It's been in the news from several different angles of late. But I still do not think we are appreciating just how destructive this sort of thing can be yet.

Bad enough now that message can be so fraught with manipulation, let us also stack upon it all this seemingly intrinsic need in us to compete; ah, but is it intrinsic?

It certainly might be, to some extent, at least, as we had to compete, in one way or another, to survive at all, early on. But then again, as we've been held under the sway of Capitalist inspired competition for centuries, and now further elaborated by the terrible power of electrified amplification, there could be room for considerable doubt.

It reminds me, though, how someone like me could take advantage of a thing like this; especially as it relates to any, sudden windfall, sorts of money, suddenly being dumped on you; and also especially when you least expect it. As has happened before, with various previous examples in history, of an effective communicator, doing an expression of "a good cause." And certainly to very little good effect for the most part.

This is where the existing system itself seeks to co opt, suddenly rising new ideas that can't be dealt with a meaningful counter argument otherwise. The money, and the notoriety, usually come combined, and then all of the temptations, and new demands, of a thing that starts to make more and more money, and garner more and more enthusiastic support.

In my case it might go like this: I get a big chunk of money from wherever (I consider myself a "strange attractor," in the sense of chaotic systems, so something newly chaotic always comes up to confront me), so it would be anything from winning a lottery ticket, to a suddenly converted, wealthy, former believer in Capitalism, with even a big dose of a substantial "believer base" of citizens, perhaps, in between. In the end where it would come from is not nearly as important as that it could come.

So. Trying to maintain, at least as some semblance, of a distancing of myself from the money, I put it into a non profit foundation. I even name certain, seemingly appropriate, luminaries to the board of directors. Whereupon I would then meticulously publish an accounting of all of the expenditures so that transparency is crystal clear. All of which, then, to become what you would expect from someone with at least nominal "good intentions."

But then, in a savant event of connection (desired, or not), I devise a gaming approach to get people to read my, quite manipulative, message. And here is how this would work:

I announce a weekly, and monthly, cash prize, that would be awarded, to the post reader who was able to accumulate the most "read," and "understood," points that a newly defined "Cosmolosophy Explorer," might be able to grind out, if motivated properly (a yearly event of the champions, would also be available, as a live event, only to donating members of course) could then offer a really big cash prize). We might even create our own user interface, much like Steam, so that we could control, without Google+, the access we desire to Google Blogs. And then this new interface would become the public access point, from then on, for all things concerning both of my blogs within Google Blogs proper.

All sorts of things would then flow from this gaming setup to get people not only reading my message, but also to then, collectively, start doing the work of organizing it for me; because, of course, you would give point awards for that sort of thing, as well. And the whole point system could start out with the best of intentions of trying to sus stuff that is meaningful to the cause, but that would quickly run up against the possible reality of being inundated with the input from your cause's own popularity.

But then, see, the other players in the game would sidle up and offer, oh so seductively, the AI processing power to help you with deciphering that very thing; and they would do this, of course, starting out as a further, "charitable" contribution to a "good cause." And at that point you would be poised on the possibility of creating your own, self funding, for a time, good cause "ponzi scheme;"
where the growing believer base helps keep funding not only the advocacy itself, but the further development of how the whole cause actually goes about accomplishing anything. And there, as they say, is where the rub of what the money will demand, more and more, meets the ever more hard road of one little compromise after another. And so it goes, little by little, down a different path of paved, good intentions.

Fortunately, I am not going to do that kind of fund raising thing (as stated before, I will live only on the money I receive from my SSI -- approx. $1,300 a month now, or by what I can barter for, whatever that might be). And even if I were to suddenly have money dumped on me it would be disbursed using a9* combination of the following:

I might do the foundation thing, as well as just give some away -- I'd like to do something for my friend Kathleen, for instance, whose cheap rent of a room for me, keeps me off the streets, as well as for my sisters and brother, but I would never, ever, use the money to just get more money.

No, if ever such an unlikely event were to occur, I would instead use, at least the majority portion of it, to have more preliminary research done for the technologies I have been proposing; so as to then have them be further along in the process of getting ready to become full fledged, new public infrastructure projects (of which, precisely because of my devotion to "Open Source," -- and the idea that you shouldn't get to own knowledge -- I would receive no payment for either).

The bottom line here, however, remains as it always has been: The choice as to which path we will continue to proceed along can still be ours. There is no guarantee mind you, but it can be. We just have to choose wisely. However difficult that may be.

The linked article quick list:

1: High score, low pay -- why the gig economy loves gamification

2:Using Gaming Psychology As New Social Manipulative Technique

3:Gaming And The Gig Economy

4:We're overspending for the love of a 'like' on Instagram. Here's how to stop

5:Dictionary.com chooses 'misinformation' as word of the year

6:America Is Poorer Than It Thinks