The White Rabbit Project: Tech Super Powers...Part 1
Professor Charles Xavier
The Martian ManHunter
Jean Grey aka the Pheonix
Zatanna
What do they all have in common? The can all read minds, more importantly, they have the ability to control minds. That is a pretty cool superpower, and of course, scary to be influenced by.
That is why most of us thank God everyday that they only exist in comics and in sci-fi shows. It would be extremely unnerving to think that it was possible to be controlled and made to do things that you never wanted to do.
But what if, with all the advances in science, there is now a way that another human can control what another human does? No, I am not talking about NLP or hypnosis. I am talking about using technology to control what another person does...
The aim of the white rabbit project is to find out if it was possible, if technology had really gotten to that point where by a thought in my mind, and it's subsequent execution, I could cause another person to act against his will.
Not only did they look into the possibility of controlling another person's mind using technology, they also looked at 5 other "super powers" to see if they could be replicated in real life using technology... and this was just on the first episode.
It is a series on Netflix and I do intend to go through it slowly to learn a few things about how much technology has changed our lives over the last 100yrs.
Each superhero setup was graded using 3 criteria.
- Cost- the cost of coming up with the superhero setup should be pretty affordable and something.
- Usability- it must be something that can be used easily, that means that it had to have some degree of portability and ease of access.
- It had to have some similarity to the superpower.
Mind Control
A Tech genius in some basement who you could call crazy developed a way to use electrical impulses to control the movements of a cockroach. Why he chose to use a roach for this experiment still beats me... I have a very strong distaste for them. But I aint the one performing the experiment.
He took a cockroach and put it in ice water to anesthetize it. Once it was still, he took a piece of sanding paper to file a part of the roach's back where the circuit board was going to be. Then some electrodes were inserted into the antennas after they were trimmed.
Once he was done. He let the roach warm up. The using an app on his phone, he was able to control the direction the roach could go by swiping left or right on his phone. It was interesting to watch. And then he took it a notch further.
He put electrodes on his own arm, connected it to a computer and from it, attached electrodes to the arms of a volunteer. When he was done with his setup, he was able to control the arm movements of his volunteer by his own arm movements.
His volunteer described it as an unpleasant feeling. It sure felt like being helpless and unable to do what you wanted to do.
So, is mind control a thing? Yes. But is there technology for mind control? Well, with this experimental setup, I am not sure the answer to that would be a straight forward yes.
Looking at it critically, I don't think that the tech here isn't really controlling the mind. When the tech guy moves his arm, it triggers an electrical impulse that triggers the same set of muscles on the volunteer.
So, it is kind of controlling another person's muscles. But, here is the thing.. the series was filmed in 2016. That is approximately 1 yr before Elon Musk announced the formation of Neuralink in 2017. Seeing what Neuralink and other companies like Kernel, CTRL-Labs, Synchron, etc does, I don't think it will be a question of controlling the mind with technology.
Imagine someone in the days of Charles Darwin wakes up from the grave into this world today... Many of the things we do with technology were considered witchcraft in those times. Mind control was definitely the agency of witches.
When we talk of mind control, there are 2 ways to look at it.
Instantaneous mind control.
There are times when someone's action is suddenly under the influence of another person. He/she acutely begins to act in a way that is determined by another party and has no control over his own thoughts and actions.
As at the time of this writing, it is still a fictional concept portrayed in movies and sci-fi novels. It may be possible to enact in the future... and there are a couple of ways it could happen.
The use of technology is one way it could happen. Another way is with the use of instant hypnosis. They both seem to be an effective way to get another person to act against their will... But they both have their issues.
As at today, technology is not yet advanced enough to the point where complete mind control is achievable... and instant hypnosis cannot work on every person... as there are people who are less susceptible to suggestion than others. More importantly, instantaneous mind control is just that, instant and a very high likelihood of failing.
Actually, hypnosis is not considered a means of instantaneous mind control and it does not provide a way to exert immediate and complete control over the mind of a person. The way hypnosis is portrayed in movies is actually a misrepresentation of what it actually is.
Hypnosis is actually a therapeutic technic that is aimed at inducing a heightened state of focus and suggestibility. But the success of the procedure is dependent on a couple of factors including but not limited to the skill of the hypnotist, the cooperation and willingness of the subject, personal beliefs and motivations of the subjects.
It is safe to assume that the world as it exists right now is yet to see means of instantaneous mind control.
Brain Washing.
This is the form of mind control that is portrayed in the movie "the matrix". It is the most common way people become puppets under a master, and somehow it becomes something that they want, they enjoy. It becomes a wilful submission to mind control.
Brainwashing is also known as thought reform or coercive persuasion. It refers to the deliberate and systematic process of manipulating or influencing an individual's thoughts, beliefs, and behaviours. It involves using various psychological techniques to gain control over someone's mind and change their attitudes, values, and loyalties.
There are 5 Basic stages of Brain washing.
Isolation
Source
For a person to be suggestible to manipulation, the manipulator ensures that there is only one person who can gain access to the mind of that individual- himself. So the target must be kept away from external influences. In situations where it is not completely possible, any external influence is labelled as bad, misinformation, dangerous.
The manipulator tells the target things like "don't listen to anyone else", "I am the only person that has your best in mind", etc... These are all ways to get the target to reject any form of external influence that may contradict the aim of the target. This goes hand in hand with the second stage
Control of Information.
For brainwashing to work properly, the manipulator must be the one in charge of what the subject listens to. He must control what the target gets to see or hear or not. This is to ensure that he is the person in control of what thoughts are formed in the mind of the target. It is to ensure that there is no conflict in the mind of the target regarding his own world view that he continually injects into the perception of the target.
So, the manipulator tells the target, "you can't listen to that, listen to this instead". It is all a ploy to preside over the information that the target gets exposed to.
Manipulation of Perception
Gaslighting is a very effective tool used by a manipulator to distort the perception of realty that the target holds. This is seen very clearly in the case of intimate partner violence. The violent partner makes the other partner up to be crazy for asking for something or for trying to do something differently.
The manipulator does this by riding on the emotions of the target... fear, guilt, shame over and over again until it becomes the norm for the target.
Disruption of Critical Thinking
Source
Critical thinking and independent thought are what makes us different from robots or programmed machines. An effective manipulator strongly discourages or actively suppresses critical thinking. He could do this by making it seem like a grave evil to ask questions.
The manipulator aims to replace the target's thoughts and beliefs with a new set of ideas, and it would be counter productive to the manipulator's agenda when the target begins to question his plan, its rationality or ethical grounds. So, questions of all kinds are forbidden.
One of the signs that the hold of a manipulator has become weak is when the target begins to ask questions like "why"? Once that happens, it is only a matter of time before the target becomes free.
Dependency and Compliance
Slaves were made to be completely reliant on their masters in those times. And slave masters made sure that the slaves could only get food or a basic need if the slaves did exactly as they were told.
This way, the slaves are forced into dependency on their masters and soon enough they would look to their masters for validation, and approval. So through a system of rewards and punishments, the slaves become compliant to their masters and even when their masters are not present, they still act in compliance.