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PART IX

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

FORTY-TWO

THE DIGITAL BOX AND THE FIGHT OF THE FUTURE FOR COGNITIVE LIBERTY

What does cognitive liberty mean? 

Cognitive liberty means having the liberty to free, unrestricted thought. What it does not mean is having your thoughts lead in a specific direction due to cohesion or lack of information.

The World Wide Web (WWW or W3) has revolutionized the way we access and share information. That’s why it is important to question the reality we perceive and overstand the hidden influence of our digital world. 

The future is online, and everything we click, type, and even hover over is being tracked. It is all being added to a little folder that eventually earns us a label.  Once the data has decided “who we are,” it shows us what it thinks “we want to know and see.”  

So, where is the problem with this? Our entire existence is generated by the content we take in. We process stimuli and create our realities based on our thoughts and perceptions of translated data, aka response feedback from all our sensory systems as a result of all the stimuli experienced every day all day. 

We literally become what we know. 

The digital world can be seen as a box with information and data stored within it. While this box may not be visible to the naked eye, it is essential to recognize its impact on our daily lives.  

You can't think outside of the box if you are locked in a digital box. Once boxed, how are we ever to get out of the box? What will intellectual or emotional growth and expansion look like? Expansion of consciousness? How will you be exposed to new information and come to new conclusions and epiphanies? If we are constantly shown more of what it thinks “we want to know,” how are we to explore, become fascinated by chance, or stumble across something that forever changes the way we think or the direction of our lives?

I've always said we are the luckiest generations alive. We won the lottery for the sheer fact that we live in an era where all the knowledge in the world is free and only one click away if you choose to take advantage of this amazing gift.  

But that is changing. Censorship is and will continue to take away and show less of anything that doesn’t fit in the new box that our files found their way into.

Knowledge allows for the expansion of critical thinking, personal choice, and informed decisions. As always, make any decision that is right for you – and here is a new perspective for the online world we currently live in.  Feed or be fed! We’re all getting fed a story. I've decided nobody is curating my conscious thoughts on my behalf.

Moreover, with the advent of artificial intelligence, the role of humans in contributing to the economy is shifting from labor to data and storage abilities. This raises the question, what is the new use of humans in the system? WWW Information and Ideology: the way information is dealt with on the WWW is influenced by ideology. In China, people are aware they are being silenced, whereas in other countries, such as the United States, people may be silenced without even realizing it.

I strongly advocate fighting for your cognitive liberty. It's evident we are living in a digital box, with increasing news censorship and limitations on our freedom to expand our thoughts. This deprivation of cognitive liberty denies us a basic human right. While people worry about not being able to leave the country physically, they seem oblivious to the fact they are trapped within their own mental echo chambers.

An echo chamber refers to an online invisible space where content is repeatedly fed to individuals from one source or direction, enclosing them in a virtual cage and locking them in one ideology.

In this confinement, they only see and hear information that reinforces their existing opinions. The continuous exposure to the same ideas and perspectives results in the growth of biased opinions, amplifying a particular direction of thinking and not allowing for new ideas of thought or new perspectives on anything to be grown.

Technically, if you pay attention to your online feeds, you can discern how the algorithm has categorized you, placing you in a particular box. Each click you make contributes to the algorithm's judgment and further shapes the content you are presented with. It becomes crucial to exercise caution before clicking, as each interaction reinforces the algorithm's perception of your preferences and interests.

The challenge intensifies when you desire a certain type of content, like business professional or motivational talks, but your online circle includes friends posting unrelated material, such as memes or viral comedy videos. A simple click on their content out of obligation may lead the algorithm to believe you prefer that type of content, ultimately distorting your online profile away from your desired interests and suddenly locking you in a space of distraction content.

What is distraction content? Distraction content is content such as memes, viral videos of silly or dangerous tricks or challenges (such as a dance challenge on TikTok), and even endless videos of dogs and cats. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of this content when looked at as a single piece of content. But when you become locked in an echo chamber of it, you suddenly find yourself scrolling for hours inside the “vortex,” consuming distraction content – you have literally stunted your growth and wasted valuable time in your short life.

In the future, we will fight for the right to our conscious liberty. We’ve already lost it, however, and many have not noticed yet. Did you know in Denver, a very valid argument for the legalization of psychedelics is to provide the users cognitive liberty? Yup, they are saying they want the option to choose conscious expansion. Yes, this is the reality we are now living in. This is a subject on the table – we are here now. The content we take in, listen to, see, and absorb (yes, we energetically absorb from others simply by being in their presence) is shaping our reality. We are being fed stories by the media and social platforms, all while being pigeonholed for the rest of our lives. 

We MUST be mindful of our online behavior and interactions. Each click shapes the digital box we are placed in, influencing the content we encounter and the perspectives we are exposed to. It's a landscape one must learn to navigate with discernment to maintain focus and intentional existence online as our world moves towards only being online. If you exhibited these same behaviors in the physical world as an adult, you would raise concerns with those around you. Consuming endless distraction content is no different than sitting on the couch and playing video games all day.

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