[penprog]

The first thing this article reminded me of was ghost in the shell season 2. In the show the Intelligence Agency of the government used this sort of info manipulation to increase animosity towards refugees to the point where the public was in support of basically slaughtering them.

In the show this agency also analyzed public opinion using info obtained from discussion forums to gauge the public's acceptance of government policy and they would use the information manipulation with sock puppets to change public opinion in their favor.

[mrottenkolber]

One of the best shows ever. The whole Stand Alone Complex concept is kind of unique to GitS, is it?

Edit: Oh and btw, ghost in the lisp: http://medias.ircam.fr/x03b42f

RPG talking about his work on the mass media manipulation machine of DARPA.

[cjslep]

Yes and no[0]. For reference, the definition of a Stand Alone Complex from wikipedia [1]:

Stand Alone Complex (スタンド・アローン・コンプレックス Sutando Arōn Konpurekkusu) eventually came to represent a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals create a seemingly concerted effort.

The ideology of radical Islam from the viewpoint of neoconservatives in the USA in the 00 decade was of "shadowy underground terrorist cells all linked together and we should all be afraid of it", when in reality it was much more akin to the Stand Alone Complex: disparate radical groups all over the world used a common idea to act on their own but without communicating to one another. When viewed by the intelligence community, of course they weren't independent isolated events influenced by the same root idea; they were a centralized enemy. They projected thwir own centralized nature to the fragmented radical Islamic movement of the early 00's. Eventually, that radical Islamic movement grew into the identity provided them by the intelligence community as a self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

[0]So yes in name, no in practice if you buy into the viewpoint above.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_Ghost_in_the_Shel...

[e12e]

To take this a bit further, as far as I know, the question of what constitutes a mind is still an open question. Ie: where does the "mind" live in us? Is emergent minds, like that displayed by a ant colony, really a mind, in the same sense that we have minds?

One of the hard things about [ed: (military)] intelligence, [gathering] is that it is very hard to ask the right questions. You can sometimes find the "right" answers to the "wrong" questions -- and convince yourself you know what's going on -- while in reality you're interacting with a shadow-reality of partially your own creation.

For example: oppress and invade, deploy divide and conquer tactics across unconnected populations that share some cultural values -- and you'd probably be able to create a stand a alone complex in the form of the resistance that forms. Then that might latter merge into a true complex, as the various independent parts realize that they have a somewhat common agenda... Maybe we'll see the new Star Wars films inadvertently expand on this theme, judging by how they're setting up the story with then animated "Star Wars: Rebels" series? :-)

Highly recommend the newest prequel installation of Ghost in the Shell, GitS: Arise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_Shell:_Arise

[mrottenkolber]

Ah ok maybe I overcomplicated the concept in my head. I had assumed the SaC to describes something more tech related, e.g.:

"Stand Alone Complex (スタンド・アローン・コンプレックス Sutando Arōn Konpurekkusu) eventually came to represent a phenomenon where unrelated, yet very similar actions of individuals and/or software bugs, plus other coincidental events create a seemingly concerted effort and/or seem to mimic or behave like an intelligent actor."

E.g. as a software guy I imagined bugs so interdependent and complex that accidentally implement an AI. Yep i'm a programmer alright. ;)

[XorNot]

This applies just as aptly to peoples perception of government or corporate behavior as it does to anything else. IMO the ability to rationally analyze or predict outcomes basically goes away once people forget that the fundamental unit of cognition and influence on this planet is and remains the human mind, not the corporation, agency or government - things which are emergent phenomenons of many individuals interacting.

I.e. it is a mistake to think that 'intelligence agencies' could not make this same analysis if you can.