It’s possible to use a combination of human psychology, technology, and greed to create what would ultimately become the final website, the ultimate diversion, the most profitable company in history, and the end of human civilization, all at once.
O if I were an amoral scumbag, I’d probably be coding this fatal website right now. A sense of compassion for my fellow man prevents me from doing so. That doesn’t mean someone else has thought of this idea and they aren’t busy coding it in some underground lair right now.
The idea: Combine the worst aspect of human nature to create what would essential be the website equivalent of opium or crack. Make it an addiction, something people just cannot avoid. It wouldn’t ensnare everyone, of course, but it would gather a large enough following to generate billions of dollars for greedy investors.
To make the website work you have to understand and exploit two fundamental human weaknesses.
The first weakness is a need for social interaction.
Facebook preys upon this need. It’s like an addiction: Facebook is constantly checked, monitored, updated. It’s distracting, but it could be even more so.
Imagine if Facebook preyed upon the need for social interaction by artificially generating attention. What if Facebook employed an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm along the lines of the old Eliza program. Even when feedback didn’t come from a human, it would come from the software itself. People would stick around the website, unaware that the feedback they’re getting — posts, chat sessions, shares — was being generated to be specifically of interest to them. That would keep the users on the website longer, which is what advertisers want.
The second weakness is the most devious to exploit, and the key to making the website fatally addicting. It’s known as the partial-reinforcement effect. It’s the same thing that makes slot machines successful.
Partial-reinforcement plays a role in rewarding behavior. For example, a monkey taps a bar and an M&M pops out of a machine. If you alter the sequence so that every third tap generates an M&M, the monkey taps three times to get his M&M. He’s okay with that, but when the taps are random, the monkey continuously taps the bar in a quest for M&Ms that may or may not appear. He could theoretically die tapping the bar, doing nothing else. That’s part of the psychology behind gambling addiction.
Combine partial-reinforcement effect with a social networking web site, randomly enforced by AI feedback, and you could — in theory — create the most addicting website in history
Hungry for random feedback, subscribes may never leave the site — just like the gambler waiting for a machine that’s “due.” The end effect would be a captive audience, one that stays online longer than any other site on the Internet.
In fact, with the right mixture of AI and human psychology, a core of users could be cultivated who are so addicted that they never leave. Or who could be so conditioned that they would venture out into the world to complete specific tasks in return for the opportunity to later return to the web site for potential satisfaction.
I find the entire concept chilling. I’d never implement it, but that doesn’t mean some bastard out there has already though of this doomsday website. If so, God help us all.
