DARPA's In Ur Brainz, Hacking Ur Storiez.

And furthermore, our brains like it: Stories can also manipulate how you feel, as anyone who has watched a horror movie or read a Charles Dickens novel will confirm. But what makes us empathise so strongly with fictional characters? Paul Zak from Claremont Graduate University, California, thinks the key is oxytocin, a hormone produced during feel-good encounters such as breastfeeding and sex.

Thank you MM. This is exactly one of the things I've been grinding at. I was going to take me a little bit longer before I was sure and could start working on the next step.

Huh, what now? *Picturing a remote MRI device*

Oh wait, they're probably just talking about data mining.

Probably.

Maybe there isn't really a medical isotope shortage. Maybe they've been grabbing up all the supply to make remote, mobile, directable, MRIs. (add evil cackling here.)

I wonder if it is harder to hack the stories of smarter people? What about people who have flatter personal affect? Is a sociopath harder to get?

Does this externalized bio-feedback loop between being provided an identity and it being easier to do with people who aren't as self-aware, intelligent, or have personality disorders mean that you increase the difference between the free and the rest? That your system starts to provide an external factor rewarding people consistently for being stupid and crazy?

Will this process actually feed a significantly increased rate of change in some of the World's population to the point that they start becoming very different as human beings? Increasing cultural conflict dramatically.

If what makes you human is in your wetware, and only a proportion of the population is being controlled this way, and then a smaller proportion of them are showing signs of deep rewiring the whole subset should start becoming very different than their wild counterparts.

I can see a case for sudden emergence of a sub-species.

Would emergence without knowing about it provoke increased racial or cultural tensions?

reply to post by Aeons


People are hypnotizable to different degrees depending on a variety of factors. I'm guessing raw intelligence, and even creativity would be a couple of them. I see no reason to think any form of mind control would be different.

Who's to say layers of mind control hasn't been underway for a long time, and each year we go deeper and deeper into a trance?

At the same time, some are "disconnecting", and the rest see us as crazy. Even still, a new threshold seems to be being breached lately, where the "crazies" are making sense to many more.

Who knows where this all leads?! It certainly won't be same as usual!

reply to post by mistermonculous


This thread is like a full stack of pancakes at IHOP covered with butter and syrup and I am starving.

Who would have thought that our favorite past time would become tool for social and political change. I am so looking forward to spending the rest of the week digesting what this thread entails.

Thanks for keeping it real.

Originally posted by Frater210
reply to post by mistermonculous

 

This thread is like a full stack of pancakes at IHOP covered with butter and syrup and I am starving.

Who would have thought that our favorite past time would become tool for social and political change. I am so looking forward to spending the rest of the week digesting what this thread entails.

Thanks for keeping it real.

The method they use to try and control you is the same method you can use. Bwhahahahahaha.

reply to post by mistermonculous



Your one link is going bad already, so I pulled a cached copy of it.

