There has always been propaganda, and new technology and media, whether it be the introduction of phonetic alphabets, the printing press, journalism, telegraphy, telephony and eventually broadcasting and other electronics have all increased its effectiveness for both political and economic purposes. Theoretical work, such as Nazi/Soviet propaganda, Madison Avenue, and now this, are simply incremental advances in the state of the art, different in degree, but not in kind. We are now just automating these techniques.

If we think of this kind of "weaponized" robotic propaganda as analogous to a virus attacking the genetic machinery of a cell, then perhaps other unexpected and disruptive social phenomena (such as Islamic Jihadism and terrorism) are analogous to the activities of the human immune system, staging a response to invading microbes.

Sure, maybe the individual suicide bomber or guerrilla isn't aware of his role in this cosmic game, but neither are the individual proteins and specialized cells who attack our pathogens aware of what they are doing, either. To carry the analogy a step further, it could be suggested that the human community understands collectively, at some instinctual and subconscious level, that there are forces afoot that are attempting to manipulate us, and religious fanaticism or political revolution is just one way to mount a societal immune response to it.

The average religious fundamentalist or political movement may not understand exactly what is going on, but they can sense that something is happening that is a threat to them. They may not be able to articulate just what it is, but they know something is happening and it is dangerous.

Something similar happened in the counter-cultures of the 1950s and 1960s, first the Beats and then the Hippies, where people somehow sensed society was going wrong, but couldn't quite tell exactly what it was, or what to do about it.

There are other forms of self-defense and automatic rebellion, too. Those of us who are old enough to remember a world where these techniques were much more primitive and less effective than these technologies today have developed a suspicion about them. I know I can't put my finger on it, or why I feel that way about it, but I've always felt that there are things going on in the background that are trying to get me to do things for someone elses benefit. My instinct is to NOT jump on every new technological fad that comes along, because it is probably just some novel and trendy way of relieving me of my money, or my freedom. Remember the old science fiction stories where the computers take over the world? Well, they're coming true, except the computers are still firmly under human control.

Thanks for posting this.