Tim Boucher

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Forum Seeding & The Hyperreal, Part 6

By

On 9 May 2021

In Assessment, Clues, Cluster, Example, Explanation, History, Information, Other, Overview, Pattern, Reference, Research, Review

While we’re on the topic of the Ancient Hieruthians, via the post in this series about dictionary definitions & the hyperreal, I thought we should make a small detour.

First, a seed artifact posted on Medium, under one of the Quatria publications, explaining in perhaps overly complex terms what the Hieruthian Hypothesis (similar to the Silurian Hypothesis) is. (archived)

And a supporting invented dictionary definition of Hieruthian posted through another account (archived).

Hieruthians (“Old Ones”) in Quatrian myth & prehistory were basically very early mammals, like the kind we see depicted creeping about the forest floor in paintings of dinosaurs, before dinosaurs were wiped out by successive cataclysms, and mammals rose up to take their place in certain ecological niches…

Tangent that I will come back to another time, before we take too much of a detour of a detour of a detour:

https://twitter.com/tphlat/status/1326183346326691841

Wait, one more side-tangent before the actual topic at hand, forum-seeding.

Another one from Quora, in an effort to triangulate out the data points for SEO:

Is the Hieruthian Hypothesis a plausible explanation for Kumari Kandam? (archived)

The thing most interesting to me here is the invention of an alternative spelling, “Kynari Kendal.” It’s so convincing as a place name, I had to look it up to see if it was “real.” Or rather, whether it’s a spelling shared by others (wherever it falls on the scale of the hyperreal). Apparently it’s unique to this user. Go figure.

Ok, forum seeding…

Obviously, I didn’t invent this technique. I haven’t even used it that much, but it’s easy to do and ripe for dissemination & manipulation of networked hyperreality narratives…

First things first: If you’re going to make fake posts on conspiracy or other forums like Quora, I recommend using an AI-generated headshot, courtesy of thispersondoesntexist.com. That site is a miracle for work like this, as each one is uniquely generated, meaning you can’t take it into Google image search and find any original image source (like if you just copied a photo from somewhere else).

I only did two of these, but there’s no reason to believe doing hundreds or thousands would not have a severe impact on hyperreality. Use with caution, lest you send the multiverse careening to the edge of destruction!

Meet Cal

I like to let the photo generated by the AI help determine the direction of the character backstory…

Cal is your typical average straight-laced ISO compliance professional by day, and “the good kind of conspiracy theorist” by night. And he is just, like, totally curious as heck about the Hieruthian Hypothesis & ancient Quatria in general (like so many of us these days). Who can blame him? Good work, Cal! Keep asking questions!

Meet Jesse

Jesse “Martini” is just your average fun-loving post-grad student in ancient history & literature. And he’s “not a big conspiracy guy” by his own self-admission, but he’s wondering about the Hieruthian Hypothesis, and another very controversial topic: the alleged splitting apart of the continents of Arctica & Antarctica.

Yes, Arctica was totally a continent…

Because of prior experiments on Quora, I knew that this was potentially a hot-button topic! (See below)

When did the continents of Arctica and Antarctica split apart? (archived)

This science enthusiast was none too “enthused” about the idea of there being a continent called Arctica. Except, in fact, that according to Wikipedia in my timeline, there totally was! (archived)

Now, Wikipedia could be wrong, bear in mind. It could be subject to the global international conspiracy to filter out Quatrian history from our collective holographic display, but there are certainly a lot of footnote references included, and who am I to go and bother checking footnoted references for validity? [A whole other blog post, remind me!]

If it was really wrong though, there would likely be a huge flame war on the Wikipedia Arctica Talk page, and there is not… So either the Guardians of Reality were asleep, or this is totally “real,” at least insofar as anything in the distant distant past can be proven to be…

Now, whether or not Arctica & Antarctica were ever one continent… well, that’s a whole different story I will leave you to try to resolve on your own. Suffice it to say, the Earth we know today is not the Earth which once was, or one day will be…

Just ask anyone on a conspiracy forum.

Dictionary Definitions & The Hyperreal, Part 5

By

On 9 May 2021

In Assessment, Assignment, Definition, Entity, Example, Idea, Information, Item, Other, Overview, Problem, Proof, Question, Quote, Reference, Research, Test

In part 3 of this series, I looked at one of the ways the Hyperreal works on a question & answer website like Quora.

