Tag: Big Tech Can Read Our Minds

Tik-Tok’s Algorithms Believe I’m a Woman?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’ve long found Tik-Tok’s algorithms so good as to be, well, spooky. The service often pushes me videos that are so personalized as to be downright eerie. It’s like it can somehow pick up on keywords rolling around in my mind.

Meanwhile, there is the issue of how I keep getting pushed extremely graphic videos about “girl stuff” that maybe is best left on “female Tik-Tok.” It’s not so much that it has to do with “girl stuff” as it is, well, I’d at least like a little warning of what I was about to see.

I keep getting pushed extreme close ups of illustrations of female genitalia being used in a video to discuss this or that thing about it. Or, most recently, I saw an extremely graphic video about how periods work. It was both illuminative and eye popping, to say the least.

The question of course, is why? Why am I, a red blooded American dude being pushed content that is obviously intended for a female audience? What makes this even more curious is 60% of my For You Page is “hot chicks” in various states of undress doing hot chick stuff. So, it’s obviously very jarring to see all these nubile hotties then out of the blue see and extreme close up of an illustration detailing the different types of labia.

I’ve often joked in the past that I’m a “male lesbian,” but that still doesn’t account for what’s going on. If you really, really wanted to be conspiratorial and paranoid, you might believe that Tik-Tok knows specifically what I think all the time — what most men think about all the time — and so it pushes me specific videos to accommodate that.

Of course, one possible non-crazy explanation is some how it is reading what I’m writing of the novel I’m working on and it can tell that at times I’m writing from a female POV. Maybe? That sorta makes sense.

But that would involve digital telepathy and I’m still note prepared to believe that is even a possibility.

Tik-Tok Did It Yet Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Ok, so I was obsessively using Twitter as I’m apt to do, when I noticed someone say something about how they like the Steve Martin movie “Man With Two Brains.” For a moment, I thought REALLY HARD about a different Steve Martin movie, “All Of Me.”

I thought specifically of the scene where one character says to the other, “Back in the bowl.” Or, if you want to know — this specific scene:

Let me be clear — I didn’t tell anyone this. I didn’t search for the scene anywhere. All I did was think about it really hard for a brief moment. Then the moment passed.

Would you believe that Tik-Tok pushed that very scene at me out of the blue just a moment ago? The moment I saw it, I had to think, “Well, if Tik-Tok can read our minds, then there’s yet more evidence to suggest that is the case.”

But I suppose it’s all algorithms, no any extremely advanced and hidden technology that would allow the Chinese government to read the minds of America’s young people. Right, that’s not possible, is it? Is it?

Yet More Eerie Tik-Tok Shenanigans

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

So, a few days ago, I watched at YouTube vide of Christy Brinkley on the Howard Stern show where she talked about why she was never nude on film. I didn’t think anything more about this until I started thinking about her daughter with Billy Joel, Alexa Ray Joel.

I thought about how she obviously has gotten a lot of work done, probably because she had a chip on her shoulder about the iconic nature of her mother’s beauty.

So, today, there I was obsessively using Tik-Tok when I was pushed a video that dealt with this specific issue. It was as if Tik-Tok peered directly into my mind, made note of my stray thought about Alexa Ray Joel’s changing appearance and decided to push me a video about that subject.

Now, I suppose the case could be made that Tik-Tok is extremely intrusive and it noticed that I saw the YouTube video and it was THAT, not any sort of mind reading that caused me to get pushed the video.

This would be the logical explanation, but for the fact that this type of shit happens all the time. In fact, there is sometimes a nuance to whatever potential mind reading might be going on.

But, I’m not prepared to say, for sure, that Tik-Tok or Big Tech for that matter, has the technology to read our minds. Definitely something to think about. Because the other option — that a combination of being very aggressive searching into my apps and algorithms gives Tik-Tok, a Chinese company, the ability to figure out what’s going on in my mind.

Tik-Tok May Have Read My Mind Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, as I keep saying, I’m well aware that I sound completely bonkers when I suggest that Tik-Tok and Big Tech can read our minds. And I only keep suggesting this because Tik-Tok keeps pushing me videos which are so specific to me that I struggle to figure out how it could just be its “algorithms” being responsible.

