Chat If you are not paranoid, you should be!

[UsefulIdiot]

Whenever you post something anywhere (including on Massage Planet) just assume it can be traced back to you, whatever steps you take to hide your identity. And since this is the age of communication anything you do in real life can also catch up to you. This is the abbreviated version of what follows if you do not want to read further.

Awhile back it was announced that privacy is dead. I think this made people of my generation more careful (e.g. when a retailer like the Gap asks for my email address the young person at the counter is always surprised when I balk at the request), and younger generations did not really get it or resigned themselves to not having privacy or wrongly assumed that avatars and VPNs, etc., would protect them (if you were not the smartest person in your college or university why would you think you could outsmart corporations or governments?). This is resonating with me today for two reasons: yesterday I scrolled through a click-bait slideshow of famous people now being held to account for sex crimes committed not just recently but going back decades (e.g. Stephen Tyler, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Manson); and this morning I saw a news item about CHATGPT, an AI program that can write essays and simulate conversations (e.g. an interview with George Washington by a modern journalist). I was also thinking about how in the future we might have AI in our heads constantly giving advice, as I walked my dog yesterday.

My own paranoia began as a teenager when I read books about subliminal manipulation. There was a lot of nonsense written on the subject (for the life of me I could not make out vulgar images hidden within pictures of ice cubes), but what was proven is that some advertising companies did try it. What was more apparent was "lifestyle advertising" - for example a scene in a commercial of a party with very attractive people having fun, and ending with an allusion to a particular brand. Drink our beer and you will be cool and have cool friends. You are ugly and worthless but buy our products and you can look and feel better. Corporations may be made up of mostly normal people, but as a whole are psychopathic - there mandate is to maximize profit by all legal (and sometimes illegal) means. Those at the top of the food chain surround themselves with yes men and do not have their bullshit kept in check by peers like the rest of us. Smart people create new and interesting tools and technology, and corporations and the billionaire class exploit them.

The trouble is that AI is getting really powerful. It can create dialog that is almost indistinguishable from real people (the Turing test). It can curate the dialog to appeal to different personality types. I can guarantee that in the future it will be able to deep dives on each individual, find out all our secrets and motives and use them to manipulate us. With this in mind I just assume anything I say or post might come back to haunt me. On the plus side it is not just us plebes that need to be careful, it is also the ownership class. Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump will probably die before they are held accountable for their crimes, but their successors will not.

 

[BmH6769]

This is more imminent…

 

[UsefulIdiot]

This is more imminent…

Yikes. Another reason not to surrender your judgement to irresponsible influencers.

 

[mar91]

I wouldn't say I am paranoid, but I am cautious and skeptical (some people say pessimistic but this is not accurate as I can be very optimistic under the right circumstances). About 30 years ago when I started working I had a lot of interaction with marketing people even though I am not in marketing myself. Having interactions with them I started to get a good idea of how they would do things to try and manipulate people into purchasing their products, one of which you mentioned by associating hot people and good times with their products. As for subliminal messages, I don't know how many people remember when Pepsi came out with cans that looked like they just had scroll art on them but if you sat one on top of the other and lined them up just right you could see the word SEX spelled out in the scroll work. So this has been going on for a long time, although the method of delivery may change from time to time. What I did start to notice though was it just wasn't companies trying to sell products, but it would be people trying to get elected, or governments trying to get people to agree with their ideas. It was being used everywhere. Thus my healthy skepticism that I have now, it grew because of what I saw over many years. Funny story is marketing people stopped asking my opinion on marketing campaigns because I would see through them and pick them apart. Usually the conversation would end with the marketing people saying I wasn't the target market and walking away.

Now the question is how to try and protect yourself. Well, some of the things I have done is use fake names, email addresses not connected to me, untraceable phone numbers, etc etc. Give out as little about you as possible to people asking, I don't use facebook and give out my life story online. As you mentioned about not giving your email to purchase something at a store, I actually told the person once I don't have a phone when they asked for my phone number, and my phone was in my hand when I said it. At one time I was given a work phone that had belonged to another employee who had been let go, the phone was still registered in that persons name so I used it to help me set up some accounts as they always asked for a phone number to text you the access code to set up your account. Soon after I gave up the work phone so it is unlikely anyone would ever know I had that phone as it was many years ago and has since been given to someone else and the person who issued it to me is long gone from that company. Now if someone really wanted to track me down, I'm sure there are some smart people out there who could do it, but the time and resources they would use doing it just wouldn't be worth it. I don't really do anything that would cause someone to go to that effort to track me down. I know the IP address I use most would be the natural starting point, but hey that can also be spoofed.