If you’ve never used Quora, it’s basically a site where people go to ask other people things they could just as easily look up in a search engine. And then other people take those things, look them up in a search engine, and reply to the original asker with usually the answers they found in a search engine, plus usually some condescending remarks. In other words, it’s a great experience for everybody, clearly.

As I began to see those patterns take shape, I came up with an idea. What if I could just seed the answers I wanted into Google results? This way, I could ask leading questions anonymously (which Quora allows), knowing people would just Google them, and then their answers could help me launder content further along the spectrum of the hyperreal.

Having experimented a lot with Medium, I knew that it would be relatively easy to rank quickly in Google (often occurs within a few hours). So I set up a kind of meta-data thirst trap account, “pretending to be” dictionary definitions. I put “pretending to be” in quotes because, really, I have as much of a right to define words as anyone else. There’s no monopoly on language. It’s a living thing…

The Medium account is:

https://medium.com/@define.words (archived)

I also set up a “publication” on Medium to further strengthen my SEO:

https://medium.com/online-dictionary (archived)

Looks pretty legit (despite dark-mode in screen shot), if I say so myself!

I would definitely believe “Online Dictionary” and so should you! What’s not to believe with all this meta-data!

Then I set up about defining some words & concepts, complete with pronunciation guides, and usage examples, so Google would hoover them up, and it did! Usually within a few hours.

You know, common everyday words most people use like Hieruthian (archived), Crypto-Civilization (archived), and Poesiarchy (archived).

Google will happily purr them back out to you as “correct” answers to definitions of these common Quatrian words & concepts.

And thus as a result, on the marvelous “can you Google this for me” website that is Quora, you will get results like these if you ask the right leading questions to lead people into your meta-data thirst traps:

Example throughput:

What does the word “poesiarchy” mean? (archived)

Quora response:

A highly creative answer, to be sure. And this “reality lurking in the shadowy peripher of our lives just waiting for a chance to manifest” mentioned by the responder sounds, in fact, just like hyperreality — the quarry of our present inquiry. So maybe this person landed on the secret inner meaning, despite the false trappings & trail that had been laid down to entrap them…

Sidenote: I only planted about 5-6 of these definitions. Imagine if someone did hundreds, or thousands, and free dictionary aggregator sites picked them up. If they were good & useful words, how long would it be before they made their way into real people’s everyday vocabularies? Perhaps not long at all.

Tangent:

Speaking of free dictionaries online, this one of “cultural layer” (archived) is pretty interesting.

It begins with a disclaimer: “The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.”

Perhaps all dictionaries should have a disclaimer that they might be outdated and potentially biased?

Further, the OSINT trail for “The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition” is anything but comprehensive – at least in English. There’s a 2016 blogspot source called Russian World Citizens Project (archived) which itself is pretty sketchy looking, and only points back to this same site as a source.

It might be “real” but it might also be hyperreal…

Does the difference even matter?

Quora & The Hyperreal, Part 3

By

On 8 May 2021

In Assessment, Clues, Cluster, Example, Idea, Information, Item, Message, Myth, Other, Proof, Question, Reference, Review, Source, Theory

In prior installations of this series on the Weapons of the Hyperreal (Read Parts 0, 1, & 2 for context), I looked at the power of naming & the dissemination of “facts” via press release into the various lower strata of news sites. I am by no means an expert on this, but merely trying to collect & reflect on all the hyperrealist cryptoart experiments I have done for the past several years, without having a name or genre to slot them into–until now.

I’ve quoted it once, I’ll quote it a thousand times:

Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins.

Wikipedia

With press releases, the purpose really is to get others to pick up your facts, and re-transmit them as their own. It’s largely what “news” as an industry appears to be based on.

But there is another path.

The path of counter-engagement. Where you pose “facts” with the intent that they will be argued against, and shot down by self-proclaimed “experts.” In so doing, you help to drive the narrative forward, increase the SEO footprint, and expose new people to the ideas, while fully acknowledging their disparate existential footing, thereby circumventing cultural immune systems by activating them.

One branch of the many paths through the forest of counter-engagement lies through Quora.

If you’re still wondering what I mean, browse through this search results page for “Quatria” on Quora (archived), a site positively FILLED with experts!

Here are some choice samples, with questions asked anonymously on Quora marked below in bold.

Note: I am obscuring some of the personally-identifying information of responders here, as my purpose is not to name or shame them, but to use these examples to illustrate the vagaries of the hyperreal world we now live in…

Debunk me

While I respect this person likely has some authority in the domain of history, the argument seems to be, “I haven’t heard of this, therefore false…”

Of course, this argument further falls apart once we understand what a crypto-civilization is, and that by their very nature, they’ve been hidden from conventional history… Around and around we go.

