Brainzzz
From Freud to AI: How we’re all just silly pawns in the game of manipulation
Maybe it’s because I’m recovering from an actual brain injury (LOL yikes) OR perhaps it’s because we’re drowning in Christmas-gift-buying-ad-chaos, but it’s got me thinking about how much our brains consume without our conscious consent.
All day we’re bombarded with ads that, at times, take literal effort to ignore. Or are so subliminal we don’t even notice.
Personally, whenever I think of the future of ads I think of the movie Blade Runner 2049. In the movie Ryan Gosling is blasted with ads as soon as he goes outside - including holograms who know his name… no thanks.
Or I think of the book Hum by Helen Phillips where the protagonist goes through robot-provided face surgery to then immediately be accosted with ads (by the doctor / robot) as soon as the surgery is over. Yuck.
Anyway, back to my point… as someone who was advised by a literal neurosurgeon to take “brain breaks” to help combat being too sensually overwhelmed (and wore cool sunglasses inside not just for the “vibes”), I can tell you our brains deal with a lot. Like all the time.
The stimulation from just living life is quite traumatizing - so
First - Let’s take a second to give ourselves a pat on the back for *just* surviving.
Second - Let’s consider how we got here.
My background is, or more specifically I should say, I, like all hot girls who attended liberal arts schools, have a minor in Psychology.
We learned things in class, don’t get me wrong, but someone (cough Reddit) recently recommended this documentary called The Century of the Self which opened my eyes to how much our unconscious desires are actually being exploited.
How fun.
*Please note that I am not deep diving into why this exact documentary was shown to me by a Reddit algorithm because that’s too meta for my brain injury right now*
I’ve linked to the documentary below - but since we at Robots First Rodeo love to embrace AI (and because I am now paying $20 a month for VIP ChatGPT) here’s a quick summary of the documentary:
The Century of the Self is a 2002 documentary series by Adam Curtis that examines how Sigmund Freud’s ideas on human behavior, the unconscious mind, and individualism were used in the 20th century to manipulate mass consumerism, politics, and public relations.
WOO NELLY.
And ChatGPT kindly provided the doco’s key themes:
Freud’s Legacy: How psychoanalysis evolved from therapy to mass manipulation.
Consumerism: The transition from citizens to consumers, driven by emotions and desires.
Politics vs. PR: The blurring of lines between public relations and democratic governance.
Individualism: The rise of the "self" as the ultimate product and cultural ideal.
So if I look past feeling personally violated, it’s pretty interesting. Freud’s ideas about human nature were adopted by corporations (and politicians but meh not touching that one right now) to manipulate us.
How much of MY life has been decided by outside forces? I thought I was an individual?? And was in control of my own destiny???
I guess I should say good job humans (capitalism) for figuring out how to exploit other humans for $$$. But what happens if (when… amiright?) AI uses human psychology to control us for their means?
Could it exploit us in even scarier ways?
If AI became sentient could it easily figure out our desires (based on literally every interaction we’ve ever had online) to lead us down a path of our own destruction?
…It definitely knows about my not-embarassing-at-all myspace which is still probably playing Blink182 on loop somewhere in void…
But really, all I’m saying is that if the Reddit algorithm could figure out that I’m into freaky Freud documentaries, imagine what sentient AI could do with my entire online history 😬
Thoughts to ponder, but my brain is starting to hurt… so grab your tinfoil hats, folks. It’s going to be an interesting ride.
