Page 129 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Devil’s Lullaby

providers of what is now called the Internet of Things, or ‘smart’ or
‘wired’ objects and environments. The ‘hidden persuader’, as it was
named long ago, is subliminal text and images registered beneath
the level of consciousness, passing directly into the brain unfiltered
and unexamined. It is brainwashing without the need to scour the
skull before refilling it. Like the semi-deity Santa Claus, this
demonic omnipresence knows when you are sleeping and when you
are awake. The monopolization of that integrated network is already
underway. The sensors and algorithms are already beyond merely
tracking and persuading via reinforcement of prediction. One
company will concentrate that application of brainwave entrainment
and subsonic euphemism: Anodynamics. They are ready to deliver
the devil’s lullaby. This mode of behavioral control and belief
implantation will operate around the clock, following a person
everywhere its signals can be received.”
“Might as well be draft horses,” harrumphed Rutger Schlager.
“Habituation is the point. Once they take the bit, the animal has to
take the commands coming from behind. Doesn’t matter if they see
the reins. Human animals? Irony is they can see the bait, know it’s
bait, and yet they take the bait. Proves nothing but the primacy of
the reptile brain. The flipside of ceding control to electromechanical
crutches is losing knowledge and physical capacity to function
without them: the crutch’s atrophying dependence is addictive. And
if it takes a charismatic revolutionary leader ready, willing and able
to break eggs to make an omelet, so be it. Yes, I know all about the
ethical slippery slope that bleeding-heart liberals identify with any
plan of action in which the ends justify the means. But anyone with
eyes can see the world heading in just that direction: the flight from
gridlocked party politics—democracy, if you wish, but it rarely
deserves the name—into unquestioned and unqualified support of a
ruthless dictator. The best anyone can hope for these days is a
minimally enlightened despot. So I would frame this story, as I
would all the others, as a fight to decapitate the enemy, destroy his
infrastructure and free the serfs. Human nature demands it.”
“But it could be subtler,” said Fred Feghootsky. “If the
opposition is smart enough to remain hidden, and is able to identify

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