Rawen's Musings

This one’s going to be one weird food for your brain. Shame that the audience that really needs it would dismiss it immeidately but I think it’s worth throwing it into the world nevertheless. So, let’s dive in.

Those who know me for a bit are aware that my online social presence is rather scarce. I’m in no large group chat servers and in terms of networks, BlueSky and Mastodon are my only public “poster walls”. And while I do have my gripes with their respective cultures, there’s one thing that they have in common; no engagement-driven algorithm. That’s right, everything posted there is indeed akin to a poster put up in a part of town with large amount of traffic and rest goes on by the “word of mouth”. You know, just like the way public town square works (wink wink). But online space has more tools to gain visibility; powerful and dangerous tools.

I’ve already mentioned possibly the most dangerous tool of them all, the algorithms. Well, to be precise, “engagement boosting algorithms” since the former is a technical term for a part of a computer program. These algorithms are purposefully designed to drive engagement of the posts so it reaches the widest audience. Is something a hot topic? Let’s make it more visible so more people reach it. Except … it’s possibly the clearest example of “rich getting richer”. Like seriously, something is already a hot topic so it’s just a matter of time it reaches a wide audience. But no, we must double-dip and ram it into people through every single hole in their body until it overflows back out. Then we just cram it back again. Erf, that’s one ugly analogy but the point stands.

But that’s just the visibly ugly part. Because the real danger is invisible and fits right into the thing I said in the headline. The thing is, the algortihm has to be implemented by someone. More importantly, someone has to feed it so it “knows” what to make more visible. No, creating a feedback loop from its own output doesn’t work because then the algorithm just effectively kills itself. Even I, a fledgeling PhD student, knew that when I was working with things like this during my time at university. And guess who is going to “vet” the inputs. That’s right, my dear reader, this is manipulators’ wettest dream. A constant, carefully crafted stream of inputs, telling you what to engage with, how to think, what to think, who to praise, who to “exterminate”. A perfect “deep state” as some like to call it. Coming from a country that was consistently trampled on by Soviet propaganda for four decades, we look at their previous tools with both fear and amusement seeing the “bullshit” they could come up with. But raise your eyes and look around you. Do you think you’re in a position to laugh? Or should you be raising all the alarms because people are “being shot” in front of your eyes left and right? I’ll leave the answer to this one on you.

Sufficiently terrified yet? My dear reader, I’m not finished >:3 There’s more to come. A little thought exercise if you don’t mind. I’ll be playing a god for a tiny bit but just for the sake of this example.

Imagine I snap my fingers and suddenly, all the engagement driven algorithms disappear with any knowledge on how to make them. So we’re back to the “organic growth” just with different tools. What would be the most visible? How would the interactions change? Would there still be same anger and hate we see everywhere? Or would these be organically pushed to the fringes while everyone would be going around, minding their own business?

You know, let’s have one more scenario. Picture this, it’s Christmas time and you’re just wandering around the markets in your city. Suddenly a somewhat silly trinket catches your eye and you get it because you like it. Now, immerse yourself in your thoughts and feelings. Are you missing something? Can you feel the silence? Where are the judgemental voices? Where are the threats scolding you for your idea? Where’s the hollow praise coming from people fawning over you?

It’s weird, isn’t it? How does it feel? Is it liberating? Or is it utterly terrifying? If it’s the former, congratulations, for you newfound happiness. If it’s the latter however … well, you’re feeling the exact same as the slave that was suddenly freed. You’re experiencing the same sensations as a prisoner released back into the world after being locked up for decades (Shawshank Redemption, anyone?“). You’re as if someone just liberated you from a concentration camp and you haven’t woken up to the fact nobody is to burn you alive with the rest of your burrow just because you’re breathing wrong. Does all this sound relatable? If so, congratulations, fo you’ve just realised the mental abuse you’ve been put through and you’ve been offered a way out. And it’s only up to you whether you take it or stay in the false sense of comfort of your invisible prison.

Remeber, the best prison is the one the prisoners don’t notice.

R.R.A.