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Data Mining by BuzzMetrics
Sites like Netflix and Amazon do a great job of recommending products that I might like. Part of how they do it is by comparing my choices to those of other people. The more data they have, the better they can predict what I would like to buy. Now, imagine we could take this approach and apply it on a much broader scale. This is what new companies like BuzzMetrics are doing. I found this yesterday while looking at job listings in New York City:
BuzzMetrics is a word-of-mouth research and planning firm. We use a proprietary software system to gather and process the hundreds of millions of conversations that consumers have online in message boards, email listservs, blogs, product review sites, etc. Our team of analysts then runs measurements and evaluations on this data to gain market feedback and understand how consumers talk about important issues, advocate products, and spread information. BuzzMetrics is a young company, but we are having great success. We already count over 75 Fortune 500 companies as clients, and have deep relationships with many of the largest brands in the world.
If you look at the actual BuzzMetrics site, they aren’t quite as explicit about what they do or just how they do it. It’s one of those cases where if I had accidentally browsed to their site some other way, I wouldn’t have found anything to pique my interest. But what they are doing - at least according to that job ad - is quite amazing. I think it’s a brilliant idea.
In fact, I had the idea myself sometime last year - but not the means to execute it. Particularly, I was thinking about websites like Friendster and MySpace, which are social networking software. Basically, it would be easy to set up a program to run through these sites and make connections between social groupings and media choices, and use this demographic information to sell! sell! sell! I’d be surprised if Friendster and MySpace didn’t already lease this type of information to companies. Whether or not they do though, BuzzMetrics certainly does. I’m curious to find out more about what they do and how they do it. Presumably they use this same basic principle that Amazon uses for recommendations, or that we theorized with Friendster, and apply that in a broader way to blogs, online forums and other sources of marketplace chatter.
Very interesting stuff. It also reminds me of the supposed software systems that the government has developed like Echelon or Carnivore which track and correlate online information. Conspiracy theorists always claim such things are used to monitor and restrict political dissidents. But where’s the money in that? It makes a million times more sense to me to use such technology the way that BuzzMetrics does - market research and product development. Why put people in concentration camps (providing them free housing, food, & healthcare) when you could simply sell them an endless stream of products and make money off them? Seems much more likely to me than a lot of outlandish conspiracy theories which tread the same topics.
- Friendster dumbass
- My own data mining… you’re getting warmer (or is it wormer?)
- The Number 23 Movie Trailer
- NSASpace
- Friendster as marketing data collection center
- Prev: Cities As Concentration Camps
- Next: Ghosts of Animals
September 26th, 2005 at 2:32 pm
there is a guy who has been interviewed on alex merklinger`s show a number of times and he is mysterious in that he only goes by the name cliff. he does these things called web bot runs that are semantic sweeps of communications on the internet. he claims that he produces trend indicators that allow him to predict natural disasters, political attitudes, market shifts, etc. you will have to listen to the interviews and draw your own conclusions but it seems that he`s doing something similar to buzzmetrics.
September 26th, 2005 at 2:32 pm
myspace is all about it.
its an area that i have mixed feelings and unfinished thoughts about…
interesting Douglas Rushkoff Frontline report:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/
September 26th, 2005 at 2:38 pm
Well, I’d like to hear some of them when you have the chance.
September 26th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
welp, i honestly just know in my heart i can get over on whatever system they set up. im not afraid. so for me personally in action i feel, good for them whatever…. thanks for MySpace i can network with MY product and ideas.. go ahead, steal my shit, ill still get over.
im not so sure about alot of people though. some folks are easier to mold…. and not because they are stupid (well, maybe a little stupid) but because they still hold onto some genuine human qualities like trust and forgiveness and the desire to please others etc.. and savy marketers have really (scientifically & metaphysically) figured alot of shit out and can manipulate things in not so nice ways (to say the least).
so im torn.
i mean, id really like to know that technologies will have a positive effect and that truth shines, i get the vibe that “they” dont intend on that for everyone…
one
human?
September 26th, 2005 at 3:13 pm
I’ve always found that Amazon’s recommendations suck, but I tend to look for specific books and albums, and not be as interested in genres as a whole, which seem to be the way the reccommendations work. It surprises me that Amazon gets so much credit for this. Just go to a bookstore and browse the shelves for New Releases; Amazon’s “marketing” caters more to laziness and cocooning than “I never could have found that!” On the other hand, I do like to browse their listings–just like any shelf. I think I’m an aberration as I’m far more interested in a lot of books that are out of print than stuff on the NY Times bestseller list. When I got reccommended “Mein Kampf,” I went on a rampage and selected probably a hundred random items.
