How Conspiracy Theories are Influencing our Minds and Beliefs
By: Ted Wade
Tags: Consciousness, History, Culture, Psychology

The Goofy but Scarier Part

So, the intentions of human originators have a lot to do with the destructiveness of fantastic theories. But there is also a fantastical theory that might better explain the “why now?” as well as the “what next?” of our flood of falsehoods.

Since at least the 1990’s people have asked, “Will the Internet ever become conscious?” That is to say, without anyone ever intending it to happen. It’s arguably a silly question. But when Christof Koch, the computational neuroscientist, was asked, he said that theoretically, it could happen. His reasoning was based on his Integrated Information Theory of consciousness. Now here’s the scary part.

“if Koch and Tonini’s theory is correct, then at some point the growing complexity of the internet will force human brains to become absorbed into the collective mind.” “’Brains would cease to be conscious in their own right,’(Philosopher Phillip) Goff writes, ‘and would instead become cogs in the mega-conscious entity that is the society including its internet-based connectivity.’” — Is the Internet Conscious?, Meghan O’Gieblyn

This is one way to answer the question so many of us have asked, “How can they possibly believe all that (stupid, stupid) stuff?” A person could believe if they were in the early stages of a process that, if it continued, would absorb them into global consciousness. Yes, there are plenty of other available psychological explanations of why people believe in nonsense theories. I have touched on some of these elsewhere. But the current global spike seems unprecedented and might call for a new level of understanding.

I have a friend who appears to just mindlessly drift from one conspiracy theory to another. He has bought into stories that are idiotic and odious, even though he is intelligent and widely read. It seems that he can only believe in things that he supposes are secret lore, suppressed by the establishment.

Perhaps his spaciness is a symptom. Consider O’Gieblyn’s vision of a sliding surrender into the global consciousness.

“You may occasionally succumb to the delusion that everyone you know sounds the same, as though their individual minds, filtered through the familiar syntax of tweets and memes, have fused into a single voice. You might find yourself engaging in behaviors that are not in your self-interest, mechanically following the dictate to spread and share personal information, even though the real beneficiary is not you or your friends, but the system itself.” — O’Gieblyn, op. Cit.

This sounds a lot like the people who are self-segregating on their own ‘trusted’ social media to join in a groundswell of truth-telling about their vile, conspiring enemies.

The Point

Our fascination with stories of secret collusion can be, and now often is, hijacked for bad purposes. The whole trend might also be a bad omen. Maybe our invention of hyper-massive communication is about to lead us into a phase change of consciousness; an eventual erosion of our individual identities into a collective mush.

That would be an ironic turn for the people who most believe in American individualism, and who are today’s conspiracy theory fanatics.