Literature related to Covid event
Few books, resources which can help to understand what happened
I wanted to share with you some of the literature, which I find relevant to Covid event and could be interesting for you as well.
In beginning I would like to say, that I think, that the covid event was created (manufactured) as test of empirical evidence of scientific discoveries which someone gained in last two decades. In simple terms, with advent of information technology and connection of whole global world via world-wide-web the knowledge transfer was rising exponentially. At one point, I think someone decided, that they already gained enough knowledge, resources, capabilities and understand the world so well, that they can try to apply this new model (paradigma) in real life. That is my feeling since beginning and the more we dig into the facts, the more I think it’s real.
Now already to the relevant literature - below I also include pictures for books which I already have:
First book is from Informatics field called Digitale Demenz (Digital Dementia) from Manfred Spitzer. In this book he describes how the Internet makes us more stupid and he includes many empirical studies and facts, why is that.
Related to this which I also have is "Digital Krankenheit" - (Digital sickness) where he focus more on kids and how they loosing cognitive skills. Basically, information technology this days makes people more stupid than ever before - he also describes the neurological effect of information technology. This also explains, why after covid, many people lost a lot of cognitive capabilities - it wasn´t virus but the Zoom and Remote work.
Besides this two books - there is also Nicholas Carr, which digs into this topic and published few very interesting books - "The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google" 2008, my very popular article for Atlantic "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" and also "The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains" 2013
Second book which I recommend is from psychology / neurology field named "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" - in this book author Malcolm Gladwell tries to analyse human biases and how human brain think automatically.
The human biases with neurology field lead to huge amount of discoveries specially into how we think without thinking (habits, automatic reactions, reflection, cognitive biases, emotions and human instincts). This is also why I think, the Yuval Noah Harari refers to "End of human free will" and I think it´s not coincidence that most of the research regarding the human bias was conducted in Israel.
Another famous books which were published few years before covid was "Thinking Fast and Slow" 2011 by Daniel Kahneman (also from Israel), "Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions", 2008 by Dan Ariely (also Israel), Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler, 2008 and also Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, 2009 and many other (Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli, 2013 was my first book, which I read from this field - very good one!).
Basically, the research which came around 2008 has advanced so much in analyzing the human behavior and brain that they were able to derivate models, how will most population work in certain situations.
Third book which I recommend is about academy is called "Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul-battering System That Shapes Their Lives" 2001 by Jeff Smith, this book describes from point of professor that academy is not really about knowledge and science but it mostly shape so called "professional" class. He also points to fact, that most research is done by funding from military or government and real scientist is not allowed to research subjects which are interesting but which are paid for. This book also helped me to understand the shift in academy in current state as I also experienced (on academy are not smart people?) and in end I don´t exactly remember why but he described military guide how to resist pressure or interrogation? I don´t exactly remember that but I think it was resistance.
PART THREE: RESISTANCE - 14: RESISTING INDOCTRINATION - 15: HOW TO SURVIVE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING WITH YOUR VALUES
To add one more but that´s already famous and related to control of media is "Manufacturing Consent" by Noam Chomsky - he described how mainstream media works for government since 1960 and gives some examples. This I think for sure we saw during covid as well.
Fourth book which I recommend is about economy and this one is really good - it’s called Die Globalisierung Falle (The Global Trap - attack on middle class and democracy) and it was published in 1996 and when I read it in 2018 or 2020 I couldn't believe it was written almost 20 years ago. He exactly predicted future, wow! There is one more good book about global problems called "Woran Krank die Welt" - "Why the world is sick" by Ruediger Dahlke 2001 - Modern myths are threat to our feature. I highly recommend this as well but I am not sure, if there is English translation for this book - but he goes into food, medicine, interests and other aspects and explains it really well, if someone notice, we can see consequences like obesity, depression and others today clearly.
Last book which I recommend is about spirituality and religion. It´s small one called "The Essence Of Happiness.: A Guidebook for Living" - it contains small advices or guidance's from Dalai Lama XIV and psychologist Howard C. Cutler. I have studied this before covid and I have to tell, that it helps me to still believe in humanity and human spirit, even though now are some hard times and specially during covid it was hard to not lose faith. There is also bigger version named "The Art of Happiness" which expand on many ideas there.
I think many of this books explain what really happened during covid. It was trends which were even before in motion (people were going already in wrong direction) and someone decided to either speed them up or to take over before it will be too late.
It’s possible that there was awakening, when this information was available to common people and someone don’t wanted people to understand the tricks by which they are missleaded or manipulated. Also I think there was some god-like thinking in play, with all this knowledge, technology and control over people data, you can really have feeling to play god by pressing button and manipulation millions to fight or eat this or take this product. I almost forgot, that there was also books about DNA and human genome - Human Genome Project was started in 1990 and 2001 has 90% completed, in 2021 is officially completed with 99.7% genome decoded. And as well social networks and smartphones allowed this research to by applied - before you couldn't do it so easily, people weren´t connected outside homes.
Well, it was nice experiment but I think it failed. What will be next, well they now trying to shut down the world-wide-web as they didn’t succeeded to take over completely. In my opinion, it’s too late for them, even when they will cripple the young generation and make them stupid, there will still be the knowledge described in books and I have hope, that some smart people will point the young in right direction not to be abused and how to live happily and healthy.
For the rest, I think it´s good to first remove the tracking as none of this behavior analysis research if possible to do without big groups of volunteers who participate willingly in the experiments. You can´t change your political messaging, when voters will not answer the stupid surveys and tell you, what they want to hear. Similarly, when you stop sharing information about your preferences, nobody knows what is in your mind and can not derivate the "Nudging" or any this stupidity to influence you by commercials or messaging.
The way is to keep them out of your private sphere, so they don’t know how to influence the masses. Also communication has to be private, the system need to fix the security holes, treat "academy" as not always public benefit and take money back into pocket of people - you have to own it as well as your data, laptop, CD disk, book, MP3 and others. No streams, no cloud services, no online services, then they don´t have any chance to do it again. They can´t measure what you listen, if you buy CD or watch VHS tape - it´s only possible online to track you all the time.
Maybe it´s end of one era but for sure, next one is behind the doors. The 1990-2000s Internet exchange is for sure gone and I am worried, that younger generation will be truly stupid but they can catch on. The learning has speeden up and with correct resources, people can now be more educated than before. The only question is, if the people in power want educated population who can understand what they do and how. I think that´s the main point, why they doing it now.
With that I wish nice evening and I have hope, the worst of this is behind us. I expect now more of real world and maybe also more happy, we will see. And for sure it was hell of ride! The movies with James Bond seems now too boring for what we got here in reality.
Below are few snapshots from the books, which I found - I have more but I am not sure where.
