instruction on how to secure power in the gilded ages, but the author of that work on psycho-analytica ended the rest of his days in desperate exile with control over nothing save for a little garden patch.

2.   The Might of a Few

It took only months after the commercialization of the printing press in Europe for those in control of its operation to learn that 87% of a newspaper’s readership could be led to believe what was written for them.

For 150 years, the people behind the presses have been getting better and better at leading us to drink things other than what appears to be water. Even in the thrashing, frothing mass demonstrations in Berlin in the early 1940’s, were witnesses to paid cheerleaders hired to excite and lead the masses into a furor for the Fuhrer, and its notions of blind obedience towards authorities. It doesn’t take much to combine excitement, promise and fear into a compelling image of power and idol, or a cool glass of Kool-Aid.

3.   Horses to Water

Even easier than convincing the world of your ideals, is to entice the willing and gullible, and create a critical mass of sentiment by coaxing the bell of the curve. Luring horses to water is much less work than pushing them.

It is a seemingly common perception that ‘it doesn’t matter if someone is watching me/us, as I don’t have anything to hide …these are merely photos of family, picnics, vacations, dogs and cats, and my garage.’

Ah, but our suitors know better. Using not altogether complex algorithms to profile each and all of us, the aggregated big data sum can sort us into factions and fenced lots. With that, a select few can gently prod us into drinking the new sweet water. They comprehend our behavioural and intellectual identities by our online fingerprints.

How many companies have their visions drawn on similar strategies of coaxing – on subliminal reconnaissance? This is exquisitely the function of cookies, which we have been accepting the benefits and liabilities of for decades, as these modern variations on control tactics are employed by the corporate and public media.

4.   The Futility of Most

The new spin-doctors sway our masses to various positions of politics, beliefs, religion and even ‘settled sciences.’ We are victims of both our virtues and vices – used as weapons against us. And our eight-second attention span has enabled tactics that are most effective in achieving their influence.

Whereas, historically, as few as one person could (through might or money) determine and control the course of a nation, it seems that the weak forces of individuals might aggregate - and take back our privacy and control by means only of a system of transparency and law.

Perhaps now is the time for all our Sherlocking of conspiracies, leaked transcripts and dark ops to evolve into our own Moriartying. Why not leave our own cookies to entice and capture the vile and the corrupt? It is bound to happen -- albeit slowly. The Internet will be a singular tool that helps us to defend against those who know that our individual means is futile against them.

Yes, we realize that already for years, there have been smart and knowledgeable people forewarning us of grave dangers in passing over subscription agreements as ‘harmless fine print’ whilst attaching ourselves to silent networks in our hungry quest to engage with online delights. Evidently, most of us have a hard time believing smart and knowledgeable people about such blatant matters.

The world has entered the age of AI2 networkism

Psycho-Analytica

These four milestones – the moment of understanding of how to win a war, the invention of the printing press, the mastery of leading the bell-curve of ballast, and the impending universal application of law, are noteworthy when we read today’s headlines.

The allegations against Cambridge Analytica, Facebook (with a sweeping conviction of all other big-data manipulators) for their subterranean tactics, came as a horrific surprise to much of our population. The assertions go well beyond data analyses and multi-media campaigns to control public opinion. For Cambridge Analytica, implications of criminal activity are certain to drive their public brand into the ground. Who knows what form they, and others like them, may take under the guise of other logos. There are too many corrupt and malicious people around the world to let a red herring upset the trajectory of control and power. Curiously, watching their cavalier egos prance around on hidden cameras leads me to think that the ‘braintrust’ of Cambridge Analytica were quite incapable of analyzing any data themselves.

We are all to blame (or claim) for our successes, and likewise congratulated for our failures to this juncture in history. Things seemed to be working well for a while, and quietly, the human trap took a new form. Let us hope that soon, we will solve the current dilemma where constitutional rights of the individual can be harmonious with the technologies of augmented intelligence (AI2) and connectivity.

The world has entered the age of AI2 networkism, for which our greatest opportunities and risks might end with a simple command: ‘Think for yourself.’ But, do we actually think for ourselves? Probably, yes. Each of us believes that we are our own best judges and can figure things out sufficiently well. After all, we are educated and live in a free, civilized world, each equipped with common sense.

However, deception, misinformation, and big data systems are nearly impossible for each of us to assess and analyze while sitting in a park with our children on a Sunday afternoon. This absent-mindedness is why we have governing bodies, laws and enforcement agencies to protect us.

In the coming days and months, I hope that our collective sense of fairness can level a counter-attack against these instances of on-line predatorialism and unlawful coercion. However, more importantly, let us remember our human natures, and press upon corporations and governments to protect our civil liberties, while we learn that we have much more to offer than photographs of cats and dogs.

So, until that fine day when we have a failsafe system to protect us, and when a ‘free subscription’ doesn’t come with an ulterior motive, we must remain acutely aware of being led to water.

A Drink of Clean Water

The position and policy of EPC Lens on the matter of security and privacy of information is simple and open: we at EPC Lens do not lurk in the faint labyrinths of acquiescence; we do not extract or use any data except as clearly and openly agreed upon with our members, equally, in the pursuit of their business success.

R W Harms

April 1, 2018

? EPC Lens, Inc. 2018