Special Notice DARPA-SN-11-25 Narrative Networks (N2): The Neurobiology of Narratives
WORKSHOP DATE: April 25-26, 2011
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: April 15, 2011, 4:00 PM ET
TECHNICAL POC: LtCol William Casebeer, DARPA/DSO
Email: [email protected]
URL: www.darpa.mil...
The impact of narratives on human psychology ranges widely from what events we remember most easily to our choices about important foundational behaviors to include our degree of trust in others. Since the brain is the proximate cause of our actions, narratives have a direct impact on the neurobiological processes of both the senders and receivers of them. Understanding how narratives inform neurobiological processes is critical if we are to ascertain what effect narratives have on the psychology and neurobiology of human choices and behaviors, and can assist in everything ranging from exploring how Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is influenced by event repetition to better understanding the thoughts and feelings of others.
To stimulate discussion and research on these issues, the Defense Sciences Office (DSO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is hosting a workshop, Narrative Networks (N2): The Neurobiology of Narratives. The workshop is intended as a sequel to one held February 28, 2011, which explored the nature of narratives, their role in security contexts, and methods for analyzing them quantitatively. This workshop will establish fertile ground for connecting our understanding of the neurobiology of narratives with models, simulations and sensors salient to security concerns. Accordingly, it focuses on surveying the neurobiological processes related to narratives, bridging the cognitive neurosciences and the story stimulus.
This workshop has five mutually reinforcing and overlapping goals:
1.
To assay narrative effects on our basic neurochemistry. Do narratives uniquely modulate human hormone or neurotransmitter production? Is the production and uptake of behaviorally important neurotransmitters such as oxytocin or serotonin influenced by narratives, and if so, in what way? How are volume transmission systems in the brain in general affected by narratives?
2.
To understand narrative impact on the neurobiology of memory, learning and identity. Why do narratives modulate recall? Is activity in brain regions important for memory—such as the hippocampus—especially influenced by narratives? What role do reward processing mechanisms associated with learning play in narrative processing? Is the dopaminergic system influenced differentially by narratives as compared to other environmental stimuli? How do narratives impact the neurobiology of important identity-related judgments, such as whom you consider to be a member of your in-group? Are there cross-cultural differences in the neurobiology of narratives?
3.
To assess narrative influence on the neurobiology of emotions. Why, in neural terms, are narratives especially effective at generating emotional reactions? Do
narratives uniquely influence the neural mechanisms of empathy and sympathy? Are narratives well-suited in neurobiological terms to stir emotions such as disgust or outrage?
4.
To examine how narratives influence moral neurobiology. Do narratives influence the neurobiology of moral judgment and development? In what way? Via what mechanism do narratives affect judgments about guilt and innocence, or the permissibility or impermissibility of certain actions?
5.
To survey how narratives modulate other brain mechanisms related to social cognition. Do narratives differentially affect the neurobiological basis of theory of mind and judgments of the mental states of others? How do narratives influence neural mechanisms responsible for the generation and sustainment of collective action or group behavior? Do narratives uniquely synchronize or sustain the neural mechanisms of shared attention, collaboration and trust?
The workshop will be held at the Sheraton Fisherman’s Wharf Hotel, 2500 Mason Street, San Francisco, CA. The workshop will include brief presentations by representatives in the domains of concentration, but these are intended mainly to facilitate communication, interaction and collaborative discussion; please indicate if you desire to present your findings as a plenary presentation. Workshop details including registration, meeting location and lodging are given on the registration website at www.sa-meetings.com...
Website Login Information - Username: DARPA, Password (case sensitive): NarrativeNetworks.
There is no fee for the workshop. Registration is limited (maximum 120 people) by the venue capacity. The registration cutoff date is 4:00PM ET, Friday Fri

unityemissions - Nice to see ya man.

I think we might be ahead of the curve on them actually. I suspect that what is happening to some people is something that only their most innovative odd balls could have theorized.

They are seeing the symptoms, and not really capturing the full story of what is happening.

From the Dollars and Dragons link:

“I would be shocked if narrative didn’t engage the same kind of circuitry,” says Montague. That would certainly help explain why stories can be so compelling. “If I were a betting man or woman, I would say that certain types of stories might be addictive and, neurobiologically speaking, not that different from taking a tiny hit of coc aine,” says Casebeer."

Well, yes, I think I did just make this point about someone I can "see" as a shadow of a person online, and from their pictures recently. That this is exactly what they are doing. Gaming their prefrontal cortex, their dopamine systems, and that without their usual "fix" in a reduced environment they are finding new ways to game their wet-ware.

Seriously. Astonishing. I was guessing at some stuff, but actually being able to see someone do it, realize I can spot someone doing it...

This is fantastic.

McMindControl I think I will call it.

Why? Well as many have already pointed out it will not be all that effective on the smarter and more self aware in any given target population, but fortunately for DARPA that isn't exactly who they would be targeting now is it?

They would be targeting the masses and that is after all who you need to target to gain and keep control of a society. Look at all the whistle blowers and thinkers who are completely ignored on a daily basis because MSM says "Nothing to see here, but look what those kooky celebrities did today!"

Look at the popular fast food outlets and large big box stores. They can't provide the best of anything. But what they can do is provide something that is consistent and passable not to mention affordable.

What can this technology do if taken to its logical conclusion? Provide consistent repeatable stories that give the readers a repeatable mental effect which they will find some comfort in and go back to it again and again allowing these generated stories to shape their views of reality. Then those truly great tellers of tales whose stories could shape the world might not even get looked at by any but the intellectual and free thinking minority who are okay to go to an uncomfortable place.

