Tag: Tik-Tok

What If I’m Right & Big Tech Can Read Our Minds?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t really believe Big Tech can read our minds. I just don’t have any cold, hard evidence I can point to and have someone who is “normal” believe me. The idea that the technology exists — but is somehow being hidden — for technology companies to peer into our minds is just too fantastical for anyone with a “normal” life to take seriously.

So, I’m just daydreaming about this. I like to run scenarios and so I’m just thinking out loud. I’ve done this before, I think, but I feel like doing it again just for fun and to get it out of my system.

The key thing would be who knows that this technology not only exists but is being used in a practical manner for commercial reasons? A subsequent question would be, of course, if Big Tech is monitoring our minds, then what can the NSA? The NSA is often times a few years more advanced in such technology because there is a practical intelligence use for it.

In fact, one reason why I have my doubts about Big Tech being able to read our minds is it would be such a huge, powerful secret. It just doesn’t seem like the type of thing that could be kept a secret. Of course, if you limit your concerns on this issue to just Tik-Tok being able to read your mind, then the possibility such a secret could be kept grows significantly.

What is interesting — an a little disappointing — to me is if Big Tech eased us into the idea that Digital Telepathy existed, then we could get cool shit like $1,200 “mindcaps” that would replace an array of existing media devices. We could, maybe, “watch” TV and movies using our own minds. We could send “mind mail” to each other. Record dreams. All sorts of interesting commercial applications — and abuses — come to mind. Strange Days and Dreamscape are two movies that come to mind that play with such technology and its practical, real world applications.

I suppose the fear — if such technology exists — is that people will freak out and want to storm Silicon Valley so they can burn it to the ground. The idea of “mind rape” being used in regards to Digital Telepathy definitely does enter your mind when thinking about such things.

Anyway, I have no proof. Just a mild unease. Whatever Tik-Tok is doing — if it’s doing anything — seems to be most potent when it comes to things associated with the body. When Tik-Tok pushes you a video that seems to make reference to things about your own fucking body that only you know….that’s enough to weird you out.

And it’s not like when Target started sending pregnancy related stuff to a house of a teenage girl who hadn’t told her folks yet. I’m limiting my concern to only those specific instances when Tik-Tok pushes me a video for something that is very similar to something I’ve thought about really hard and there is absolutely no one or no thing that knows about it besides me.

The issue for me is — either way, there needs to be some regulation. If Digital Telepathy exists, we need regulations and if it’s just an instance of alographtms being really, really good…we need regulations.

Tik-Tok May Have Done It AGAIN

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This particular instance of suspected “mind reading” on Tik-Tok’s part is very dubious because there really are plenty of other potential explanations for this particular “spooky” incident.

But here’s what’s going on.

I have a VERY active imagination and a lot of mental energy to spare and so, as such, even though I’m constantly thinking about how to develop the universe associated with a six novel project, I also am aggressively world building a scifi concept as well.

As part of this, the last few days I’ve really been obsessing about the state I live — Virginia. The concept “Virginia” has been at the forefront of my internal monologue in a really intense way for some time now. Well, would you believe, today I got pushed a video on Tik-Tok about the name “Virginia” and how funny it is that that’s it’s inspired by the belief that Elizabeth I was the “Virgin Queen.”

This incident of suspected “mind reading” isn’t as clear as some because I do live in Virginia and I’m sure that there’s a solid case to be made for the Tik-Tok algorithms picking up on where I’m from and simply pushing a video about my state’s name.

No magical mystery powers of mind reading needed.

But it is interesting.

Tik-Tok Has The Makings Of An Amazing Dating App

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It just occurred to me that the basic premise of Tik-Tok could easily be adapted to a powerful dating service. Tik-Tok knows me so well that it already pushes me women that I find oddly very specific to my personal tastes. It has me figured out so well that it knows the phenotype and personality type of women I’m interested in.

All they would have to do is use whatever algorithms they already have and tell people it’s just like Tik-Tok, but for singles. You would see content on a For You Page just like with normal Tik-Tok and gradually the service would figure you out and begin to push you “singles in your area” who were doing videos just like you.

There are some obvious obstacles to overcome. One is, whenever the potential for sex is involved, people — especially men — act pretty fucked up. So you would have to establish some pretty strict ground rules for what could be in your videos. Nothing in frame could tip people off as to where you lived specifically and that kind of stuff.