What’s more, the videos pushed make reference to thinks that I’ve not told anyone about.

The latest example is this — I am reading novel Project Hail Mary and I’m at a portion of the book that deals with the issue of gravity in space. Well, what was I pushed just now? A video about that exact thing.

I’m sure I’m reading too much into this, but, still. It’s very spooky.

Apparently, Tik-Tok Thinks I’m A Lesbian


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I have spent a lot of time speculating that Tik-Tok might have some not-so-limited ability to like, read our minds and stuff. And then it does something like this — it keeps pushing me videos that seem to imply I’m a lesbian.

It’s all very odd.

I don’t understand how this is happening, given that 80% of FYP is nearly-naked women running around, jiggling their bodies to the latest dance trend. But out of the last 20%, a good 5% is of very, very female-oriented information that makes my eyes pop out.

I mean, how many times can one man see an up close, graphic and personal diagram of the female reproductive system before you start to think Tik-Tok has you all wrong?

Anyway, no harm no foul. I can only assume something about what I like on Tik-Tok makes the “algorithm” go haywire.

Tik-Tok Consistently Pushes Me Videos That Make Me Think It Can Read My Mind


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Now, I’m the first to admit that the idea of Tik-Tok being able to read our minds is pretty fucking bonkers. It’s just not something the average person can process as a serious concept. If you broach such an idea, people are going to laugh at you or roll their eyes or think you’re nuts or all three.

And I honestly can’t say I blame them.

But, I don’t know, man. Some of the videos that Tik-Tok pushes me are very, very specific to me. And then happens all the time. The latest incident was when I got pushed a video about why it is that it’s easier to accidently fall asleep on the couch than to intentionally fall asleep in your bed. I sleep on the couch all the time and this is an eerie insight into my interior monologue.

In fact, just in the last few days, I’ve given the idea of sleeping in a proper bed a lot of thought. And, then, there you go, I get pushed a video about that very subject.

Spooky. Spooky. Spooky.

But I have no proof and there’s no reason to believe that all of this isn’t just co-incidence.

Why Is Tik-Tok So Addictive?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Tik-Tok has seemingly come out of nowhere to become one of the most popular social media apps in use. I have to confess I use it a great deal and I’m an Old. But Tik-Tok is curious because it’s not nearly as utilitarian as Twitter or Facebook.

It seems to exist solely for the purpose of flinging off memes at an alarming rate. Most of the time it’s mindless fun. And, even more interesting, at least in my experience, it’s something of a “safe space” for attractive young women. If nothing else, it’s a very female oriented app.

What’s more, there’s very limited room for any sort of discussion on Tik-Tok. To the point that it’s rather useless. Though, I have to admit that Tik-Tok’s comment sections are even worse than YouTube’s which is saying something.

But back to the question at hand — why is Tik-Tok so addictive? Some of it is the app really knows its users really well. To the point that I sometimes think it can read my mind, but that’s just bonkers. I will note, however, that there may come a point when it becomes a running gag that instead of wanting some alone time with their boyfriend’s phone, suspicious girlfriends will just want access to their boyfriend’s For Your Page.

It is interesting that apps have devolved to the point that there is zero thinking involved now. Once Tik-Tok figures you out, you see video after video that you, personally, will like. And I think that’s why it’s so addictive. Most of the time, any video you’re pushed by the service is something you’re honestly interested in to the point that you spend way too much time on it because there never comes a point when you say, “Yeah, this is not for me.”

Not that there isn’t the occasional hiccup. Occasionally, I’ll find myself looking at a video that I absolutely hate. But that’s reasonably rare on Tik-Tok.

The successful of mindless Tik-Tok does make one wonder what comes next. I guess it will be something connected to the metaverse.

Of Tik-Tok, Big Tech & ‘Digital Telepathy’


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m very well aware that any suggestion that Big Tech can read our minds is demonstrably bonkers. It’s just not something any reasonable person can take seriously. And the only reason why I even mention it or keep thinking about it in a very conspicuous manner is how often Tik-Tok pushes me videos that are very, very specific to me personally.

If there was any reasonable explanation for how their “algorithm” knew something specifically about me, then I would dismiss the idea that digital telepathy was possible just like any one else.

