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Comment by _fx6v | Hacker News Reader

I don’t think they’re any less or any more other than the potential net vectors exposed. A boomer typically has traditional media as a source of information which shapes their world view. These channels have their own programming and narratives.

The zoomers are entirely on internet platforms which has a higher degree of manipulation. Every single person is mined against. Every single person gets optimized against. There’s more room for coercion based on the algorithmic use targeting demographics, and with the capability of individual optimization with machine learning tech.

If the typical “hacker” can launch a botnet with GPT2 and automate conversation and thread demographics based on interactions putting a “group” into a human in loop pattern with a goal ... imagine what state actors are doing.

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>If the typical “hacker” can launch a botnet with GPT2 and automate conversation and thread demographics based on interactions putting a “group” into a human in loop pattern with a goal ... imagine what state actors are doing.

It scares me everytime I think about it how little $$ you need in order to reach e.g Reddit's front page.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SAkUs3urrg

Precisely.

It’s incredibly alarming what one can do with very little resources.

It’s downright horrifying or exciting when realizing what one can do with more than average resources.

In a way, that’s why I think the battleground is more “weird” than ever. It’s not just state actors, it’s factions of organized and convergent groups using memetic warfare. Some groups naturally converge towards each other. Take the anon’s, and various sects then overlay it with state actor and your smaller groups. Weird nameless stuff of massive influence and self organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_management

Depending upon if you're counting daily or regular usage, it looks like somewhere between 50+% (daily) and 75+% (occasional usage) of boomers are on facebook. The number for YouTube are a bit lower but not by much. For comparison, Tiktok, the Gen Z share is about 50%.

That is more than enough boomers being algorithmically swayed to alter an election. As has been shown (Cambridge Analytica, etc...) Facebook's segmentation arguably offers more power to target it's user than Tiktok does.

It’s more boomers AND TikTok. The whole enchilada. Wave after wave. That’s the scary part.

Replace “internet platforms” with television and you can run this same argument in the 1930s.

Heck, people made this argument for the printing press.

The difference is, that foreign gov couldnt/cannot that easily broadcast TV programms in your TV nor press.

Not the same at all given the sophistication of targeting allowed.

Yes, ads have always been this. But no, it’s never been like this.

All that data on the internet is being used to train algorithms to sway global sentiment. This emerges as bots, ads, interactions, content. It’s mind blowing.

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