 

[UsefulIdiot]

I wouldn't say I am paranoid, but I am cautious and skeptical (some people say pessimistic but this is not accurate as I can be very optimistic under the right circumstances). About 30 years ago when I started working I had a lot of interaction with marketing people even though I am not in marketing myself. Having interactions with them I started to get a good idea of how they would do things to try and manipulate people into purchasing their products, one of which you mentioned by associating hot people and good times with their products. As for subliminal messages, I don't know how many people remember when Pepsi came out with cans that looked like they just had scroll art on them but if you sat one on top of the other and lined them up just right you could see the word SEX spelled out in the scroll work. So this has been going on for a long time, although the method of delivery may change from time to time. What I did start to notice though was it just wasn't companies trying to sell products, but it would be people trying to get elected, or governments trying to get people to agree with their ideas. It was being used everywhere. Thus my healthy skepticism that I have now, it grew because of what I saw over many years. Funny story is marketing people stopped asking my opinion on marketing campaigns because I would see through them and pick them apart. Usually the conversation would end with the marketing people saying I wasn't the target market and walking away.

Now the question is how to try and protect yourself. Well, some of the things I have done is use fake names, email addresses not connected to me, untraceable phone numbers, etc etc. Give out as little about you as possible to people asking, I don't use facebook and give out my life story online. As you mentioned about not giving your email to purchase something at a store, I actually told the person once I don't have a phone when they asked for my phone number, and my phone was in my hand when I said it. At one time I was given a work phone that had belonged to another employee who had been let go, the phone was still registered in that persons name so I used it to help me set up some accounts as they always asked for a phone number to text you the access code to set up your account. Soon after I gave up the work phone so it is unlikely anyone would ever know I had that phone as it was many years ago and has since been given to someone else and the person who issued it to me is long gone from that company. Now if someone really wanted to track me down, I'm sure there are some smart people out there who could do it, but the time and resources they would use doing it just wouldn't be worth it. I don't really do anything that would cause someone to go to that effort to track me down. I know the IP address I use most would be the natural starting point, but hey that can also be spoofed.

You make a good point that if you take a lot of precautions you can make it expensive and time consuming to being exposed. But given that tech keeps improving and getting cheaper I think it is safest to still do all you can to protect your privacy, but assume that you are still not safe.

 

[darknight5611]

who cares, life is too short, enjoy yourself, and stop this fear mongering BS, if you want privacy any body can go live off the grid somewhere in Africa or the South Pacific and live it up> ya dig???

LFG

 

[UsefulIdiot]

who cares, life is too short, enjoy yourself, and stop this fear mongering BS, if you want privacy any body can go live off the grid somewhere in Africa or the South Pacific and live it up> ya dig???

LFG

I hope you are drunk because you put zero thought into that reply.

 

[ludwigr]

Whenever you post something anywhere (including on Massage Planet) just assume it can be traced back to you, whatever steps you take to hide your identity. And since this is the age of communication anything you do in real life can also catch up to you. This is the abbreviated version of what follows if you do not want to read further.

Awhile back it was announced that privacy is dead. I think this made people of my generation more careful (e.g. when a retailer like the Gap asks for my email address the young person at the counter is always surprised when I balk at the request), and younger generations did not really get it or resigned themselves to not having privacy or wrongly assumed that avatars and VPNs, etc., would protect them (if you were not the smartest person in your college or university why would you think you could outsmart corporations or governments?). This is resonating with me today for two reasons: yesterday I scrolled through a click-bait slideshow of famous people now being held to account for sex crimes committed not just recently but going back decades (e.g. Stephen Tyler, Dustin Hoffman, Marilyn Manson); and this morning I saw a news item about CHATGPT, an AI program that can write essays and simulate conversations (e.g. an interview with George Washington by a modern journalist). I was also thinking about how in the future we might have AI in our heads constantly giving advice, as I walked my dog yesterday.

My own paranoia began as a teenager when I read books about subliminal manipulation. There was a lot of nonsense written on the subject (for the life of me I could not make out vulgar images hidden within pictures of ice cubes), but what was proven is that some advertising companies did try it. What was more apparent was "lifestyle advertising" - for example a scene in a commercial of a party with very attractive people having fun, and ending with an allusion to a particular brand. Drink our beer and you will be cool and have cool friends. You are ugly and worthless but buy our products and you can look and feel better. Corporations may be made up of mostly normal people, but as a whole are psychopathic - there mandate is to maximize profit by all legal (and sometimes illegal) means. Those at the top of the food chain surround themselves with yes men and do not have their bullshit kept in check by peers like the rest of us. Smart people create new and interesting tools and technology, and corporations and the billionaire class exploit them.