“Cliff” operates Halfpasthuman.com; you can subscribe to his reports, of which samples are available at Urban Survival. It’s fascinating, and borders or outright breaks into the same category as the I Ching. Cliff has claimed that they’ve found the Chinese using a similar webbot-driven analysis.
It’s not a “conspiracy Theory” that the gub’ment uses ECHELON to eavesdrop and seek out keywords, it’s an established fact; the New Zealand gov’t was one of the only developed nations to make a fuss over it. At least initially, ECHELON only listened to high-risk conversations and flagged them if keywords went off. Of course, it’s important to realize that it’s still essentially the security-guard-watching-camera-screens problem–since automatic robot police don’t exist yet, maybe no one’s paying attention, or cares, about the flagged messages… Plainclothes cops are a bigger threat than these NSA clowns. If the idea is that ECHELON can’t exist because it doesn’t make money, then that would make the federal school lunch program “conspiracy theory.”
Who needs barbarous words and automatic writing and alphabets of desire when simple rhetoric, media virus, and repitition works better?
Daily banishings help to keep the CNN-NPR-FOX drivel from infection, as does any McLuhan book.
Why fight a “war” on heroin, then invade the chief producer, overthrow the current regime which has successfully squelched opuim harvesting, then install a puppet government that overlooks opium to the extent that production doubles there? Why build prisons to lock up the end-users of one of the now-puppet nation’s chief exports? I’m not saying Spectacle-Market methods don’t offer control, but plain old coercion by force and imprisonment works pretty good, too.
September 26th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
i’ve been “monitored” by a company called Umbria Communications too. another one to check out.
oh, and there is a company called BlogPulse that has a website that (I think) is open to an extent for public use.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:20 pm
Umbria is another good call, John. Their website is here. They describe themselves as “marketing intelligence”. They call themselves
Articles about them may be found in several places:
CNN Election Coverage
PR Newswire
WKRN
The Basement
Business Week Blogspotting
Haven’t read through all those yet, but one of the best quotes is from the PR Newswire one:
I don’t so much care, but I’m curious if there’s a way you could feasibly confound these companies from using your data in their reports. Aren’t they technically making money off your creative copyrighted works?
John, how did you find out you were monitored by them?
September 26th, 2005 at 4:21 pm
It’s interesting to me to think about how a system like this would work if applied to a concept such as the “collective unconscious.” In a sense it’s already an assertive collective conscious. If something like that exists, I think it would be frightening if someone capitalized on it to sell to us.
Either way this topic reminded me of the scene in Minority Report where Tom Cruise goes into the store after escaping the agency, and then the advertisments read all of his intentions and try to sell to him. Not so far-fetched it seems…
September 26th, 2005 at 4:25 pm
This passage from CNN is I guess in reference to how Umbria monitored bloggers during the 2004 election.
Fucking fascinating stuff!
September 26th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
brand evangelists? track particular users over time?
the Cheif Technology Officer over at Buzzmetrics graduated from Harvard designing Astrophysics software… these companies are crazy……..
September 26th, 2005 at 4:41 pm
the shit is amazing, but god would i love to fucking bankrupt those assholes.
i knew they were checking me out ’cause it showed up in my referrals — it looks like I came up in some kind of automated search targeting peoples opinions on adobe after their merger with macromedia.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:42 pm
link for above quote:
http://www.buzzmetrics.com/approach/ap_technology.htm
September 26th, 2005 at 4:46 pm
Goddammit, this stuff is really wild. I think they might have just brand-evangelized me. Maybe I’ll send in an application after all. The possibilities of what you could do with this kind of technology is simply incredible.
September 26th, 2005 at 4:51 pm
tim, that begs the question…. what would YOU do with that kind of technology?
September 26th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
I would do all kinds of crazy shit is the answer! I posted something related in the Beliefnet thread, about how it wouldn’t surprise me if they were using similar metrics on their site. They could easily establish profiles based on age, gender, race, income level (all without even asking their users these questions apparently - nevermind if they just straight out asked them). Then they could track typical responses and styles of thinking about religion and spirituality for people in each group. Then, they can simply clothe products in exactly these styles to appeal to all the segments in their target market.
