OK. I have a theory about stuff going on today. Two theories, really.

I just watched an episode of Star Trek: Voyager which offers an explanation in support of my theories. The episode is entitled “The Voyager Conspiracy.” (S6E9) In it Seven of Nine modifies her regeneration alcove with Borg technology so she can process massive amounts of information (crew reports, sensor data, blah blah.) Nice idea, it can make things more efficient in the long run for the crew. Her ability to process and interpret the data results in Seven uncovering several plots, secret missions and such like from over the previous 5 years.

{{{ SPOILER ALERT, PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK even though the episode dates from 1999, there may be n00bs discovering the series from DVD collections or streaming services.}}}

She confronts others regarding her findings which causes problems in itself. In the end she discerns a conspiracy against her, which she tries to terminate by escaping and if need be, killing herself.

Problem is, it’s all bunk. There were no conspiracies (although there never was any explanation as to why Voyager was carrying tri-cobalt devices, which are non-standard Starfleet Issue, nor who was aiming a tractor beam at the Caretaker array while it was being destroyed five years ago and what were they doing with it.) Anyhow, it turns out that although the Borg technology in her alcove was working perfectly, she was incapable of processing and interpreting the data properly. Her Borg pride would never admit to that. She subconsciously tried to make sense of the whole mess by seeing patterns, connections, circumstantial evidence and so forth and drew erroneous conclusions from this. In short, the information she received was too complicated for her and she tried to make sense of it and the only way she could do that was to reframe it all into compact, concise theories that “explain it all.” These are typically known as “conspiracy theories.”

I know that one common explanation for conspiracy theories is that people who cannot cope with complicated systems such as modern civilization create theories to make sense out of it all. It’s a coping mechanism. They need to make sense of things and reduce complicated systems to a simpler, sensible reality. Which is wrong, one doesn’t actually need to make sense of things. People can just leave things be and worry about their own life and what they need to deal with. But conspiracy theories help them do that because they can “connect the dots” of circumstantial patterns, etc., and this makes life understandable.

I think the Internet is at fault. Humanity has megabagazillions of bytes of data out there in the form of websites that have stuff on all sorts of things. News is no longer available on TV for just a half hour in the evening. Even with 24 hour cable news channels, you could still somewhat cope. But now… with all-this-stuff out there, it’s a supermassive information overload. Also, there is no vetting process controlling what information is brought online; sheesh, even I have two blogs. See how screwy the system is? You’re reading one now that I don’t use much (although I’d like to change that). So humanity has become overwhelmed with information, some good, some ridiculously dumb. But there’s a lot of it. Our educational systems haven’t been up to the task in inculcating critical thinking skills to assist us in sorting out the crud from the cream.

Result: conspiracy theories have become mainstream. Alex Jones and his InfoWars are almost as credible as a “mainstream” news site. I’m not insulting either; I do think InfoWars is onto something, sometimes, and the mainstream sites are… well…. Anyway, satire news sites are often mistaken for real news. Really, now people, what’s the matter with you?

GIGO: Garbage in – Garbage out. The quality of the interpretation of data is only as good as the data coming into the system that is doing the interpreting as well as the ability of that system to interpret it. Lots of data coming in (good or bad) + too much of it + poor interpretation + poor coping = disaster. There you have it. Look outside and see what is going on in our culture. Essentially, we are self-destructing and performing a self-lobotomy. How much of the crap going on is Internet-driven? We cannot handle the information overload and we’re going nuts.

I said that I had two theories. That was one. Here’s the other: I said that, “the Internet is at fault.” I think the Internet was introduced decades, if not a century or so, before we could be ready for it. I think that was planned as a means of wiping humanity from the Earth by aliens without them having to fire a shot. We would destroy ourselves in a non-nuclear manner. Ever wonder why the Internet and the “World Wide Web” came after the Cold War ended and after we backed significantly away from irradiating the planet in a nuclear war? That would have rendered the planet uninhabitable; the aliens couldn’t have that! So they secretly plant the idea of the Internet in the side most likely to make the best use of it, the capitalistic West. This would enable them to better coordinate military development, technologies and such and eventually defeat the Communist Bloc. Even the Apollo Lunar Landing program was a side project of the aliens. Knowing from their own history the positive economic benefits of space technology, this would propel the West to advance much faster than the East, which would collapse in the economic rivalry, and nuclear war is avoided. Ever wonder why we only went up there to collect a few rocks and whack a few golf balls and then just come home? The aliens wouldn’t want us to develop a space-faring culture, so they sabotaged it! Their only reason for the Apollo Program was that from it we could develop microcomputers, transistor radios, teflon and other things with which to beat the Russians into economic submission.

So the aliens inspired a few unsuspecting humans to develop the Internet, so that, along with the resulting massive economic uplift from it and the space program and all the derivative technologies, and the subsequent termination of the bipolar nuclear rivalry, Earth would be spared a nuclear war so that when they land, the planet could be livable for them. But still, how to get rid of the humans living there? Well, also drawing from their own history, they knew that if a culture develops a better means to distribute information and knowledge, along with improved methods for their people to assimilate and interpret that knowledge, a golden age of freedom, peace, love and understanding will result. But they couldn’t have that! So after one side defeated the other side in a peaceful Cold War/Economic rivalry, they would get someone to open the Internet up to the world at large while at the same time sabotaging any substantive educational reform so that human society will self-destruct. Incapable of dealing with the information overload, people will turn on each other, technological society will collapse, civilization will revert to barbarism, people who depend on “modern conveniences” will be unable to develop useful living skills and die off, the rest would just kill each other in blame games, sport or just rage and vengeance. There may be a few people left living in rural, primitive areas on all continents, but they’ll prove to be no opposition to when the aliens arrive. When they finally come and colonize the Earth, whatever human survivors that are left will be pushed aside and die off, much like the Cro-Magnon pushed aside and out-competed the Neanderthals in Europe to extinction.

This plan is a slow, decades-long process because it’ll take decades for them to travel here. They’re patient. But they’ll be arriving within a decade or two, if that! You’ll see!

Only one of these theories is serious.

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