Do you remember Agent Smith from the Matrix? He was a robot in a human form. While he is a fictional character representing an artificial intelligence soldier, a weapon that had been already developed in real life but was not yet been cleared for use (that we know of), his little brother, Agent Algorithm, was already fully activated within the cyberspace world. This is actually not the plot of Matrix or any film to be released. This is real life and I just made up the character so that we could visualize what we are actually facing in our current world. Now.
We are in the midst of a global campaign to take drugs via a methodology that would never have been approved under normal circumstances. Check out the story of mRNA. Just for the record, I am not denying the value of the new edge technology when it comes to incurable diseases (hopefully that’s on the next step in this development), but that is not exactly our current situation. While some of us are acutely afraid of a virus with inflammatory powers, others are much more concerned about the new type of vacc!ne that happens to cause neurological complications and autoimmune system problems. In other words, some are concerned about secondary threats more than the primary ones. And Agent Algorithm is in charge to prevent us from discussing it all with each other. Natural immunity is deemed dangerous information and anyone who dares to speak about it is automatically labeled a conspiracy theorist. Used in social media platforms, Agent Algorithm decides whether your post will be shared freely or limited, and whether it can be shared at all. I personally was referred to the CDC’s website while attempting to share my friend’s information because it contained the v-word. Moreover, Agent Algorithm is just one link of information warfare set to deplatform physicians, scientists, researchers, and journalists. I will again illustrate based on my personal experience – after listening to an interview with the Canadian independent investigative journalist Celeste McGover, who reports on science and medicine, talk about autoimmune diseases and data comparing immunized and unimmunized conditions of 6-12 year old American children I naturally went to check the online information she had cited mentioned during her video. While the organization’s web site , Children’s Medical Safety Research Institute, was up and running (I shared it on my wall but it likely was not shared in the facebook feed since it contains apparently undesired information on safety of drugs) her personal website web site reads: “This website has been taken off line.”
I recently sparred with Agent Algorithm when he deemed that one of the projects I had launched for a family member many years ago – an online magazine with considerable following – was now deemed inappropriate to be shared on FB because the content was supposedly reported as abusive. I got around him around him by playing a mental chess game of zeros and ones but this guy is evolving every day in at a lightning speed. I honestly stand no chance of keeping up with him, and as I am an amoeba in the IT world!
The scariest part is that this crazy sharp weapon is being used by people of lesser wits with lots of power. I am just hoping that IT education will infuse ethics, just like law and medicine tries to do.
Otherwise, I am going to turn into a total pessimist.