That’s what I would do, but I would also learn from that how to better get these different groups, profiles and segments to talk to one another and break out of their limiting demographic (but maybe that just moves them into a new one, who knows). It seems like it would be a tremendously useful tool for translating concepts among people with different backgrounds. Nevermind a real goldmine for publishing because if your business is already words, then studying people’s words pays off. You don’t even have to translate it into a physical product or service really.
September 26th, 2005 at 5:09 pm
Looks like Jonathan Carson of Buzz Metrics has a blog available here:
http://www.buzzmetrics.com/blog/
Matthew Hurst of Intelliseek (another company apparently doing something similar) also has a blog here about data mining:
http://datamining.typepad.com/data_mining/
I found these via an article about the market battle that Umbria is waging against it’s competitors. This article is super critical of Umbria and basically accuses them of lying and fluffing themselves up to look great so that they can sell the company quickly and make a killing.
September 26th, 2005 at 5:19 pm
it is interesting to compare mcluhan`s work to banishing. i feel the same way. the truth and the mechanisms for aquiring it are effective ways to solve problems. i feel the same way about hypnotherapy and nlp, both personally and for my clients.
in regard to bankrupting the people who have developed and utilise this technology; isn`t that a bit resentful? the smartest anarchists fight from the inside and uses the same tools as the ememy.
September 26th, 2005 at 10:48 pm
Um, because someone has to make the products, and operate the whole infrastructure that makes this economy possible, and those are really crappy jobs that no one would do if they weren’t over a barrel. So when someone tries to liberate people from that system, they get killed or put in prison. Real concentration camps are not places of “free housing, food and healthcare.” You sound like Barbara Bush. They are generally work camps. Nazi camps worked people to death, and the people who were unfit for work were sent straight to the death camps. That’s the logical result of a system that places technical values over human values.
And why make money anyway? The people who run these businesses that are so interested in making money already have nice housing and food and toys. The reason they want more money is that money is ultimately about power. If you want more money than you need, it’s because you crave more and more power, and the end of that road is the stuff the “conspiracy theorists” are accurately talking about: monitoring, restricting, imprisoning, and killing.
September 26th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
I don’t know man. There’s something in all this that doesn’t make sense to me. I haven’t put my finger on it or unraveled it, but it’s nestled in here somewhere. I’ll keep trying.
Why in your example did the Nazis force people to work? Weren’t they then making money off these people’s labor? Doesn’t that support my point about these things needing to be profitable? Saying it’s not about money it’s about power doesn’t mean much to be in practical terms. How do I measure raw power? Do I look at the lust in a politicians eyes? Isn’t money a measure of power? How can I tell when somebody just wants more and more power? It starts to sound like a comic book when it becomes abstracted from the tangible like this. There’s something missing in all our discussions about power dynamics. Why does putting a bunch of people into a slave labor camp make somebody else powerful? Wouldn’t the support of those people make them more powerful? Why does spending money to control people make you more powerful than controlling people by having them give you their money? Something just doesn’t make sense here…
September 27th, 2005 at 12:34 am
actually, the nazis were using thier prisoners to build armaments to fuel hitler`s slaughter porn.
ran is right about the money-power thing from a corporate standpoint. it does become self-perpetuating.
the individual`s urge to have more money is a seprate issue, though. it stems from survival. the further into the future you can push your threat to survival by accumilating wealth the more likely you are to live and raise children and protect your own bloodline. we are all feudal lords. it`s in our dna.
we are not all corporate c.e.o.s sitting in front of a board of directors each morning demanding higher profits and cheaper labour. we are mothers and fathers with ideas and skills and passions that we would like to deliver to the abundant marketplace that we have here in america/canada. we are willing to work hard to make a decent living, pay the bills and maybe one day have enough money to retire young enough to fuck off here and there and have a garage with a recording studio in it and enough space for a live band and enough distance between the door and the niegbours to really let her rip.
i don`t need a `59 les paul, a `68 black beauty will do.
September 27th, 2005 at 12:40 am
If power is self-perpetuating, then so is paranoia, the obsession with your own powerlessness.
