With the recent developments in AI technology, we are entering a new era of manipulation through captology. Mainstream websites/apps are well known to utilize captology to manipulate its users. But now captology is AI driven and will reach a new dimension of manipulation. In the very near future, every mainstream OS will be AI infested. This means, manipulation will start as soon you turn on your PC/smartphone.
The internet and computing in general is no longer a harmless activity. Now it is objectively a great danger for the users mental self-determination to use mainstream websites/OS/software. Because I honestly don’t believe, that anyone can outsmart AI driven Captology. People who claim this, probably also believe they can consume heroin without becoming addicted.
This is why I believe, that now is the last chance to escape from this pernicious trend. This means, now is the time to fundamentally rethink and reorganize our habits of using the internet and computer technology.
I don’t claim to know the perfect way out, but I can only share what I am doing. I believe that some kind of off grid computing is the solution.
-My tech: Laptop with Linux Mint, Nokia Dumbphone, FM tuner -No home internet connection. I only use public wifi. (Psychological reason, to keep me from mindless surfing)
A few years ago, I would have called someone with this lifestyle an insane luddite. But today, I prefer to be an insane luddite, than to be a dopamine addicted consoomer who is being controlled by AI driven captology.
You make some good points, but you’re also overstating the power of captology to the point of sounding paranoid tbh. Pretending that someone who’s aware of it, how it works and its goals is still completely powerless to resist is some misanthropic bullshit that gives some people (aware “consoomers” 🙄) far too little credit and others (the people developing captology and other disgustingly manipulative marketing strategies) far too much.
Is gaslighting and other propaganda, whether by human or technology, much more effective than most people know or are willing to admit? Definitely. Is it the Borg, though? Absolutely not.
“A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.” - Shakespeare
You Are Not Immune to Propaganda. You are not immune to ideology. You are not immune to manipulation. Being aware that propaganda exists—nor even knowing what it generally looks like and who generally uses it for what general purpose—will not stop every last bit of it from ever working on you—anymore than being aware of ideology will stop you from having one, anymore than being aware of manipulation and abuse will save you from ever being manipulated and abused.
That is not misanthropy, that is acknowledgement that we are imperfect and occasionally need to let our guards down so we’re not stressed and alienated 24/7. If anything it’s incredibly awe-inspiring that we, as a species, are so smart that we can develop abstract systems that outsmart us. If anything, it’s misanthropic to be so disgusted by vulnerability and imperfection that one finds acknowledgement of such detestable.
Captology isn’t the Borg, sure, because it’s not one single group with one unified goal using it. It’s everyone who vies for your attention/support and benefits from having it; specifically, it’s the techniques they employ to get your engagement. Many will only use a little, consciously or not, to get you engaged because theirs is already a cause worth caring about; many more will use a lot, unreflectively—not considering the long-term impact nor moral implications—because it’s just the mainstream design trends of the time.
E.g. i am trying to persuade you of something right now, using a computer to communicate my views. Am I using Computers As Persuasive Technology? If you agree with the adage “The Medium is The Message,” then using lemmy necessarily has some impact on the way we communicate and behave online; by that token, the same can be said of the hardware and networks we’re taking for granted.
This must be true to some degree, because i’m not talking to you as I would someone in person, I’m typing this all out; i have already augmented my behavior to fit the medium. What other ways has this tech molded my behavior without me giving it a second thought?
Just because i don’t consider it evil or wrong doesn’t make it not manipulation, not propaganda, not ideology, not captology.