Social Engineering 2.0 - Google Algorithm Poses Serious Threat to Democratic SystemBy Aaron Dykes Social engineering is now a dated practice, that has undoubtedly influenced nearly all our lives for the past century in ways that many of us perhaps dont notice. I have a book titled Social Control from 1901, by Edward Alsworth Ross, that as the dust jacket explains, formulated (and gave an answer to) the problems of the massive transformation of the American society by industrialization where Ross analyzed the dynamics of social change for modern socieities in general and for America in particular. The book was a hit, and influenced economists, scholars, politicians and Progressives. In the decades that followed, P.R. gurus like Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee pioneered the use of spin, advertising, propaganda, cross-branding and quite a few subtle tricks of undue persuasion to sell a consumerist society to the masses, and create a marriage of the mind between their clients and the people who would come to depend upon and identify with their products. The BBC has an excellent mini-series called The Century Of The Self that explains the huge impact that Edward Bernays and Madison Avenue had in transforming America. Using psychology to fuel market research and advertising to reach customers on a more potent level, society became populated with suggestible, obedient naive sheep, with critically thinking citizens fewer and further between. The success at penetrating the minds of the masses was so successful that the same approach used by advertisers to target unconscious desires and emotional appeal with politicians and campaigns for important public policy issues. Fast forward to more recent times, where the public relations-laundered official version of events has become a staple substitute for reality, airing 24 hours a day on sanitized news networks and appearing in every stale scripted soundbite uttered by officials and authorities in our lives. The phoniness is inescapable. But Things are now so advanced, that Politico is blowing the whistle on how much influence technology has gained in its ability to steer a democratic society that believes in the illusion of choice, elections and voting. A simple algorithm could allow Google to swing popular opinion on election candidates or issues by as much as 20%, and beyond according to this report. Thats more than enough to alter the outcome of democracy and make our voices something of a moot point. According to Politicos Robert Epstein: Googles search algorithm can easily shift the voting preferences of undecided voters by 20 percent or moreup to 80 percent in some demographic groupswith virtually no one knowing they are being manipulated Research I have been directing in recent years suggests that Google, Inc., has amassed far more power to control electionsindeed, to control a wide variety of opinions and beliefsthan any company in history has ever had. [] There are at least three very real scenarios whereby Googleperhaps even without its leaders knowledgecould shape or even decide the election next year the employees who constantly adjust the search giants algorithms are manipulating people every minute of every day. The adjustments they make increasingly influence our thinkingincluding, it turns out, our voting preferences. What we call in our research the Search Engine Manipulation Effect (SEME) [] Because SEME is virtually invisible as a form of social influence, because the effect is so large and because there are currently no specific regulations anywhere in the world that would prevent Google from using and abusing this technique, we believe SEME is a serious threat to the democratic system of government. And so there you have it. Of course, voting was already very much a farce. But even so, computers and Internet search engines are having new profound effects on our thinking and our opinions enough to officially be declared a threat. Googles ranking system has been labeled unfair and discriminatory before, particularly since the massive company announced its plans to rank search results by perceived factual content rather than the number of relevant links. This opens the door wide to politicized facts and distorted truths that can be steered and controlled by sophisticated algorithms that can in turn steer society even against its true will. While all technology is neutral until it is deployed, we are all wading in enough bullsh*t as it is. We dont need to go further into the fog. Its officially time to face it we are a highly manipulated society, and the game is rigged. There is no voting. Only mega-donors, high tech organizers and algorithms. Welcome to the Techno-Oligarchical Collectivism, i.e. an oligarchy that rules the masses with experts and technology. Read more: Technology Enhances Control: The Impact of Science on Society Two Major Psy Ops Documents You Must Read Humanity in an all-out effort to save itself from government Aaron Dykes is a co-founder of TruthstreamMedia.com. As a writer, researcher and video producer who has worked on numerous documentaries and investigative reports, he uses history as a guide to decode current events, uncover obscure agendas and contrast them with the dignity afforded individuals as recognized in documents like the Bill of Rights. This is precisely why monopolies such as Google must be broken up into 1,000 pieces. Google=NSA. Wont happen. Conservatives are in the corporate pocket and will scream socialism at the first hint of breaking up any company. Thank you Ayn Rand for pushing the dictator mentality. Why not look up Texas v. White. It is an interesting case if you think we have democracy, or truly did. It was ruled individual states could not leave the American Federal Union. States can still do it. But leaving requires certain stipulations, which are difficult to attain. This helped allow our 16th president have the Civil War, which was not exatly about the issue of slavery in the South. There was slavery in the North as well at the time. Check it out. Also check out how America is really a repulic. Democracy is a tool and maybe not exactly a tool _for_ the people either. The united States federal government was set up be a Democratic Republic. The founding fathers despised Democracy. They understood that the majority of the people could not be trusted to make decisions for themselves, their children and the nation. Fact, about 3 or 4% of the people actually cared or stood up and did something during the American Revolution, the rest hid under their beds and pretended to be on the side that was in their area at the moment. You think Democracy is a good idea, the people can make intelligent decisions? Take a trip to Wal Mart and look at whats walking up and down the aisles. The Greeks who we admire, The ones the western world likes to drool over, hated democracy and held that the average person was not capable of making decisions for the good of all. They knew this and they did not have a Wal Mart. The American people do not have democracy now. They have a dictatorship/martial law with figure head minions. The article makes some interesting points and I am way wary of Google. I still have faith in the American ppl to sort it all out, their are many other sources of news than a simple google search. In general I think we are better informed and more aware than ever. DarkStar: what American ppl..? The 75 million on psychiatric drugs, the other 30 million on street drugs or the millions working for the government??? The ones who can sort it out are already doing so, but we are in the minority. GoodGopher is especially goodcreated by Mike Adams of Natural News. 