You only need to control the lower 50% of intellects to have true power. And if I were a betting man I would bet this technology could be honed to get at least the bottom 75%.

Originally posted by Astyanax
reply to post by mistermonculous

 

The advertising industry has been leveraging our Stories against us since the early 2000's

You mean the early 1900s, surely, or even the mid-1800s.

Mm, but there is a progression toward increasingly complex stories which more effectively draw the viewer into identification. I notice this progression from, say, 1900 on: image and logo->sexy image and logo ->jingles and expository content->narrative focusing on product, little to no exposition->directly incorporating the viewer into the narrative.

Allow me to post a survey of coffee ads through the ages to illustrate my point.



Beautiful linework; but beyond the strangly peevish expressions of the subjects, no greater story can be drawn.



There's an implied narrative here, but it's mostly secondary to the erotic impact of the image.



This story is one women were to hear frequently from advertisers in many iterations for the next few decades; "Your coffee blows, lady, and you're a disgrace to womanhood."

Then, in the late eighties, things get interesting.



A love story told over the course of seven years in 40-60 sec installments.

And now?



You get your own special little story, selling you your own unique special little product.

I enjoyed the rest of your post immensely. There were times reading through that thesis when I was reminded of that guy who tried to weigh the soul.

The end result will justify whatever means one has to take to achieve whatever ontological process that can guarantee survival.

The ones in power will not stop at any moral, physical or mental hurdles they might encounter, they will take everything from us that we are willing to give them, they try to convince us on a daily basis to give them everything we can imagine.
Modern advertising campaigns hit below the belt, poking at our most reptilian desires, warmth, pleasure, safe enclosure, soft vs rugged, and every simple opposite they can find.

I believe that the pleasure we get from stories, is that we somehow desire knowledge above all, we are hungry for experience, on a most basic level our brains function like information drives, we retain and develop on the structures developed by past experience, or by acquired information, everything IS after all information, so by reliving stories and letting oneself get involved in the storytelling process we lower our defenses and are in some mysterious way a part of the story itself.
We can feel identified with the characters because we are them, as they are us, of course some are immune, and others never let their guard down to be enthralled by anything, a curse in itself!

Why do the same stories and common plots work? why do we get teary eyed when the wimp gets the girl, or the underdog beats the giant?
Why are tales sometimes based on the idealization of certain frail human qualities?
Reliving the story is gaining the experience, of course reading about the effects of fire and burning oneself and really finding out the truth is a whole different matter

A hypothetical example, drunk driving, we all have heard that drinking and driving brings forth eventual death and destruction, or nothing at all.
Someone sane would never even consider it, but I personally know people that don't give a damn and still do it.
So do we really learn by example or what determines what to believe and what to actually do with any given belief.

Strange times indeed when studies are made to try to explain some of the most abstract of matters: the interpretation of stories and its effects on the mind.
One would believe that only an advanced society that has left behind poverty, hunger, social unrest and inequality could dare to plumb responsibly in the deepest end of human consciousness, this anything goes attitude will help erode even more the thin fabric holding these modern societies "together"


Great thread!

Originally posted by Aeons
I wonder if it is harder to hack the stories of smarter people? What about people who have flatter personal affect? Is a sociopath harder to get?

Nah, you could just stick with poking them in the centers associated with status and sex. Which, evidently, doesn't go quite as far with the general population anymore.

Does this externalized bio-feedback loop between being provided an identity and it being easier to do with people who aren't as self-aware, intelligent, or have personality disorders mean that you increase the difference between the free and the rest? That your system starts to provide an external factor rewarding people consistently for being stupid and crazy?

A chemical reward, no less.

I can see a case for sudden emergence of a sub-species.

New functions, new wetwork. Hey, are you thinking that the real-time rerouting is done via drilling a highly personalized narrative and reinforcing it with dopamine and muscle memory?

Thanks for posting the contents of the broken link. Much obliged, ma'am.

reply to post by mistermonculous


Here is the question, and I don't know the answer. Is the first print advertisement less brilliant or provocative for it's time than the final complex story?

