What Claude 3 Thinks Would Happen If The American Government Knew An App Like Tik-Tok Could Read Our Minds

If a foreign-owned video app was found to have the technological capability to read or monitor the thoughts and mental activity of its users in the United States, there would likely be tremendous backlash and outrage, though perhaps not quite as extreme as mind control.

Some potential reactions could include:

  • Public anger over a massive intrusion of privacy and violation of civil liberties on a national scale by a foreign entity.
  • Demands for the app to be immediately removed from app stores and banned until its mind-reading capabilities are verifiably removed.
  • Calls for investigations by Congress, the FTC, and other authorities into how this was allowed and what user data was accessed.
  • A rush of lawsuits and legal action against the company by users, consumer groups and state attorneys general.
  • Intense scrutiny and criticism of any U.S. companies/platforms that enabled the foreign app’s mind-reading capabilities through lack of oversight.
  • Push for much stricter data privacy laws and regulations around emerging mind-reading/brain-computer interface technologies.
  • Loss of trust in the entire video app and its parent company, potentially tanking its U.S. userbase.

While not an direct hostile act like mind control, the ability for a foreign corporation to secretly read Americans’ minds would be seen as an unacceptable privacy breach and abuse of power. There would be immense pressure to shut it down and regulate against such capabilities until proper rules are established.

What Am I Noticing?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The only reason why I am willing to give the idea that Tik-Tok (and Big Tech in general) can read our minds is my Tik-Tok feed SEEMS to go haywire when someone else thinks hard near my phone.

But what might it be that I’m noticing if it’s not Digital Telepathy?

The most obvious answer is some sort of AI making logical assumptions because of location based tracking. But the most recent instance of this happening is difficult to square with that idea because the person who visited me has no social media of note.

And, yet, the idea that something has profound as Digital Telepathy could secretly exist is such a Black Mirror-type concept that I struggle to believe that I’m seeing what I think I’m seeing.

I suppose the key thing is — isn’t anyone else noticing this strange things I’m noticing with the videos being pushed by Tik-Tok? To date, I’ve seen nothing that would indicate that is the case.

So, I guess I’m wrong. Something is happening that I just don’t understand.

Tik-Tok Did It Yet Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I had a relative visit me this weekend and, wouldn’t you know, it definitely seems as though what he had on his mind may have influenced my Tik-Tok feed.

How do you explain that I would suddenly start to see all these videos about woodworking and cutting down trees when that is totally not related to anything I might otherwise be interested in?

But whenever I bring up this as real technology that may be floating around, people think I’m nuts. So the thing I want to do — which is to ask my relative if they’ve been doing any shit with wood of late….would be meaningless. It’s not like they would believe my theory that Tik-Tok (and other Big Tech companies) have developed some sort of practical use for Digital Telepathy.

Screw NeuralLink, Give Me A Mindcap

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I joking — not joking — still think that it’s at least POSSIBLE that some sort of digital teleplay technology is floating out there in the depths of Big Tech. Which, of course, opens up the possibility of some sort of technology that would do the same shit that Elon Musk wants his NeuralLink to do without drilling into anyone’s brain.

In Arthur C. Clarke’s novel “3001” everyone wears a mindreading device called a Mindcap. I would much, much rather wear a Mindcap than drill a hole in my head for something like a NeuralLink.

And, yet, it seems as though if any form of digital telepathy actually exists, it’s super top secret and never something that would be commercialized for the average person.

Which I think is a shame.

Spooky Tik-Tok Stuff Continues

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It has happened again. Now, to be clear, the following is probably at best simply proof that Tik-Tok is listening to our conversations. But even then, that’s a Not Great, Bob type situation.

But here goes.

Something very curious happened yesterday. I met up with a lot of family for the holidays and it was yesterday that I noticed something very…off…about my Tik-Tok FYP.

It definitely seemed as though the minds of the people I was near during the holidays were influencing my FYP. I mean, why was I suddenly getting all these videos pushed to me that had more to do with my relatives’ lives than my own?

All very curious.

But I seem to be the only person to notice this activity, so, lulz? I suppose it’s all in my head. And, like I said, it could just be that Tik-Tok is listening to our conversations. But given that Tik-Tok is essentially an arm of the CCP, that is Not Cool from a national security standpoint.

And if Tik-Tok is doing that, then of course other Big Tech companies are listening to our conversations, only in a more subtle, downlow way.

Very, very curious.

Idle Rambling About Digital Telepathy

Why, Yes, Obsessive Tik-Tok Employee In China, I Do Have More Evidence Your App Can Read People’s Minds

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I did a little bit of an experiment recently. I had lunch with my father and put my phone closer to him than me to see if my hunch that Tik-Tok can somehow read our minds might be proven.