September 27th, 2005 at 12:56 am
oh, and by the way, capitalism is the worst way to run a society…… except all the other ways. ran, you have to realise that there are always going to be inequities in systems. your choice to live off the grid is admirable. move toward it and embrace the lifestyle, i wish you all the best. but i do detect a tone of resentment in your position and your rationalisations for your stance suggests that you aren`t completely comfortable with your choices. or is it that you feel you don`t have a choice?
the artist is a marginalised figure in our society and in that we can feel the sting of persecution that can fuel resentment and push us to react to the status quo in less than functional ways.
money is a representation of value. a symbol of effort that we recognise as useful in trade. it isn`t inherently right or wrong. humans provide that judgement via thier actions in relation to money. money takes responsibility. granted the actions of big business makes it harder on us all scratching in the dirt but lets scratch a little harder and see what happens.
ideally the provision that our parents provided would last a lifetime. few of us have been afforded that luxury, and some manage to fuck that up too. and i was thinking more hilton than bush.
i have slept on the couch of a friend. i`ve slept in my car. i have slept on the bed i earned with my wits and tools in the house that i am paying for weekly. each arrangement has it`s plusses and it`s minuses, but at the end of the day i know which i prefer.
September 27th, 2005 at 7:06 am
Hey everyone -
You have a really intriguing conversation going on here about my company, and I just wanted to chime in. We try to be very transparent about what we do, so I’m happy to answer any specific questions.
But did want to address the discussion about whether word of mouth research could lead to shady marketing practices. Our philosophy at BuzzMetrics is that the whole reason marketing has been so problematic in the past has been that the economy was based on a mass production model, and the corresponding marketing model was a broadcast, “shove it down their throats” approach which focused on how to force-sell product to consumers. With many industries being digitzed, and virtually all industries developing technology-based production efficiencies, that model is changing and companies have a lot more flexibility in what they sell. We think a corresponding change in marketing is also due — marketing should be based on relationships with customers. That’s not a new idea; its the old “small village” version of marketing that existed pre-mass market of the last century.
For this to happen, marketers need to learn how to have conversations with their customers, instead of “delivering messages.” That’s a big shift, and we believe that it has to start with learning how to better listen to the customers. And that’s what we try to do - help marketers engage in a conversation-based relationship with the marketplace.
Fundamentally, this is all very pro-consumer b/c it requires marketers to surrender complete control to the consumer - control over messaging, and media consumption, etc.
Already there are some big companies that have been very successful in their blog efforts, and I think those are the ones that are “getting” this.
September 27th, 2005 at 12:33 pm
Thanks for jumping into the fray, Jonathan. It’s nice to have first-hand info on this from your perspective, rather than strictly speculative “what if” scenarios.
For anybody interested in the topic of data mining and its applications in marketing, I definitely recommend checking out Jonathan’s BuzzMetrics corporate blog:
http://www.buzzmetrics.com/blog/
September 27th, 2005 at 3:54 pm
this is a very Douglas Ruskoff view…. and i would like to believe it..
unfortunately, im not so sure its reality. is it genuine dialogue? or just that 0.5% edge that a huge corporation needs to outwit their competitor (and consumers)?
dont get me wrong, there is nothing inherintly “bad” about what buzzmetrics seems to do IMO… i just wonder what kind of communication is actually developing..
perhaps im a little crazy, lol, but it would seem as if the software yall use is actually conversating with some type of new creature…. and what im thinking is can there be an application beyond marketing for communication with the collective mind of the datasphere…
is the wired talking?
i mst say thogh…. VNU is kinda creepy.
one
human?
September 27th, 2005 at 4:38 pm
[…] « double-blind paranoia Crappy jobs Check out this great comment by Ran (over on Tim Boucher’s site) about mon […]
September 27th, 2005 at 5:06 pm
John:
Creepy! “Umbria Communications” reminds me of this company in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series called “Sombra Corporation.” (Both “Umbria” and “Sombra” have linguistic roots that mean shadow.) The Dark Tower depicts an epic battle between the forces of life, spontaneity and good and the forces of mechanization, control, and darkness. Nothing more than a coincidence, but things like this trip my sensors, especially given the content of your blog.
By the way, when are you going to start writing again?
(Whoops - just checked Dictionary.com - apparently “Umbria” is a region in Italy. Still, the phonetic connection with Umbra does indeed trip my synchronicity wires.)
September 27th, 2005 at 5:17 pm
btw, if yall Buzzmetrics people are still around, i highly recommend Tim Boucher for whatever job if he applied…..
consistant & creative. IMO dude would make a valuable asset to any team… especially anything that involves internet, blogs & what people are thinking about…
one
human?
