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Gaslighting, Brainwashing, and Ontological Crisis in the Works Of What is Real? Brainwashing, Gaslighting, and Ontological Crisis & How the Age of Artificial Intelligence is Anticipated in the Works of Philip K. Dick – Ethan Hale Abstract Literature Analysis Modern A.I. Parallels In “Man, Android, and Machine” (1976), Philip K. Dick explains how “a veil Brainwashing Fake Realities Create Fake Humans … lies between us and reality.” Drawings upon Plato’s Parmenides and • Definition: “The application of a • Today, society relies heavily on artificial intelligence to distinguish “Allegory of the Cave,” Dick provides countless examples of ontological concentrated means of persuasion, between the authentic and the false, e.g., internet trolls, the political crises faced by himself and his major characters. However, these same such as an advertising campaign or appropriation of the term “fake news,” identity theft, etc. situations are exacerbated by additional veils set upon characters by other repeated suggestion, in order to • As the number of privacy invasions, proven fake news sources individuals through intentional manipulation in the form of gaslighting or develop a specific belief or motivation” proliferated by foreign governments, and social media scandals rises, brainwashing. (The American Heritage Medical effective policing of A.I. has declined, with pronounced psychological In these narratives, Dick creates psychologically complex characters and Dictionary) consequences. has them react to, cope with, and sometimes overcome the gaslighting, • The Man in the High Castle TV series • Social media users are, themselves, used by outside agents through brainwashing, and ontological crises that they face. By applying their sees a global Nazi empire use online “fake realities,” platforms and internet environments tailored methods of assessing reality to our own struggles with information propaganda, information control, and specifically to manipulate users (i.e. Facebook’s Cambridge-Analytica overload from AI algorithms intended to increase our consumption of torture to brainwash its citizens. scandal). select pieces of information, Dick’s lifelong search for truth through his • We found that (consistent with • This creates what Philip K. Dick would call “fake humans,” individuals novels may actually offer some insight into the cyber-dystopias and modern psychology) younger who react to these fake realities to form ideas, opinions, and paradigms political machinations of the twenty-first century. characters were more easily from false, altered, or incomplete information. brainwashed than adults. • Fake humans become commodities, a good to be bought and traded by Introduction the manipulating parties. Gaslighting Philip K. Dick’s literature may all be condensed into the question, “What is • “The Gaslight Effect results from a Online Echo Chambers Real?” posed by Dick in his 1978 essay, “How to Build a Universe That relationship between two people: a • The strategic, targeted Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later.” In that essay, he admonishes us not to gaslighter, who needs to be right in placement information online become complacent with the realities to which we have become order to preserve his own sense of self creates an echo chamber for accustomed: and his sense of having power in the consumers of digital media that world; and a gaslightee, who allows heightens existing biases and “Unless we can psychologically accommodate change, we ourselves will the gaslighter to determine her sense often gives validation to begin to die, inwardly. What I am saying is that objects, customs, habits, of reality because she idealizes him otherwise rejected conspiracies and ways of life must perish so that the authentic human being can live. and seeks his approval” (Stern) and paranoia. And it is the authentic human being who matters most, the viable, elastic • In A Scanner Darkly, Bob Arctor is gaslit • “The powerful tools for organism that can bounce back, absorb, and deal with the new” (Shifting by many external agents, and even an discovering, filtering, and Realities 262-263). alternate personality of his own distributing information making, resulting in a confused and developed by companies like Google ensure that we are forever The barrage of digital media and use of algorithms to manipulate how we dissociated sense of self-identity. inundated by information of immediate interest to us – and in quantities think (fake news, internet trolls, targeted advertising, etc.) often evokes • He overcomes this manipulation by well beyond what our brains can handle” (Carr 170). within us a sense of fear or anxiety; perhaps even paranoia, a feeling Dick “counter-surveillance,” using logic and • As the human brain is “inundated by information,” it begins to use short- himself often fell victim to. However, within his novels and through his observation to deduce his true reality. cuts in reasoning and logic called heuristics in order to keep up the flow characters, Dick provides helpful insights that speak to these modern of critical thought. issues plaguing our minds. Ontological Crisis • While often useful, heuristics often lower internet users’ resistance to false information. Below: Author Philip K. Dick • An ontological crisis occurs when a person or character recognizes that • As the brain develops heuristics to draw conclusions quickly and with their overall conception of reality is little data, it can – and does – mistake repetitive information as true, false and is then supplanted with a even if the information is somewhat ridiculous. new understanding of reality. • This peculiar phenomenon is known as the Illusory Truth Effect and has • After Ubik’s characters are mortally taken a firm hold of many internet forums and social media outlets injured in an explosion, their minds are (Fazio). (unbeknownst to them) suspended in a “half-life.” Here, they experience their References Abramson, Kate. “Turning Up the Lights on Gaslighting.” Philosophical Perspectives, vol. 28, death as a backwards progression Ethics, 2014. Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. W. W. Norton & Co., 2010. through time, all the while attempting Dick, Philip K. The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick: Selected Literary and Philosophical Writings. Ed. Lawrence Sutin. Vintage Books, 1995 to make sense of their situation. … A Scanner Darkly. Doubleday, 1977. … Ubik. Doubleday, 1969. Faggella, Daniel. “AI for Social Influence and Behavior Manipulation with Dr. Charles • To unpack or overcome the ontological Farrell, Henry. “Philip K. Dick and the Fake Humans.” Global Dystopias. Ed. Junot Díaz. Boston Review, 2017. Fazio, Lisa K., et al. “Knowledge Does Not Protect against Illusory Truth.” Journal of crises, one must rediscover their Experimental Psychology: General, vol. 144, no. 5, 2015, pp. 993–1002. “Heuristics.” Monitor on Psychology, American Psychological Association, 9 Nov. 2017, physical connection with reality www.apa.org/pubs/highlights/peeps/issue-105.aspx. Rhee, J. “Surveillance and counter-surveillance in Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly.” Selisker, Scott. Human Programming: Brainwashing, Automatons, and American Unfreedom. U through a higher understanding of it. of Minnesota P, 2016. Spotnitz, Frank, creator. The Man in the High Castle (TV Series). Amazon Studios, 2015. Stern, Robin. The Gaslight Effect. Harmony, 2007..
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