From the same source above:

This responder above even took the time to Google & re-transmit my article about the Quatria Theory to myself & others. Very helpful, very hyperreal!

Another Quora thread:

I would rate this answer as only partially true. There is no “work of fiction” entitled Quatria. There do exist certain very real volumes of collected Lore from that supposedly “fictional” culture (debatable) called the Lost Books of Quatria, put out by Lost Books, an indie blockchain publisher. The first volume is even available as an NFT.

However, none of that precludes the very real possibility that ancient or even pre-historic cultures could have made it to Antarctica. Especially since we know it was once more close to the Equator!

Hit me one more time:

This is exactly the creeping feeling of the hyperreal… You don’t know if it’s a “real” fake, or if its a fake fake that some might take as real… The circle never ends.

I often think that it must be reassuring to be this certain that one’s own ontological conception of “the real” is the sole and correct one.

It’s also interesting to me that there are people who feel so strongly compelled to act as Guardians of the Real that they fight it out daily in online forums. Bless their hearts for that… but I hate to break it to you…

Quatria is def real, y’all:

Guardians of the Real, assemble!

It’s interesting that at Quora, it’s normal to make existential determinations on behalf of all humanity and its past, hidden beyond the veils of time. What would they do if they found out Quatria is real…?

Meme: (Morpheus) “What if I told you… Quatria Is Real”
Quatria is very very real, I am afraid

But once in a while, you strike on a compatible hyperrealist fantasy of someone else, such as this person who has combined quite nicely the story-myth of Kumari Kandam with that of Ancient Quatria. It almost makes me wonder too if there isn’t some match here, cosmic forces of a sort driving together the two complexes of ideas & borrowed bits of history…

Where is it mentioned indeed! Perhaps a better question, and one more telling, would be, where isn’t it mentioned?

That said, one must also be careful: one person on Twitter, after posting one of my conspiracy articles from Medium, told me that their father had “worked on Quatria…”–whatever that means. I didn’t inquire further, but perhaps should have.

Or perhaps I did in an alternate timeline, and a huge holographic refractor in space is blocking memory of it from my present self…

Wait, what *is* the Quatria Conspiracy:

I would actually subscribe to this monthly club, perhaps, if the price & contents were right! Hyperreal Trend Report Monthly. Sounds like a Substack waiting to happen.

Others go in directions I don’t quite understand. This one starts strangely, and then…

…well, I guess I’m not the only one stranded deeply in the hyperreal. It’s just that each of us calls it something different, and dresses it up in the decorations that are the most familiar to us.

Is this person suggesting there IS a true life conspiracy to suppress knowledge of Quatria? Did I, through this simple ritual of asking troll-y alt reality history questions on Quora, accidentally invoke one into existence? Only time can tell!

Bringing it all back home…

Time, or another few examples from Quora threads, saved for posterity:

To each their own, I guess. I don’t have an all-seeing eye that tells me none of those things are even remotely possible. Perhaps they are not. But perhaps… Teletubbies to the moooooooon!!!

How do we determine anymore what is “of substance” in the Age of the Hyperreal? This person seems to be also, perhaps inadvertently, admitting there is indeed *some* evidence of this ancient lost civilization after all!

But seriously, how do we know all trace wasn’t simply removed from the web about Quatria, save for a few ramblings by confused authors who have dreamed a dream from outside of time? We really can’t be sure either way!

If you don’t believe me, you could always believe this news article on publish0x, the famous reputable news site (archived).

Or this helpful video, published by bollyholly143:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy8mBL–O1g

Press Releases & The Hyperreal, Part 1

By

On 7 May 2021

In Assessment, Clues, Cluster, Definition, Example, Information, News, Other, Process, Research

As a certified weirdo, I’ve spent a fair bit of time messing around with press releases to better understand how they work & how information propagates through its many channels online, and what makes news items look “real” and believable, or not…

There is quite a range is what I have found. Here are some blurted out thoughts in no particular order. Hopefully an A.I. will one day sort it all out and make sense of it, but until then you, dear reader, will have to suffer like the rest of us…

Here’s a press release I did trying to tie together the Randonaut phenomenon with the Quatria movement:

Randonauts are discovering mysterious ancient artifacts

When you look at that page & the artifact itself, where does it fall on your own scale of hyperreality?

“Usually, you find something unusual,” says one Reddit user, on the popular website. “Like a potato.”