September 27th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
I am not going to point my fingers in any particular direction, but this whole anti-this anti-that movement seems to propagate its own paranoia, as was already mentioned. I like what Jonathan from Buzzmetrics had to say, as I’ve delved into the new communications and marketing design philosophies and they are sound. For business and organisations in general to survive, a new format must be developed and adopted in which the group listens to its clients/customers. It’s all about building interaction and a direct link in which the top of the pyramid is listening to the bottom base population of the pyramic.
Everyone bitches about it, but corporations can adapt and change faster than governments. Perhaps this will lead the way for further developments. I mean, a few years and all this can change this way and that, whereas governments seem to take forever to change due to the bureaucratic bullshit.
And Ran’s talk of “power” I think is an outdated perspective of how things work, both people and society. More people in the poorer echelon, in the suburbs, hanging out in top forty bars, are living in shacks and spending all their money on flashy clothes and cars. The clueless, soulless automotons that they are — can they be freed, do they want to be freed? Is it easier to live in the system than without?
Would this cause more suffering and damage than “good”? And for what, so the counterculture can feel better about itself and justify its arguments that the System is Evil? From what I see, the System is always trying to better itself, regardless of direction. it moves as fast as it can to better itself. Without the structure it had in the 1980s and 1990s, it would have never led to this competitive point today where these companies seriously need to listen to their clients.
Any blame on the Them rather than yourself is avoiding responsibility. We made them, and we can break them. And if you really wish they’d go away, go Fight Club on their ass or take a cue from The Invisibles.
September 27th, 2005 at 10:35 pm
Great stuff, Fell. Great stuff!
September 27th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
You know, I just thought of something. All this stuff about talking to customers about what they want - how often do customers really even know what they want?
Usually they have a kind of general idea, but if you listen to them too much with the specifics, it might come out like crap. Like that Simpsons episode where Homer designs a car that bankrupts his brother’s company. I run into this same thing all the time when I freelance for people. A client comes to me with basically a need, and some examples of how they might want it to work or look. But it’s up to me how it looks and to make it work. All they usually do is choose which design and fill in the content. I think there’s an important message here about engaging markets in conversations. How much do you really let yourself listen to them, and how much should you convince them about what it is they want?
September 28th, 2005 at 12:58 am
Listening to Users
September 28th, 2005 at 1:18 am
This is an excellent passage from that:
I feel like this is exactly what I struggle with in terms of my own site. Like everybody’s always giving me suggestions and feedback about how I should do what I do, and it’s useful, but I have to look at the spirit of what people are saying, or rather what they are pointing at, but can’t articulate. It’s my job to articulate it. Seems like that’s probably the role of any marketer or artist as well: catch the spirit of the times and articulate it.
September 28th, 2005 at 1:57 am
This bit from jonathan carson:
For this to happen, marketers need to learn how to have conversations with their customers, instead of “delivering messages.” That’s a big shift, and we believe that it has to start with learning how to better listen to the customers. And that’s what we try to do - help marketers engage in a conversation-based relationship with the marketplace.
Reminded me of this comment at Moon of Alabama, concerning this Billmon post.
Comment I’m referring to follows:
Well, the taxpayer will bail the shareholders out - just like the airlines. The management will get their options payment and the workers will lose their defined benefits. Customers - WTF are customers?
Business as usual.
Indeed. Business as usual.
Companies, companies everywhere. Where’s the humanity, the common sense, the transparency?
Seriously Jon. What does this mean:
marketers need to learn how to have conversations with their customers
Seriously. . .
September 28th, 2005 at 1:23 pm
You’re blaming businesses, but throughout history it has always been the organisation, any group of people well-orchestrated, that fights to survive. The greater good of the group. The strength in numbers. Seriously, look beyond the façade of the company and examine the metaphysics of social dynamism.
It isn’t that it’s incorporated, that just gives it an official voice and status for us to believe in, but that it’s a group of people with a) common interests and goals, and b) they work harder than you to achieve them.
Stop pointing fingers and do something about it. I see more people doing good from within the system than those criticising it. And those that criticise it that get involved actually accomplish something, because they — like the shaman before them — realise they must strike a deal with the archons in order to bring about these little changes. Like the Egyptian priests before them, people must learn to manipulate the machinations of the gods, not confront them head-on. That’s just detrimental.
