Philipp Markolin, PhD Profile picture
Mar 21, 2023 11 tweets 10 min read Read on X
WARNING:
There are new pathogens in our midst.

My latest article about media #manipulators, velocity #hacking, and the latest Covid origin #controversy.

Maybe some #mainstream journalists & influencers take a good look in the mirror.

Read:
protagonistfuture.substack.com/p/the-rise-of-… Image
How much should we think about the role of information in society?

In this article, I use the recent media coverage surrounding #lableak versus #zoonosis to point toward a new threat we have not yet wrapped our heads around:

Information pathogens with high #velocity. Image
#Velocity is a metric for the transmission efficacy of information given a particular content payload, its viral packaging, and its host environment.

Basically the R0 of information, a measure of #contagiousness.

Info pathogens with high velocity outcompetes good information. Image
In the attention economy, velocity #hacking is the true business model of information merchants (e.g marketers, influencers, even independent journalists, news outlets, or organizations)

There are legitimate and #toxic ways to do it.
Guess which we see most?

I list 6 #tactics: Image
Next, I talk a bit about information #cascades.

This is a concept I find useful to talk about both information #diffusion and how our collective decisions to engage with content is shaped by our social environment.

Information cascades also #restructure our social connections. Image
This makes information cascades very potent when combined with information pathogens.

While velocity hackers reap in #profits from riding on information cascades, our social structure changes, and information pathogens can #evolve to overwhelm our defenses, and infect our minds. Image
Barack Obama famously said:

“The more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable. They can begin to think for themselves.”

So why is democracy in decline? Image
With the rise of the broadband #internet and #social media, many hoped that with the power of a #democratic information sphere came the power of a democratic society.

What went wrong?

I think we have been sold a false promise by #tech companies about the information age. Image
#Democracy presupposes an equality of influence.

Yet today, even before our voices are drowned out by the #noise on social media, or #overwritten by velocity hacking information combatants, we lose our #agency and decision #autonomy to systems we don’t fully understand. Image
Where do we go from here?

Well, I certainly think we need a software upgrade for the information age.

We have to tackle our current #vulnerabilities and safeguard a democratic information sphere from undue #influence.

Here is a friend's link to medium:
protagonist-science.medium.com/the-rise-of-in…
Also, somebody has been sleeping on my content @ArthurCDent @C_Kavanagh 😉 Image

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Philipp Markolin, PhD

Philipp Markolin, PhD Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @PhilippMarkolin

May 3
There will be a ramp-up of media coverage to bring the false #lableak myth back to the attention of the masses; right when the general election heats up.

Multiple reasons for this, first and foremost the political need for emotional activation of potential voters

A short🧵 Image
As I have written previously, the #lableak myth is a powerful emotional narrative that profits from the many incentive asymmetries in our modern information ecosystems.

This ensures not only attention, but retention in public discourse.

Read:


2/ protagonist-science.com/p/a-tale-of-tw…
Image
Emotional myths that provide a simple explanation for why a large, traumatic world event like a pandemic had to be the cause of some shadowy powerful actors are appealing; they offer an agent to blame, and the illusion of control of these phenomena.

They win some people over.
3/
Read 15 tweets
Apr 13
The Furin-cleavage site (#FCS) in SARS-CoV-2 is one of the most misunderstood genetic elements in the whole #originsofcovid story.

#lableak proponents consider it a "pandemic trigger" that was recklessly inserted by #GoF researchers

Do they have a point?

A thread
1/ Image
Especially an unfunded research proposal from 2018 called DEFUSE that got played up by amplifiers empowered imaginations.

So before we jump into the FCS itself, a quick sidebar here 🔽

While DEFUSE is irrelevant, it hightlights two telling misconceptions

2/ Image
First, the common confusion that the introduction of a single genetic element has the power to make a pandemic pathogen

Second, the deliberate deception about how likely it is that nature or engineering came up with the FCS insertion

Let's clear them up.
3/
Read 16 tweets
Apr 11
🚨🚨 Did SARS-CoV-2 come from gain-of-function research? And if so, will we ever find out?

I have been on a scientific journey for a definitive answer that took me to the cutting edge of #covidorigin science.

Here is what I found
➡️ open.substack.com/pub/protagonis…
It is fair to say that virology has been seen with suspicion and experts are distrusted.

How much of this is self-inflicted, and how much is driven by forces beyond science?

The idea of arcane gain-of-function experiments creating flask monsters is powerful, it evokes fears. Image
But outside the heated spotlight of speculations & accusations, a scientific question still needs a scientific answer.

Some say the true origins will never be found, and some governments explicitly root for that outcome.

But if you gift me your curiosity, we'll prove them wrong Image
Read 6 tweets
Mar 9
Very interesting paper from Jijón S. et al., using a population-dynamic approach (not a whole genome seq. approach) to date the first spillover event of the Wuhan outbreak

--> Nov.28

This is a methodologically independent confirmation of previously published estimates.

1/ https://journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol/article?id=10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011934
The idea is to look at how an epidemic progresses (based on branching) and infer these dynamical parameters from known progressions

Once the model is calibrated, it can be used to estimate a time window when the first infection likely occurred; which might be before the tMRCA
2/
Image
Image
This is a complementary approach to phylogenetic dating that uses the mutational divergence over time to calculate back when the first cases likely occurred.

Overall, it matches previous estimates. So nothing new?

Let me quickly explain why I think this is important work:

3/
Read 6 tweets
Jan 5
As 2024 ushered in a new year of myth, #manipulation & magical thinking, too few have adjusted to counterbalance the #vulnerabilities of our broken information ecosystem

During US elections, this might spell democratic backsliding as online #discourse will be weaponized

A 🧵
1/
The disruption of our information technology broke a few things we needed as guardrails for democracy, such as the free flow of information & journalistic principles for information sharing

Today, gatekeepers have changed to:
#Algorithms, #influencers & #audience demand

2/
The dynamics and incentives between those three largely shape what information average citizens get to see

This is problematic because info #shapers are not aligned with public interest or democracy, but rather with the pursuit of #popularity, #persuasion, #profit, or #power

3/
Read 11 tweets
Dec 1, 2023
One thing that is fascinating with the history of the #lableak myth is how many people have been fooled by naïve claims that "one can not tell from the genome" one way or the other whether this is a natural virus.

This is false.
In the case of SARS-CoV-2, there is zero doubt.
1/
People might have encountered arguments such as we can modify viruses with "no see 'um" genetic methods, or just design a sequence & synthesize whole cloth

-> this implies nobody can ever #disprove whether a new genome has been man-made, only sometimes prove that it was
2/ Image
There are multiple reasons why this popularized idea is flawed, both in general, but especially in the #specific circumstances of SARS-CoV-2.

First an analogy:
Merely learning how to write musical notes does not bestow the ability to suddenly create a complete symphony
3/
Read 22 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(