Soul in computer networks.
«Soul in computer networks»
Komsomolskaya Pravda, No. 182 10/06/1995
For the first time in the history of mankind, it has become possible to penetrate the subconscious with the help of a computer. A group of Moscow scientists has developed and is already practicing a new method that allows them to penetrate so deeply into the recesses of the subconscious that Freud never dreamed of. In the future, the invention of computer psychoanalysis, which may become more terrible and more powerful than the invention of the atomic bomb, because it is capable of controlling consciousness, opening souls like tin cans and changing the filling to suit its taste.
There are plenty of rumors about this avant-garde method in both the Russian and foreign press, which is concerned with one question: is computer psychoprobing a weapon or a medicine? Igor Smirnov, director of the Institute of Computer Psychotechnologies at the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, and his deputy Elena Rusalkina talk about their invention.
— Igor Viktorovich, what is the «Smirnov device»?
— There is no device. There is a new scientific field — computer psychotechnologies, which is developing primarily in Russia and the United States. We signed a cooperation agreement with the Americans so that these technologies do not go to third countries: the Americans are very afraid that this method might fall into the wrong hands.
— There are rumors that your method was used in Afghanistan to suppress the dushmans and rehabilitate Russian soldiers, and that you are to blame for the tragedy that occurred in Waco in March 1993, when 80 people from the Koresh sect committed an act of self-immolation. Is this true?
— All the sins are being blamed on us. If these technologies were used in Afghanistan, then they were not used by us. As for Waco, I happened to be in Washington, D.C., at my firm, when in Texas, crazed fanatics led by David Koresh locked themselves in a house, threatening mass suicide as an act of repentance. And the FBI asked me to help them smoke out the sectarians. We agreed with the deputy chief of the FBI's technical services division, Steven Killion, that I would conduct a trial experiment on American workers for ten days. I called Moscow and asked them to send me the necessary computer interface to carry out this operation. We agreed to do it this way: record the voices of close relatives or friends saying phrases like «Dad, come out» or «Mommy, we've missed you», transform these speech signals into unconscious forms and broadcast them to all this fraternity around the clock through loudspeakers. After two days, the FBI brass, getting excited (the situation was critical, America was seething at the time because of this event), decided not to wait for the Russians to get going, and did everything we suggested to them, but in a conscious form: that is, notes of appeal from relatives and broadcast them directly to the group of fanatics. And this is very dangerous in an unstable situation — and as a result, a tragedy occurred. According to my information, about 150 people died. We signed an agreement with the FBI on the confidentiality of this information, but suddenly, a year and a half ago, an interview with Killion appeared in an American newspaper, in which it was quite directly indicated that Dr. Smirnov was to blame for the tragedy. Although there are many witnesses who can confirm our non-involvement in this tragedy.
— Was the beginning of your scientific research financed by the KGB?
— You ask them that. I am not authorized to answer such questions either by the relevant department or by my civic conscience.
— What is the essence of your method?
— A person and any creature of God is, first of all, a clot of information. When a person is sick, some part of this information, which he is, is damaged. With the help of computer psychosemantic analysis, we find out what is broken in the psyche and why, — and we correct it. We get into the holy of holies of a person, his soul. And for the first time, this is done not with the help of intuition, psychological charm, hypnosis, but with the help of an instrument, a piece of iron. We have invented a scalpel for the soul! This, of course, is scary, so you have to be very careful.
— How do you get into the soul?
— The method we use most often is called COPS — computer operational psychosemantic diagnostics. The algorithms are very simple, the software is very complex. Outwardly, it looks like this: the patient is seated in front of a computer, electrodes are attached to his head, connected to an encephalograph, and headphones are put on. On the monitor, the person is shown several thousand symbols (usually words or images), passing before the eyes at a frantic speed and with very short exposures. The brain reacts to each of these symbols with electrical potentials, which are recorded by the encephalograph. Then the computer processes all this information and produces results in the form of a reconstructed picture of unconscious mental activity — what we call the subconscious in everyday life — within the framework of the spheres of significance that interest the doctor. All this is partly close to psychoanalytic constructs.
— How do you then «weave» your commands into the noise?
— Using spectral transformation of the speech signal. Since the commands bypass consciousness, the effectiveness of such suggestion is approximately equivalent to suggestion in a deep hypnotic state, that is, a person cannot resist such an influence.
— This is a kind of semblance of the notorious 25th frame of Fisher, when additional frames, imperceptible to the eye, are edited into the film with a certain appeal, far from the content of the film like «Drink Coca-Cola», and at the end of the film the audience runs to drink it?
— 25th frame — This is a very naive and simple way of introducing information into the human brain, bypassing consciousness, there are more sophisticated methods of suggestion, for example, through an acoustic channel: a person listens to noise or music, but in fact there is a speech command that constantly drips into his brain.
— How are commands made?
— The tangle of problems unraveled with the help of psychoprobing allows us to find reference points, by influencing which a person can be freed from many complexes, crippled from many diseases. After all, we bring to light even such information that is firmly blocked by nature. The most difficult and responsible moment is composing the plot, that is, the text of suggestion, which can sometimes consist of only one word and last only 4 or 7 seconds. Then the plot is encoded into music or noise, recorded on an audio cassette; the entire process of preparing one individual plot takes almost six hours. When composing the text of suggestion, the mentality of a specific population, native language, and religion are taken into account. But the main thing is to find key words that will act on the subconscious. The cassette, prepared individually for each patient, is listened to at home and even during sleep.
— Can one be sure that the doctor who writes the text of the suggestion will not harm the patient?
— There are so few employees at our institute because we have an extremely strict selection process for new employees. Everyone must undergo a computer psychoanalysis procedure — this kind of truth detector, with the help of which we find out whether a person is capable of criminal acts, whether he is predisposed to alcoholism, drug addiction, suicide, etc. Recently, out of 38 candidates, we were only able to hire two! We must be confident in each of our employees. The suggestion texts are mainly written by us — Smirnov and Rusalkina.
— Can you use your method to specifically influence a group of people?
— We can. In particular, we want to help a large number of people who have experienced severe stress in areas of military conflict in the near future.
— In Chechnya?
— Yes, there are a lot of people with wounded souls there. We also help «Afghans» who returned from the war with terrible mental trauma.
— Is it possible to influence the masses of people with the help of psychocorrection during the elections to the State Duma so that they vote for this or that candidate?
— Of course, you can. But we won't do it. Politicians approach us with similar proposals, but we refuse under various pretexts.
— But what if they try to force you?
— Then our brains won't work, and we won't be able to come up with an effective plot.
— Is it possible to «mold» a murderer out of a person using psychoprobing?
— Creating a plot that can cause harm, especially to groups of people, is incredibly difficult: each person has genetically embedded moral criteria that do not allow a person to be turned into an evil zombie. No matter how much you tell a person: «Go and kill», he will never do it if he does not have a predisposition to it.
— If you want, you can become the ruler of the world…
— I dreamed of it as a child, but no more than all boys. I found it funny to read Belyaev's novel «Lord of the World». Sometimes in our team we joke among ourselves: «Let's put an iron bucket on our heads, attach it to a radio transmitter and start broadcasting to everyone: «People of the world? We are your masters… Being the master of the world makes no sense: the world is developing naturally, and attempts by an individual to interfere look very naive. Evolution is underway. Moreover, evolution is currently experiencing a radical leap with the advent of psychotechnology. After all, now for the first time in the history of mankind, it has become possible to penetrate the soul with the help of a tool — a computer!