Perhaps the counterculture, as an entity unto itself, is lonely and aware of its irrelevance to the forward movement of the world and, in fact, harbour resentment for a secret admiration for the glitter and illusory appearance the great big world of business gives off. But what do I know?
I admit I am in earnest adoration of the subtle manipulation of the enemies you preach against. Why? They’re slick, and practiced, and they’re confident and good at what they do. They already know what reactions some dudes in balaclavas, holding tight to their philosophical textbooks, are going to spring. With a good grasp of the occult and its practices, you would figure they’d have figured out how to predict a 1 will bring about a -1 to equal 0, or a 2 will bring about a -2 or even a -1 here and a -1 there to regain balance.
It is my guess that if there is a conspiracy, none of us even have the slightest clue the context in which it’s held steadfast. If we did, we’d probably join them.
And against the archons that be, it’s really not that hard to fight. The lit is out there, but apparently the drive is not. “Do or do not. There is no try.” And when you truly realise how easy it is to do whatever you want, then you really begin to question your own motives and spiritual path. Or so I’ve found.
Again, may I suggest Thundersqueak, by Ramsey Dukes.
September 28th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
Fell, I have to agree with you. I’ve spent a lot of time myself going in circles criticizing from a counter-cultural perspective. And now I’m moving into something else thats more positive and willing to accept how things work and look at why, rather than just rail against. It’s not an easy change to make though, and I’m not sure where it will end up. Hopefully someplace good. It already feels better to me than where I was before…
September 28th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
Yes, we just need to be aware of the fuckers that pull shit like:
Tobacco firms’ subtle tactics lure smokers to their brand
Population control - for hire
Do I blame business? No. I believe that perhaps the smoking industry is aware of their poison and the public stance on it, so it’s acting like a cornered rat. This whole Strategic Communications Laboratories offering psyops as a service to commercialise propaganda, that is a bit different. I am in no place to judge what role it’ll play in the future, but I am sure privacy groups will be on them soon enough. (Thanks for Mind Hacks for the infoze.)
But then again, taking “good” and “evil” out of the semantic equation leaves me with an interesting game playing itself out. It’s damn good drama and beats tv. Yes there is evil out there, but it’s only evil because I believe it to be. I acknowledge this.
September 28th, 2005 at 5:23 pm
I think one thing that’s being overlooked here is that the “countercultural” perspective works really in two ways. There’s counter-culture-as-aesthetic, much like there’s business-as-aesthetic. Personally, I’m disgusted by corporate-speak much like I am some white guy with dreadlocks muttering “…dude.” Then there’s concern. Frankly, opposing the people opposing people performing misdeeds on account of sentiment pisses me off–that amounts to supporting the nampalming babies in Cambodia because you don’t like hippies. E.g., it should be absofucknglutely impossible to claim ownership of an entire strain of wheat, but Monsanto did it, and now they sue folks with Monsanto-variety wheat growing on your property. Common law used to hold that if someone else’s animal gives birth on your farm, you own the newborn… Now you’re guilty of theft.
The problem is obvious, that money can bend the law to moneyed interests. But labor unions–i.e., a “corporation” of individuals operating to further their interests–are somehow “communist,” especially when they seek things like, e.g., the weekend, or safety regulations. Every time I seen a libertarian, i.e., dope-smoking Republican, speak about “market discipline” and “rule of law” they mean “socialized support and special legal status for business, market discipline and curtailed rights for individuals.”
But none of that relates to marketing, except outside the healthcare industry. Again, I fear for the unification of databases, simply because we already see moves by insurance companies to raise premiums on genetic conditions–Fell, I’d like to hear your call on that, living in a country with big-scary-socialized healthcare–moves by the police to centralize data, etc. I don’t give a shit what ads you flash in my face. Even the moves Rushkoff describes in Coercion I don’t worry about.
I can get laid without a car, I don’t need a TV, and I already have a hand-me-down microwave. On the other hand, I have read a lot of business/marketing cottage-industry literature, and it’s by and large total, unadulterated crap written by hungry freelancers and sold to easy marks in Armani suits.
With regards to archons, I’m feeling very paranoid right now, worried that all my magick rituals have been opening a landing strip for ultraterrestrial malevolent forces, but I think the archons only benefit from car commercials in that it provides a smokescreen.
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