2020 Decoded: What Happened to You in 2020?
The Year the World Changed—and Took Parts of Us With It
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2020 was a year of significant technological and societal change, marked by the convergence of various technologies and systems. The author argues that the public was unprepared for this convergence, leading to widespread confusion and the spread of misinformation. The author emphasizes the importance of understanding the underlying infrastructure and systems that enabled these changes, rather than focusing on conspiracy theories or surface-level explanations.
The text discusses the development of hardware and software that enabled the rise of machine learning, highlighting the convergence of various technologies. It emphasizes the role of individuals who understood this convergence early on, despite their observations being dismissed as eccentric. The author, known for humanitarian work, argues that their technical insights were overlooked due to their established public persona, and that their work in semantic compression and communication dynamics was a precursor to their later observations on technological permeability.
The year 2020 marked a significant shift in human life, with a forced migration into a denser computational environment. This “substrate shock” led to widespread psychological, social, and ontological strain as people adapted to remote work, telemedicine, and other digital systems. The resulting condition, characterized by a lack of vocabulary and norms to navigate this new reality, fueled conspiracy theories and distorted public discourse.
The misnaming of mRNA vaccines as a simple “shot” led to widespread misunderstanding and mistrust. This resulted in social divisions, with vaccinated individuals facing ostracism from anti-vaccination communities, and vice versa. The author recounts personal experiences of losing family, business, and support due to their pro-vaccination stance, highlighting the devastating impact of these social fractures.
The author recounts a harrowing experience of being targeted by a sophisticated cyberattack, resulting in the loss of decades of work and personal data. Despite seeking help from cybersecurity experts and authorities, the author was left to fend for themselves, highlighting the inadequacy of individual defenses against well-funded and organized cyber threats. The author argues that this experience is not unique but rather a symptom of a larger systemic problem, where networked truth is often suppressed and individuals are discredited to protect powerful interests.
Between 2020 and 2023, an unregulated psychotechnical praxis flourished, using disclosure paradoxes to extract self-disclosure from volunteers. This practice, now institutionalized, operates on cognition, creating personalized unreality. The larger experiment, manipulating emotions of 689,000 people in 2012, demonstrated population-scale emotional contagion, a precursor to the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the year 2020, caused significant and lasting changes to society. These changes include temporal distortion, weakened relationships, and increased reliance on digital platforms. The pandemic also exposed existing societal issues like economic disparity and political polarization, highlighting the need for a more equitable and resilient society.
The text explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of society, including time perception, personality change, and grief. It delves into the rise of prolonged grief disorder due to restricted farewells and curtailed mourning during lockdowns. Additionally, it examines the consequences of social isolation and loneliness on mortality risk, highlighting the importance of strong social relationships for survival.
The year 2020 saw a global pandemic, leading to lockdowns, collective trauma, and personal loss. It also witnessed a surge in cyberattacks, data breaches, and concerns about digital identity and surveillance.