Theories of the conspiratorial kind

[astfgyl]

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2019JA026607

This seems to be the basis of many theories about those northern lights we were looking at. I only skimmed it but I was waiting for it to kick in. Solar storm seems a lot more plausible to me due to the widespread nature of the event tbf, and those results in that paper don't look like the northern lights to me but I still enjoy reading some of the maddest theories eg it's a test run for project blue beam etc

And then there's this: https://eurovision.tv/story/eurovision-2024-theme-art-revealed

And now the theory is that it was eurovision related

[The Butcher]

A recent favourite -

The "Dead Internet Theory" is a conspiracy theory that suggests a significant portion of the internet has been taken over by artificial intelligence (AI), automated bots, and government or corporate entities, rather than being populated by real human users. According to proponents of this theory, a large amount of online content, including social media posts, blog comments, and even entire websites, is generated by AI or bots with the aim of manipulating public opinion, controlling narratives, or simply creating the illusion of a bustling internet full of human activity.

[The Butcher]

[astfgyl]

A recent favourite -

The "Dead Internet Theory" is a conspiracy theory that suggests a significant portion of the internet has been taken over by artificial intelligence (AI), automated bots, and government or corporate entities, rather than being populated by real human users. According to proponents of this theory, a large amount of online content, including social media posts, blog comments, and even entire websites, is generated by AI or bots with the aim of manipulating public opinion, controlling narratives, or simply creating the illusion of a bustling internet full of human activity.

I think it's true except for the conspiracy part and has been for a long time but not ai, just bots scratching each others arses for clicks and advertising etc. Ochoill told me about it a while back and it was indeed fascinating and strangely unnerving

[The Butcher]

There's definitely truth to it! I suppose no one really knows the extend of it.

[astfgyl]

Do you remember Google dreaming? The dead Internet gives me the same sort of dread as that did. If that's the shit that the machine imagines for itself then I'm glad I'm the age I am.

I really do love a good conspiracy theory but in a weekly world news style rather than the modern ones that are just way too actually happening and generally bad for one's mental health were one to think too hard about them.

[Trev]

Never heard that dead Internet one before, probably not too far off the truth really

[ochoill]

Dead internet is absolutely proven real but yeah it is less for manipulating opinion and actually just to skim money off ads.

You both/automate tasks to do certain things and with AI it is significantly easier to do.
- skim internet/social media for hot topics
- record data
- rank and sort data
- query ChatGPT or similar on it
- ask it to write an article on it
- tell it what way you want it written (based on your data)
- give it some checks etc
- make a blog/site
- post to blog/site and social media
- take this new article
- put it back into chatgpt and ask it to counter it in less than 200 characters
- use this with a new account to comment on original post
- repeat
- repeat
- make sure the blog or link is being shared on S.M.
- make sure it is rattled with ads
- every bot visit and comment counts as a view and appears legitimate

Every single step above can be automated on a mass scale and every "click" off a bot is ad revenue.  No human interaction needed.  What you end up with of course is a total inhuman mess perpetuating itself but a few lads running bots making money until they get figured out and shut down, but it's whack a mole style anyway, makes no odds.

That's the general gist of the articles I read on it anyway.  Which were probably written by and shared by bots 

[open face surgery]

Spotify seemingly has bot artists that have loads of short tunes in playlists etc just making cash for them. Haven't come across them myself but I don't tend to listen to Spotify made playlists.

[Bürggermeister]

Aye, there were some links in the AI thread in the main forum a while back.

[Snare]

I work on a site in Dublin a couple of days a week. Girl serving in the canteen today telling me about the lights over Ireland etc the past few nights. Says it's aliens...

She proceeded to say Michael Jackson and Tupac are still alive, that they were taken away by aliens to save them. The child abuse was just slander so they had to take him away for protection.

The South Park Jackson line "no, that's just ignorance" didn't spring to mind at the time unfortunately 

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

Since you've bumped this, anyone into contrapoints YouTube channel, she just released a video about conspiracies. I haven't watched it all yet, but Tupac has already been mentioned 

[Snare]

Apologies, maybe I should just have found the tales of ordinary madness thread or whatever it is. Same thing really I guess.

I guess Tupac has a new album coming out then with all this bandwidth he appears to be getting!

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

It's fittingly eerie that you resurrect this thread the day after I start watching a video about conspiracies in which Tupac is mentioned... one or both of us is clearly under control! 

[Sworntothecans]

Apologies, maybe I should just have found the tales of ordinary madness thread or whatever it is. Same thing really I guess.

I guess Tupac has a new album coming out then with all this bandwidth he appears to be getting!

He pretty much lived in the studio banking as much stuff as he could to get out of the Death Row contract and his estate's been drip feeding it since, but dumb folks watch a YouTube/Tik Tok and end up being absolute head wreckers.