But the premise — using Tik-Tok algorithms as part of a dating service — would make a lot of sense. I, personally, have already seen several women pushed to me on Tik-Tok that I probably would fall in love with if I ever had the chance to meet them in person. They all live in New York City, of course, so lulz.

Is Big Tech Reading Consumers’ Minds Using Digital Telepathy?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The short answer is, of course, no, of course not. This is a demonstrably silly idea and I am a fool — and maybe a bit of a kook — to even bring the subject up. And, generally, I just don’t believe in conspiracy theories. I’m of the opinion that the vast majority of actual conspiracies are well known and the public generally doesn’t care.

Ok. Having said that, let’s yet again ponder a scenario whereby Big Tech, and specifically Tik-Tok, is in some way able to not only monitor what’s rolling around in our minds but use that information to push content to us in an eerily specific way.

Up until a while ago, Facebook — now Meta — was, in fact, looking into how they could read people’s minds to the point that they even patented a way to do it. They have since scrapped this research and so, lulz, obviously they aren’t using any such technology to read people’s minds, right?

So that should be that. Big Tech isn’t reading our minds and if they were, we would obviously know about it because it would be such a huge milestone in technology. The ethical implications of reading people’s minds without their consent would be just too big for Big Tech to overcome and so why are we even talking about this?

One thing I will note is how beneficial it would be for, say, the NSA or CIA to be able to monitor the minds of diplomats and other major officials in foreign countries. And, in general, some of the most cutting edge technology used in a practical way is developed not by private industry, but by government agencies like DARPA — which came up with the Internet.

This brings us to Tik-Tok

Tik-Tok is a Chinese company and there is little or no separation between Chinese tech companies like Tik-Tok and the security agencies of the CCP. So, if you were of a conspiratorial bent, you could definitely find yourself pondering the possibility that Tik-Tok is using digital telepathy is not only read the minds of America’s youth, but use that information to push them ever-more addictive content to keep them using what is now one of the most popular social media platforms on earth.

This is the point where you laugh at me and say all of this is just crazy talk. And, honestly, whenever I find myself talking to a tech person I go out of my way to try to get them to dissuade me of my paranoia. I explain to them what’s happening and I ask them to explain to me why I’m wrong. The most common explanation they give me is it’s all a coincidence and Tik-Tok’s algorithms simply now me so well that it just seems like it can read my mind.

This is similar to how there is the horror story of a young woman being sent pregnancy related coupons in the mail because of what she was looking for on a big box retailer’s website. Ok, I get it that makes a lot of sense and explains most — but not all — of what I’m noticing.

As an aside, I’ve started to try to keep these suspicions to myself — especially at bars — because, well, people think I’m completely insane and don’t want to talk to me anymore when I causally broach the subject. Which, all things considered, is probably understandable.

The only reason I keep thinking about the bizarre conspiracy theory is the fact that some of the video’s that Tik-Tok pushes me aren’t nearly as general as what happened with the pregnant teen and the coupons. I still struggle to understand how Tik-Tok’s algorithms can be so good as to narrow down a very specific thing I thought about intensely in passing.

Usually these spooky events have something to do with my body, something I haven’t told anyone about. And sometimes, it’s something I just think about really hard for a moment or two out of the blue. It’s those specific type of incidents that give me pause for thought when I get pushed a video on Tik-Tok that is about that very specific thing.

But I have no proof and probably never will. And even if it was happening, it is the CCP we’re talking about, so it’s not like we’ll ever find out. Though if Big Tech in the United States was also reading our minds, then, I suppose the secret might pop out eventually.

Which leads you to wonder what the reaction would be. I’m of the opinion that after the shock wore off, there would either be a huge outcry where the population demanded some sort of regulation crackdown of Big Tech — or nothing would happen.

It would just be another thing that we all knew about, but didn’t care because, in general we got better products and services because of it. Though, of course, if it was proven that Tik-Tok — and by extension the CCP — was reading the minds of America’s youth….I suppose that might be considered something akin to an act of war?

Relations between the US and China would definitely suffer.

Anyway, this is all nuts. There’s no way Big Tech can read our minds. I’m just noticing really good algorithms.