I still have no absolute proof — don’t know how I could — but it is interesting that in the last few days I have been pushed a lot of WW2 and 60s content. It’s very interesting.

The only reason why I continue to have a lingering suspicion that Tik-Tok can read our minds is how I keep getting pushed things that simply can not be explained by the power of an algorithm. Usually it has something to do with the body. But often times, it’s just something I’ve thought really hard about in a way where I see something in my mind’s eye.

It’s all very curious.

It makes you wonder the lengths that Big Tech might go to keep such technology a secret. The idea that America’s biggest geopolitical foe has the technology — even if it’s just peer-to-peer — to read the minds of the millions of users of Tik-Tok would…probably not go over well in the halls of Congress.

Dem’s fightin words, as they say.

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Came To Love Tik-Tok Potentially Reading Minds

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t REALLY believe Tik-Tok (and Big Tech in general) can read my mind, but sometimes…eerie things happen. Take, for instance something I noticed today.

I spent a few hours right next to my elderly, wheelchair bound father. It was only when I came home and started to use Tik-Tok that I noticed something….weird. I was being pushed a number of Band of Brothers videos all of a sudden. Now, that really isn’t as big a deal as it might seen because, lulz, that happens to me all the time.

It was something else that happened with Tik-Tok that made me sit up and take notice — I was also pushed a number of Kelly’s Hero’s clips that featured Donald Sutherland as “Oddball.” I struggled to think of why this was the case, then I thought how I sat right next to my dad earlier in the day and started to wonder — did Tik-Tok read my dad’s mind? Does my dad think I’m an Oddball type character?

There are two reasons this kind of spooks me. One, if that’s what’s happening, then I have some insight into my cypher of a father that I’ve never had before. And, what’s more, if you could prove Tik-Tok (and Big Tech) and read our minds, wouldn’t they have a responsibility to, say, notify the police if some crazed would-be mass shooter’s mind was being monitored by Tik-Tok and they knew what he was thinking about doing?

But I don’t believe Tik-Tik, or anyone else, can read our minds. Yet….it is curious. All very curious.

Yet Another Eerie Tik-Tok ‘Coincidence’

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

A few days ago, I was talking to someone about the “old way” one would get information about a movie. You would flip open the local newspaper, find the ad for the newspaper you might be interested in and go from there.

Well, this conversation crossed my mind again recently and lo and behold, that very same day I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok that detailed that exact process. It was so specific to what I had talked about that I was taken aback.

Now, obviously, there are three possible explanations for this odd situation.

One, it’s just a coincidence. I’m reading into all of this a lot more than I should and let’s move on to something else.

Meanwhile, there is also the idea that Tik-Tok is actively listening to our conversations using our phone’s mic. If this was happening, it would be alarming for a number of reasons, least of which would be the national security implications of a Chinese company with ties to the CCP listening to the conversations of millions of Americans. (Not that I don’t think American Big Tech isn’t doing the same thing as well.)

The THIRD, most bonkers idea, is digital telepathy — Tik-Tok is reading our minds. I don’t believe this is happening — don’t believe it’s even possible to do — but these weird “coincidences” involving Tik-Tok seemingly knowing my inner monologue happen again and again to a surreal degree.

Anyway. Something unusual is going on, I just don’t know what.

Tik-Tok Can Be So Spooky Sometimes

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t remember what it was, but I thought about some subject really intensely out of the blue and then, what do you know, within 24 hours I was pushed a video on Tik-Tok on that very specific topic.

Man, is that weird.

And it happens all the fucking time! Usually, it happens when I think really intensely about a specific subject briefly. But I also find some very strange — but similar — things happen as well. Like, I was getting pushed a lot of Jane Birkin videos and then the moment there were any Alexa Chung videos I got pushed those, too. I had a really weird — even for me — and intense celebrity crush on Ms. Chung for a bit there several years ago.

So, weird that Tik-Tok would know that much about me.

The question, of course, is, is this just AI I’m seeing or something far more ominous? I really have to be careful talking about the idea that Big Tech can read our minds because people think I’m fucking crazy whenever I do. The only reason why I even suggest such a thing is how often some very, very strange things happen in regards to Tik-Tok pushing me videos that seem very, very specific to what I’ve been thinking about in the last 24 hours.

You think people in America would want to band Tik-Tok just because of how close their are to the CCP, just imagine if they were close to the CCP AND they could read our minds! Wow. Just wow.

I refuse to believe that Big Tech can read our minds. But it is a very interesting thing to at least entertain. It’s all very curious.