The trouble is that AI is getting really powerful. It can create dialog that is almost indistinguishable from real people (the Turing test). It can curate the dialog to appeal to different personality types. I can guarantee that in the future it will be able to deep dives on each individual, find out all our secrets and motives and use them to manipulate us. With this in mind I just assume anything I say or post might come back to haunt me. On the plus side it is not just us plebes that need to be careful, it is also the ownership class. Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump will probably die before they are held accountable for their crimes, but their successors will not.

I agree, the end of privacy is nigh. But I've already posted enough shit that anyone in the future who really wants to dig deep (future wife, LE, curious neighbour) will know every shady detail. If you think a second email/burner phone will save you, you are either ignorant or delusional. Well, the dildo of consequences rarely comes lubed, but I'll worry about it when it arrives. As Seneca said, “A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.”

 

[extos]

The trouble is that AI is getting really powerful. It can create dialog that is almost indistinguishable from real people (the Turing test). It can curate the dialog to appeal to different personality types. I can guarantee that in the future it will be able to deep dives on each individual, find out all our secrets and motives and use them to manipulate us. With this in mind I just assume anything I say or post might come back to haunt me. On the plus side it is not just us plebes that need to be careful, it is also the ownership class. Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump will probably die before they are held accountable for their crimes, but their successors will not.

I'm paranoid, but the genie is out of the box. What I know for sure is that our society is not yet ready for the implications of CHAT-GPT or its succesors in the next few years.

Whether it will be good or bad.. depends on your POV!

 

[UsefulIdiot]

I agree, the end of privacy is nigh. But I've already posted enough shit that anyone in the future who really wants to dig deep (future wife, LE, curious neighbour) will know every shady detail. If you think a second email/burner phone will save you, you are either ignorant or delusional. Well, the dildo of consequences rarely comes lubed, but I'll worry about it when it arrives. As Seneca said, “A man who suffers before it is necessary, suffers more than is necessary.”

I love that line "the dildo of consequences rarely comes lubed"! Did you think of that?

One of the reasons for my post is that I think there are some reckless people on this forum who think they are immune from consequences for shitty behavior in spas and elsewhere. Not that I care what happens to them. I want MPs and MPAs to stay in business as is. We have a good thing going on here with the hobby scene in TO and I want it to continue.

 

[darknight5611]

the hobby scene has went to shit, its not like the golden age of the late 90s-2000s where you decliious tanned milfs, ladies from the east bloc, quebecois beauties, cuban missile hotties, busty local girls, sprinkle in some local college talent and the GTA was lit. The GTA is garbage now, all you have is minimal strip clubs with drug addicts, or wannabe amaerican hoes that wanna charge $600 for nothing, you lost all the decent EE spas, and the only area is richmond hill, but why waste an uber to go all the way up there in winter when its minus 20?????? Leoslist ruined the game, and all those classified sites, at least in the old school game the ladies on eye magazine, nowtoronto and toronto sun were trying to earn an honest living and weren't trying to finesse or play games.

As for AI, its just fear mongering and the latest fad to get panties all wet.

Society has become softer than runny baby shit.

The woke culture and pronoun ruined all the fun.

Keep it real folks and don't get brainwashed by the bleeding heart wannabe woke liberal media.

 

[sy barite]

By definition, paranoia is an irrational fear...so I don't think you guys intend to say you're paranoid.

A.I. is a fascinating subject, but the more interesting conversations I've heard about it are between those who think we are panicking needlessly, (like the idiot Neil deGrasse Tyson), and smarter people like Sam Harris, Musk and actual A.I. experts who understand the potential of our losing control of A.I.

Mentioning the troubles of Rock Stars for past acts in this context is (IMO) conflating two different subjects. I think those examples have less to do with privacy or A.I. concerns and more to do with changing standards of what is acceptable behaviour. As in so many other spheres of social interaction, the modern take is moronic. I am not excusing criminal excesses, as in the recent case of Jacob Hogard (and I don't know the particulars of the cases mentioned above), but I grew up in a time when Rock stars openly admitted that one of their chief motivators in chasing celebrity was pussy. Getting on stage resulted in girls throwing themselves at you and you got to fuck them. Now that's considered abuse? Give me a break, by that standard Tom Jones should have a 200 year sentence. It's just more jockeying for victimhood.

