Robot Apocalypse
When you hear about the Robot Apocalypse you think of things like Terminator or the Matrix or Ultron. You don’t generally think about Robots leading us to our doom by accident though. They are depicted as malicious and vengeful. But it looks like they’re probably going to just get us to wipe each other out, not because they’re cunning and evil, but because we’ve programmed them to make us distrust one another.
An article out of the Atlantic talks about how Bots are overriding political discourse over the internet. They played a major role in the US 2016 election and during Brexit. Now we’re living with those consequence. It’s only getting worse.
Bots aren’t specifically malicious. They are merely tools used by people. It’s becoming harder and harder to identify them. Between a mix of unscrupulous and ignorant people the bots are flooding all online discourse.
Bots come into discourse to push a particular agenda, not dissimilar to what a human would do. They just do it so much more and so much faster. The volume allows them to portray whatever their pushing as what people think. Which in turns causes people to either start to agree with them to or to lose heart.
Despite my disappointment in the movie as a whole for a lack of coherent story arc, “Rise of Skywalker” does have an appropriate thing to say here:
“They win by making you feel like you’re alone.”
The only way to combat this is to talk to people in person. Unfortunately, people have already reached the point of stubbornness where they can’t listen to any opposing views. They think everyone who disagrees is a monster.
Because of that we just don’t talk to each other anymore. Not about politics. No one wants to have a shouting match. No one wants their suspicious about what a person believes to be confirmed. When you think “anyone who thinks X is a monster” and then learn your friend/neighbor/family member/coworker thinks that, what do you do?
The only solution is to rewind. Remember that you’re just as manipulated to think a way as they are. Start with the assumption that your gut feeling, that your friend isn’t a monster, might be true. And then be non-confrontational but also firm about whatever it is that needs said.
Remember, they’ve been conditioned to think you’re a monster for thinking the way you do. So don’t be a monster. Stand up against hatred, injustice, bigotry, etc. But treat them like a person while you do for as long as you can. Most people aren’t movie villains. And if they are, you’ll never convince them no matter what you say. But keeping saying it. Your audience is everyone else though. If you act like a jerk to prove a point, you’ll look like a jerk and lose the people you could have swayed.
Also, don’t argue with robots on the internet.
