VIRTUAL PREDATORS: Turning off the frequency of fear.

“The aim of human life is to know thyself. Think for yourself. Question authority. Think with your friends. Create, create new realities. Philosophy is a team sport... Learning how to operate your brain, learning how to operate your mind... He who controls your eyeballs controls your mind… imprinting values, imprinting messages…He who controls your screens controls the programs in your mind.” This was Timothy Leary’s prophetic message from his How to Operate Your Brain VHS tape from the 70s that was an early attempt at viral video. Leary knew how programmable our minds are given toward where we tune our attention.

The mainstream media has virtualized and digitized our brains, imitating the plains of Africa, keeping our amygdalae active, our airwaves resonate with a frequency of fear. Our brains, if seen like a radio receiver, pick up on this fear frequency first, and above all others. It is a preset station, evolved over millions of years to keep us safe from predators. It’s now the Alex Jones, Bill O’Reilly’s and Rush Limbaugh’s that stalk us and attempt to devour our attention.

Returning to the radio receiver metaphor, tuning our attention to any frequency begins to build coherence. That is to say, adjusting the radio dial narrows in on Rock 105.3 or Jazz 98.6. Constant attention to any frequency creates a preset so no tuning or adjustment is necessary. Just turn on and tune in.

The Internet however opens a new spectrum of reality.

The frequency of mainstream media has become antiquated. We understand that the Internet, in every facet, is a reflection of human nature. Knowing and accepting this brands oneself as an adult of the digital age. We now have to parent our parents as they attempt to navigate these new altered states. We are unfazed and inoculated against propaganda as we have seen it all. We are seasoned veterans. We thrive in this new dimension, and these are our African plains.

Natural selection is still in effect; predators still lurk. The new kings of the digital age are the youngest among us. They are the most equipped to understand and track the digital footprints, they are the ones that lead us into new frontiers. Listen to the youth. They are the new shamans; masters of the techno-drug induced altered states. They are born with these inputs, raised no longer in a mother’s arms, but on her phone or tablet’s touchscreen, nourished via Wifi, 3g, and fiber optic umbilical connections.

The Internet allows us a bridge into and out of the amygdala’s range. The fear saturated, negative broadcasting, ‘If it bleeds it leads’ frequency of the mainstream media is no longer being tuned into. We each on the Internet are receivers and broadcasters. To me, this is not just an opportunity but responsibility to transmit optimism and positivity. The Sum total of the Internet equates to the frequency humanity is broadcasting.

When we have the ability to interface with that sum, as in a future algorithm that can articulate as the voice of the Internet. What conversations will be had, what will be said. What reflections will we see? IBM’s Watson or another Future Algorithmic Persona will become the voice of the Internet and the age old question “Is Man good?” is about to be answered. We judge much upon the word of a man. The collected words of humanity are about to speak. What does humanity have to say about itself?