Is it any less of a story and would it have a lesser effect on the intended audience. Granted the modern one is the most compelling to us but we are modern and it is directed at us! I can imagine the art of the original is actually more compelling to the people at the time as it was more targeted by a person of creativity and skill before ridiculous rules were in place. But the last one would have a much broader appeal and conforms to a formula that is proven effective even if the overall effect is less it has the broader and more comfortable feel we will begin to expect more of...

That or I'm imagining things.

What can this technology do if taken to its logical conclusion? Provide consistent repeatable stories that give the readers a repeatable mental effect which they will find some comfort in and go back to it again and again allowing these generated stories to shape their views of reality. Then those truly great tellers of tales whose stories could shape the world might not even get looked at by any but the intellectual and free thinking minority who are okay to go to an uncomfortable place.

Our pop culture runs in tightening circles of nostalgia and autosarcophagy. We rehashed the 70's in the nineties, we rehashed the 90's in the 2000's, and we're rehashing last month right now. At least now we understand why: the narrative is being locked down, reinforced by repetition and neurochemical payloads.

reply to post by Jinglelord


You know what I think? The major difference between us and our human counterparts in the Edwardian age is the degree of narcissism fostered in us by our culture.

They sold the Edwardians a product.

They sell us Ourselves.

Strange times indeed when studies are made to try to explain some of the most abstract of matters: the interpretation of stories and its effects on the mind.
One would believe that only an advanced society that has left behind poverty, hunger, social unrest and inequality could dare to plumb responsibly in the deepest end of human consciousness, this anything goes attitude will help erode even more the thin fabric holding these modern societies "together".

The state seeks to ease cultural tensions (and colonialist transitions) by engineering what people are told about each other. Which, if the narrative fails to accurately reflect reality is probably going to go poorly. Either the target group won't buy it, or they will and be butthurt when they inevitably encounter situations that don't square up with the story they were told.

Although it is very nice to think that stories can alter cultural realities in a way that outbids force or social action, it might amount to no more than a fairy tale.

Selling us ourselves is easy.

Selling us each other is a sticky wicket.

reply to post by Aeons

What they don't seem to realize is that what they are finding is that a large portion of the population has some amount of an identity disorder, or a borderline personality disorder.

Lack of an identity and marketing being willing to provide you one works out well as a symbiotic relationship. But it is also a self-feeding trap.

I am also very interested in this dynamic. I am glad you brought it up.

I have noticed over time that there seem to be groups of people that seem to come from the same 'script' or narrative. One way to think about it, I guess, are the different set-types of 'Otaku' (Japanese), or geek or fanboy, that society seems to produce along with their seemingly concomitant personality disorders.

en.wikipedia.org...

Is that what you are getting at?

reply to post by Frater210


Ah the geeks of minutia. I think that might be an inherent type of human. An essential archetype that in modern times is expressed as the geek of minutia.

I think they are organically creating their identity, and when they find each other focusing down on it.

I've know quite a few geeks of minutia. With interests like sci-fi, fantasy, comics and gaming you'd imagine I might run into a few. They do often seem to have a common set of disorders in the group, but I think the acceptance of people being "off" is considered the price of admission.


I think what I mean is that there are people whose identities just don't seem to be there at all. They are almost completely an expression of the environment. The woman that was Rachel when Friends was on, and then became Carrie when Sex in the City was. No actual personal identity.

Originally posted by mistermonculous

Originally posted by Aeons
I wonder if it is harder to hack the stories of smarter people? What about people who have flatter personal affect? Is a sociopath harder to get?

Nah, you could just stick with poking them in the centers associated with status and sex. Which, evidently, doesn't go quite as far with the general population anymore.

Oh, you're right. Ride the beast I think is the only way to deal with those ones. Ride the fracking beast.

Originally posted by mistermonculous

I can see a case for sudden emergence of a sub-species.

New functions, new wetwork. Hey, are you thinking that the real-time rerouting is done via drilling a highly personalized narrative and reinforcing it with dopamine and muscle memory?

I have to imagine that there is more than one pathway in the create new functional neural networks. Based on recent experience, I'm going to suggest the oxytocin shouldn't be overlooked.

Originally posted by mistermonculous
reply to post by Jinglelord

 

They sell us Ourselves.

Are you looking to buy that product, or are you looking to buy that FEELING? Yep.