Women Dominate Tik-Tok

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I used to be active in a four way video conferencing service called Blab that no longer exists. It was a vanity project by some wealthy plutocrat and, as such, the plug was pulled on it soon enough. The interesting thing about Blab was because it was live video, a lot of people — especially women — simply did not want to use the video aspect of it. They were worried about their appearance, shy and so forth.

So, it’s striking how women totally dominate Tik-Tok. And sometimes they’re pretty raunchy in a feminine sort of way, which is rather amusing to me. Why, then, were women reluctant to use Blab’s video feature and yet women love, love, love Tik-Tok?

I think some of it comes from the controlled nature of Tik-Tok. It’s usually not live, so they can make sure they feel comfortable before they make a video. But once they feel ok, then they are able to lean into the native popularity of, well, hot chicks on video. And given how popular Tik-Tok is and how you can really blow up, getting views in the millions, there is a lot of inducement for women to let their hair down and be a bit more edgy than they might otherwise be.

In it’s own way, Tik-Tok is a “safe space” for women to talk about the female experience in ways they haven’t before so publicly. There are lots of videos about sex from a female point of view, periods, and various other things that generally men don’t see in other media. Of course, I don’t know how much of this is Tik-Tok thinks I’m a woman and how much is what is really going on with the service.

Anyway, Keep at it ladies. I find your content very entertaining and sometimes informative. The more dudes are forced to be empathetic to women, the better.

‘Sad Alex’ Is Using Tik-Tok To Promote Her Music In A Way That’s Pretty Cool

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

While I fear that Tik-Tok is destroying modern pop music because record companies are obsessed with basing a hit off a 30 second clip of a song, there are a few glimmers of hope. One notable artist who has knocked it out of the park when it comes to promoting her music on Tik-Tok is “Sad Alex.”

Sad Alex

Instead of structuring entire songs on the premise that they have to have a 30 second clip that might go viral, she produced a solid bop with “Rug Burn.” I went into listening the rest of “Rug Burn” fearing for the worst. But the actual song is really, really good. You can listen to the whole thing and it’s just like any other modern pop song.

But I fear she’s the exception to the rule. Most record labels are run by ham handed idiots who are willing to destroy a song simply so it might go viral from a 30 second portion of it. Oh well.

Is Tik-Tok Ruining Pop Music?

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

It definitely seems as though Tik-Tok’s ability to make or break a pop song is beginning to warp pop music, just like MTV did back in the day. I say this because of the song “Stay With Me” by Halsey and a few others.

If you just hear the Halsey’s hook for the song, you think you’re getting a really good song on her part. But then the actual song is a rather lazy, mediocre dance pop song. It’s so bad that you feel kind of suckered.

Of course, the reason why this happened is the record company knew that the good Halsey part of the song is probably the only thing most Zoomers on Tik-Tok would ever hear of the song in the first place. So they decided to concentrate on only having the hook with Halsey be any good.

This sucks. I hate this. I want entire songs to be good, not just snippets of it them that are meant to be used as background music on Tik-Toks. Oh well.

Tik-Tok Did It Yet Again

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I don’t believe in conspiracies. In general, I believe the biggest conspiracies are actually pretty well known and people just don’t care. And, yet, there is the issue of Tik-Tok potentially reading our minds.

I wouldn’t keep talking about my suspicions if it wasn’t for the fact that Tik-Tok continues to push me very, very specific videos that directly connected to my internal monologue.

The latest instance of this is pretty surreal. I found myself recently thinking randomly about the darker side of rock legend Chuck Berry. Specifically, how he had a gross personal stash of homemade porn of women using the bathroom. I thought about this for a moment or two a few days ago. Then, would you believe just a few moments ago Tik-Tok pushed me a video about that very specific thing.

This keeps happening to the point that I’m struggling to figure out how it is that it could simply be “algorithms.” It. Happens. All. The. Time. And, yet, I have no proof and any time I bring up to anyone else they look at me — rightfully — like I’ve lost my mind. The idea that Tik-Tok, and by extension the Chinese government — has the ability to read the minds of America’s youth is enough to give one pause for thought.

And if Tik-Tok can read our minds, then maybe Big Tech can, in general, read our minds as well. Then the question is — can they aggregate what they read or is it simply a point-to-point technology where they can do it, but not really do anything with the information?

Anyway. Big Tech can’t read our minds. Right? Right?

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?