Serendipity In The Age Of Algorithms

Those Who Take Instruction From World Around them Beware.

What’s for you wont pass you, if you know what to look for.

Since the dawn of time, man has used the world around him in various ways to guide him on his journey. I would wager, even before the creation of the spoken word, mankind has relied on the natural patterns in nature and the cues available to him. Superstition, a wariness of pattern recognition that grew from philosophical to theological as language developed and ideas converged, would have been a much more natural experience of the supernatural than what we have now. Omens that were once purely natural phenomenon, are now being heavily influenced by unnatural forces such as the internet and AI.

Artificial patterns and simulated randomness are now part of our daily lives as 74% of all of our communication is now digital. This digital world that our communication and opinion forming is washed through, is not a free market of ideas as you are completely allowed to believe. Algorithms capture your data such as your interactions with your keyboard, your screen, Eye Tracking etc and rank your expressed actions. Other internet users will either see these expressions or they wont based on what the governments and organisations that run this world would prefer. Undesirables are suppressed as preferred agitators for desired change are promote to the top of the various feeds and platforms. The vast majority of social media platforms as of right now are engaged in re-education based behavioural change science effectively turning the internet into a psychological Gulag. Not only is your freedom to associate removed by these practices but you are also subjected to aggressive ad campaigns that breach the privacy of your own home. Mention that you are thirsty and an ad for the latest '“Air Up” scented water bottles sits between Jenny’s breakfast and Michaels latest rant about Leo Varadkar. Mention your car breaking down, Renault enters your retina unannounced with their new E-Tech Megane. Some people have even theorised that merely thinking about extremely specific ideas or activities results in solicitation of that very items from that niche within minutes. Having worked for Apple in the past I can tell you the way these ads are targeted is terrifying.

The term “Serendipity” has been bandied around quite a bit by anti-establishment heads, most of who are also free thinkers and alt-scene people, in particular the new age movement has used this term quite a bit. Somebody brings up a concept in conversation that the listener has only just heard about a day or so earlier. They both think to themselves, “must be a sign”, and 20 years ago, they may have been right however the emergence of the Internet has broken down the normal avenues of chance and happenstance. Organic exchange is now monitored and anything that can be converted into leads for sales or political clout is pushed while undesirable speech is throttled, leading to a synthetic experience that sells itself as serendipity, and this is by design. In many cases people who are impulsive, intuitive and free willed, may not possess the knowledge of how unnatural and manufactured the internet is and therefore follow the fake rabbit around the track while the hidden hand bets against his success or demise. Imagine if you will, the irony of a person interested in horoscopes, talking about magical concepts only to have an app suggested to them on their twitter feed. The app is downloaded and the unsuspecting sooth-saying seeker runs a horoscope questionnaire and poof! an AI forecast is generated including the best advice that stakeholders/shareholders algorithms can provide. A stark indictment of the current status of the connection between people, nature and superstition.

Human, I come bearing bad news.

Due to my exposure to old superstitious Ireland through many inspiring figures such as christians, pagans and atheists alike, who all share these stories through common ancestry, I have bore witness to the divide in Irish intuition that we now see. The younger generation would now not know the difference between a spideog entering the door of your house and an email from RIP.ie hitting your inbox after discussing the death of a person in your community. In truth, any piece of information that traverses the internet has been de-sanctified and its use as a tool of intuition nullified. The internet literally kills the spirit in this sense, leaving the user at the behest of those who write the script.

Studies carried out behavioural change scientists (people who want to control your beliefs and behaviours) have shown that children formulate superstitious connections between unconnected events and formulate superstitions based on positive reinforcement. The unnatural world of the internet can abuse the credulity of children and positively reinforce artificial superstitious beliefs such as the modern phenomenon of gender ideology. It is no coincidence that expressions of characteristics that are not gender normative at a young age are driven by the exposure of children to seemingly serendipitous material. Children are notoriously salvo’d with dirt on apps such as Tik-Tok and Instagram when they ponder their sexuality at the time of puberty. One innocent, curious search for information on same sex relationships can result in Grinder app invitations despite the search engine and connected apps having the capabilities to determine the child’s age. This is not the only example but it is a pertinent one that shoes that serendipity is a port of entry for these psychopaths.

The distinguishability between natural serendipity and unnatural influenced decisions is for the average joe, indiscernible. To the seasoned cynic like myself, speculating away at every piece of digital information that comes my way, I have discovered another word, the antonym for serendipity: zemblanity.

The word serendipity is defined as:
“Serendipity is the luck some people have in finding or creating interesting or valuable things by chance.” and zemblanity as an unlucky, but predictable discovery

People on our wavelength in Ireland are falling foul of the latter in the belief they are engaged by the former. The futility of believing that your thoughts are your own when you consume the information you receive to your phone “by chance” is breathtaking. When you end up championing foreign wars, foreign sports stars, back that horse etc are you inspired by serendipitous or zemblanitious instruction? is it natural or unnatural? Personally, I will be sticking to instinct, guarding that instinct religiously from the unnatural outcomes prepared for me by those on the other end of the digital shoestring and so should you.