But consistently since I started using Tik-Tok, I have been pushed videos that seem to reference specific things that I’ve thought about — and told no one else about. I have not written about it. I have not tweeted about it. I have no spoken about it. It’s something that’s been exclusively a part of my internal monologue.

I guess it seems so ridiculous on the face of it because it’s just something the average person is unwilling or unable to believe is even possible. We would know about it if they were doing it, right? For Big Tech and Tik-Tok to read our minds, it would be such a big technological advancement that they would tell us about it, right? Right?

But Arthur C. Clarke said once that, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” If Tik-Tok can read our minds, this is what I think is happening — it’s not granular. They can’t turn off any specific element of what your thinking about, so you only notice what’s going on when it deals with issues surrounding your body.

It’s things to do with the body that your most likely not tell anyone else about and, as such, when you get pushed videos by Tik-Tok that reference such things, you notice that it’s something you haven’t told anyone about.

Now, of course, you could say that it’s similar to how Target got in trouble once for sending to a young woman’s home coupons for pregnancy related things, even though she had not told her family yet. It think figuring out that someone is pregnant through what they do online is a lot different that being pushed a specific video about this or that thing about your body that has exclusively been a part of your internal monologue.

Another thing that goes against the idea of digital telepathy is someone, somewhere, would know the technology exists and, as such, it would leak out and we would know about it. It’s well known that Facebook and others have been looking into digital telepathy, but Facebook recently made a big deal about how they were scrapping the project.

So, I don’t know. For the time being, I’m just going to have to accept that I sound bonkers for even mentioning the possibility that Big Tech can read my mind through my cellphone.

If Big Tech Was Reading Our Minds, Would Anyone Even Care?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

We live in an era of post-accountability. Trump is above the law. And if you’re racist or misogynistic in the public sphere, then you cry about being “canceled” and get your own chat show on Fox News.

With that in mind, I wonder if anyone would actually care if my personal paranoia about Big Tech being able to read our minds would really matter in real terms if a document leaked proving it was all real. Just think of the massive about of corrupt bullshit that Trump has managed to get away over the last few years without any real accountability.

He’s a corrupt, criminal idiot and he’s probably going to become president against in 2024.

So, the case could be made that if Big Tech can, in fact, read our minds, that it’s actually hurting itself in the long run. I know, personally, I would like the opportunity to by a $1,2000 mindcap that would allow me to interact directly with the Internet without even having to deal with the bullshit of the Metaverse.

Even if that wasn’t a possibility, given that we all but know that ETs are real and it’s a lulz, I think outside a few pointed rants from far Right and far Left thought leaders that the whole thing would be forgotten within one or two newscyles.

Which leaves me to believe, again, that the only way we have return to accountability is some sort of civil war. Only when things grow REALLY EXISTENTIAL will the idea that was once so assumed — if you do something bad you’re held accountable — will come back.

Otherwise, lulz.

Jesus, Tik-Tok Is Up To Something (Digital Telepathy?)


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me be clear — I do not think Tik-Tok (and Big Tech) can read my mind. But there continue to be times when I struggle to understand how an algorithm would know something so fucking specific to what was going on in my mind.

In this case, I have something so specific that I can point to it and wonder. Now, obviously, you don’t know what’s really going on in my mind. And it’s possible that there is something I did without thinking about it (no pun intended) that tipped Tik-Tok off to what I was thinking about. But, either way, things are very Soft Singularity no matter how Tik-Tok figured something out about what is rolling around in my mind.

So, here we go. There’s a famous picture of man in a crowd of Nazis who is the only person not to do the Nazi salute. Here it is:

Ok, no big deal. Well, would you believe I was looking at my Webstats and I saw that someone had literally asked the question, “Why is there a circle in the picture?”

This question was at the forefront of my mind for some time. Then, just today, Tik-Tok pushed me a very, very specific video that answered that very question.

This is probably the most specific that Tik-Tok that has gotten when it comes to pushing me spooky content. I say this because the only because I simply can not think of any possible way that Tik-Tok would have any indication, any metric that I was interested in that specific picture unless it was reading my mind.

But it’s not. That’s crazy talk.