Thursday, June 25, 2009

CTT Follow Up: Facebook Matrix

Am I becoming paranoid, or are my silly predictions coming true?

Facebook suggests friends. It used to simply suggest that I add people who had similar friends and me. That made sense. (If John and I are friends, and John and Phil are friends, then it’s not very intuitive for Facebook to think Phil and I should be friends.)

But recently it’s gotten scary. The two most scary friend suggestions have given me pause…1) My landlord from over a year ago who has no other connection to me. 2) An obscure indie rocker from Oregon I saw at a show ONCE.

That’s WAY too intuitive for me.

On another blog, [Identity protected]gave us some examples of friends that Facebook is suggesting for her:


“A couple of examples of people Facebook has suggested to me (again, none of the addresses were imported to Facebook) - a client (work email stored on my outlook contacts, but that is it, no mutual friends or common networks), the current wife of an ex-boyfriend, a former co-worker from 10+ years ago (again no current email anywhere), my now deceased mother-in-law (this one puzzles me less, but she died two years ago, why is she coming up now??)”

The machines are learning…

Check out this blog post, where Tony Ruscoe formulated a theory about why this is happening, then tested it with his own Gmail contacts list, Facebook account, and some accomplices.

It turns out that even if you don’t want Facebook to, it will find your real-life connections and import them into your digital world (Morpheus called it your Residual Self Image).

So the machines are learning, and acquiring an anti-human free will.

Why are they doing this? Just like the machines in the Hollywood Matrix, Facebook’s servers are emulating real life so that when they transfer us into pods of pink goo we’ll not even notice the transition because the digital world will be just like the real one they snatched us from.

How should humanity respond? Well, Facebook does allow you to turn off friend suggestions. But I recommend a more drastic, three-step approach.

Step 1: Form a resistance.
Step 2: Scorch the sky.
Step 3: Live near the center of the earth, where it’s still warm.

Who’s with me? Apparently the patrons of Zion Records:

1 comment:

  1. LOL, that photo makes me think of how every guitar player tries to play "Stairway to Heaven" at the Guitar Center.

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