 

[UsefulIdiot]

I have not heard anything bad about Tom Jones, David Lee Roth and a number of other stars who put up numbers (who can blame them) but there are some fairly horrific stories about Steven Tyler, Gary Glitter and others who were coercive, abusive and outright exploitive of 14 and 15 year old girls and boys. These people go beyond being products of eras with different moral standards. As a hobbyist I am hardly woke, and would be considered a pariah by judgmental no-nothings. But I have never bullied, coerced or raped anyone. Those that do often got away with it in the past for decades. Now, as in the recent case of Andrew Tate, the truth comes out much faster. So scumbags be warned.

As for privacy I have always been careful but modern technology is heading in the direction of it being eliminated altogether.

 

[ludwigr]

I have not heard anything bad about Tom Jones, David Lee Roth and a number of other stars who put up numbers (who can blame them) but there are some fairly horrific stories about Steven Tyler, Gary Glitter and others who were coercive, abusive and outright exploitive of 14 and 15 year old girls and boys. These people go beyond being products of eras with different moral standards. As a hobbyist I am hardly woke, and would be considered a pariah by judgmental no-nothings. But I have never bullied, coerced or raped anyone. Those that do often got away with it in the past for decades. Now, as in the recent case of Andrew Tate, the truth comes out much faster. So scumbags be warned.

As for privacy I have always been careful but modern technology is heading in the direction of it being eliminated altogether.

Don't want to sound like a Tate fanboy, but he's been detained without a single shred of evidence, as precaution while they "find evidence". Plus, every single girl who is supposed to be a "victim" has come out publicly and denied it.

 

[sexpuppy]

If this thread is about media/news manipulation then yes we are basically constantly being manipulated. That is nothing new as it always has been throughout human history as long as there is society, it's just that media is now 24/7 as opposed to you going to see your village church/guru/shaman/temple like it was back in history.

 

[sy barite]

I have not heard anything bad about Tom Jones, David Lee Roth and a number of other stars who put up numbers (who can blame them) but there are some fairly horrific stories about Steven Tyler, Gary Glitter and others who were coercive, abusive and outright exploitive of 14 and 15 year old girls and boys. These people go beyond being products of eras with different moral standards. As a hobbyist I am hardly woke, and would be considered a pariah by judgmental no-nothings. But I have never bullied, coerced or raped anyone. Those that do often got away with it in the past for decades. Now, as in the recent case of Andrew Tate, the truth comes out much faster. So scumbags be warned.

As for privacy I have always been careful but modern technology is heading in the direction of it being eliminated altogether.

Steven Tyler went for boys? Wow, ya never can tell.

 

[UsefulIdiot]

Steven Tyler went for boys? Wow, ya never can tell.

I said that badly, I have not heard about Steven Tyler with boys. He groomed a 15 year old, persuaded her parents to let him marry her with the promise of an education and giving her a good life, did not do that and essentially turned her into a sex slave. But there are of plenty of examples of big celebrities that raped boys.

 

[UsefulIdiot]

Don't want to sound like a Tate fanboy, but he's been detained without a single shred of evidence, as precaution while they "find evidence". Plus, every single girl who is supposed to be a "victim" has come out publicly and denied it.

The Behind the Bastards podcast last week and this week has a four part deep dive on Andrew Tate that is horrific.

 

[sy barite]

The Behind the Bastards podcast last week and this week has a four part deep dive on Andrew Tate that is horrific.

I heard what those morons said about Jordan Peterson, so I'd take everything they say with boulder of salt. The worst I've heard from Tate himself is his inability to say, "I was wrong about that"...the sign of a weakling.

 

[Marblehead]

the hobby scene has went to shit, its not like the golden age of the late 90s-2000s where you decliious tanned milfs, ladies from the east bloc, quebecois beauties, cuban missile hotties, busty local girls, sprinkle in some local college talent and the GTA was lit. The GTA is garbage now, all you have is minimal strip clubs with drug addicts, or wannabe amaerican hoes that wanna charge $600 for nothing, you lost all the decent EE spas, and the only area is richmond hill, but why waste an uber to go all the way up there in winter when its minus 20?????? Leoslist ruined the game, and all those classified sites, at least in the old school game the ladies on eye magazine, nowtoronto and toronto sun were trying to earn an honest living and weren't trying to finesse or play games.

As for AI, its just fear mongering and the latest fad to get panties all wet.

Society has become softer than runny baby shit.

The woke culture and pronoun ruined all the fun.

Keep it real folks and don't get brainwashed by the bleeding heart wannabe woke liberal media.

Too late, the majority believe everything their tv news tells them, they can’t be bothered to do the slightest bit of research on their own. Thus, 'sheeple,' was born