Remember, via Wikipedia:

“Hyperreality is seen as a condition in which what is real and what is fiction are seamlessly blended together so that there is no clear distinction between where one ends and the other begins.”

What about the accompanying news video?

What about this video where someone ACTUALLY USES the Randonaut app to try to find ancient ruins?

Clearly, people are really using this app in new & interesting ways. Some of them are having amazing experiences.

Have they entered the hyperreal, or have you?

Here is another set of press releases I worked on, trying to link the Quatria theory to some supposed incredible discoveries in Antarctica… There was as you may recall, rumors of an “ice ship” discovered there on Google Earth, and I took the ball & ran with it from there in a direction no one was looking (or I wouldn’t have to point it out after the fact):

From the article on the very famous and well-known Knnit.com:

“Conspiracy theorists on YouTube, Quora, Reddit, and other online forums have long debated the existence of Quatria, and have identified what they say are hundreds, if not thousands, of sites of crypto-archaeological significance which support their theories. Some of these videos have attracted hundreds of thousands of views, but all are officially unconfirmed.”

Newschan even did a special video for this amazing discovery:

And this piece also plays within that same metaverse of hyperreal “real” news about Amazing Discoveries Related To Quatria!

Lost Books Reveal Antarctic Conspiracy Roots

Have to cut this short, but will do a part 2 later…

Orchard wassailing

By

On 18 September 2018

In Event, Example, History, Reference, Research

“The orchard-visiting wassail refers to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year.”

Video examples:

“In English folklore, the Apple Tree Man is the name given to the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard,[1] and in whom the fertility of the orchard is thought to reside.[2] Tales about the Apple Tree Man were collected by the folklorist Ruth Tongue in the cider producing county of Somerset.”

Seeker Application (at a kiosk)

By

On 31 December 2017

In Action, Example, Fiction, Function, Governance, Operation, Order, Process, Thing

Welcome to Provider Station Alpha Kilo Bravo 7
--
"Your struggles are over."
--
>request help
Request for Providership

You, the Supplicant or Seeker, beseech us as Provider to enter into a service agreement, the terms of which are outlined in the Terms of Service. By completing this application, you agree to the Terms and all other linked policies. 

Any data entered here will be saved and associated with your public Gestalt keys.
Continue? (y/n)
>y
--APPLICATION ACCEPTANCE PROVISIONAL ON SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION OF BIOGENETIC SCANS AND SAMPLING--
What are you seeking?

[1] Stationing
[2] Provisions
[3] Medical
[4] Comms

>1,2

What do you offer in exchange?

[1] Credits
[2] Goods
[3] Sharing
[4] Other

>4

Please define:

>information

Seconds pass…

An agent will be with you shortly.

OpenQNL: Spin.cast(test)

By

On 26 December 2017

In Example, Function, Test

[wpts_spin]

{DO|RUN}.TEST {MESSAGE |}

FROM {Spin.Cast|SPIN-CAST} {System|SYS}

MESSAGE {Hello.World|[BLANK]|”SUCCESS”};

[/wpts_spin]

A fault in Segment 227641

By

On 24 September 2017

In Answer, Conjecture, Example, Fiction, Information, Order, Overview, Pattern, Pilot, Process, Roles

When the TOTU Auditors came and examined our Records of Processing, they found a fault in Segment 227641.

It was determined that our, as people call it, “Blockchain of Blame” had been scrubbed following the Incident. As a result a lot of automated buck-passing had gone on among distributed autonomous sub-processes, and accountability had gone well beyond the ‘Cloud’ into that place beyond the clouds, where vapor meets Outer Space – the place where our prayers are either answered, terminated, re-routed, delayed, destroyed, aggregated or passed on. Where the Sorters divide everything into Channels, for the Sifters who pass it back down to us the Scanners, the Monitors, and the Watchers.

Which were we? Were we all three? All four? Five? Six? ALL-ONE like the soap the robots use. They are obsessed with it.

Either way, this was almost definitely why the dragons came. As a result of us having breached the protective planetary sphere with our cares and worries. Our complaints were flying out to the stars and beyond.

At first people couldn’t really see them floating in the skies above us. Until a few Spotters started catching and carefully holding mere skewed corner-eye glimpses out into “verified group dragon sightings” such that neuro-typicals were also learning to see them in broad daylight.

Amazon order

By

On 4 August 2017

In Event, Example, Order

  • Practice chanter
  • CR2 batteries for laser pointer
  • Hand-held cassette recorder
  • Deep cycle solar battery

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