[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

And yet, if the direction of Horizon is defined by the group belief, a dynamic charismatic would be able to expand their power within the group, eventually leading to, well, a megacorporate cult -- significantly worse than anything we have at present.

[CanRay]

OK, that's slightly more fearsome.

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Yeah.  One megalomaniac later ... you have something with the reach of NeoNET, the leadership of Saeder-Krupp, the evil and propaganda machine of Aztechnology ... and the reputation of <insert best corp for your country here>.

[CanRay]

Yeah.  One megalomaniac later ... you have something with the reach of NeoNET, the leadership of Saeder-Krupp, the evil and propaganda machine of Aztechnology ... and the reputation of <insert best corp for your country here>.

...

...

...

Yeah, all of the Corps in Canada have pissed away any good reputation.  Even the Crown Corporations.

But I get your message.  All it takes is one cult of personality and suddenly we have NaziCorp.

...

*Headdesk*  I just invoked Godwin's Law, I don't believe it!

[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

I smugly congratulate myself on making you do it.

However, a place that is apparently controlled by just such a real-time consensus is precisely so vulnerable.  Hitler wasn't the first, wasn't the last, and in a certain sense this is exactly why free speech is dangerous.  People are able to be led around by the nose, and in many ways, want to be.  All they have to be persuaded of is that being so is the right thing...

[Mirikon]

Since Godwin has already been invoked, this seems appropriate:

“Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.”

[Black]

How does this even work?  How is there real-time consensus?  There must be some delegation of authority, because the masses of Horizon, being uninformed of the details of any decision not directly related to there own work could not possible provide any active or informed consensus.

Is it Twitter gone bad?  How is all this knowledge and information filtered in such a way that a decision is posisble?  Is there an AI or a Spirit involved?

[Patrick Goodman]

Twitter gone bad...? You say that like it's not already there.

And, while I have no evidence of it whatsoever, and no control over that plotline, I envision the Consensus being substantially more sinister. I don't believe the bugs are there, but I think something pretty skeevy is going on under the surface, and when it surfaces it's going to be ugly. With a capital UG.

[Crimsondude]

hehehehehe

[Black]

Tulpa?  Something created from the collected beliefs of the Horizon employees?

[The Jake]

Consensus is Deus 2.0 - I thought that was obvious?

- J.

[Sichr]

You remember Horizon supplying commlinks for free, distributing them amongst feral cities like Lagos, in the name of educational campaign...giving those people hope and possibly even a reality of better living standards? How could they not LOVE Horizon and praise it all the time, with high level of Passion and Emotions. From certain angle...this looks quite like Tempo, so possibly even Primeira Vaga cabal can be involved in this...well there is no direct astral link to those involved...unless the Consensus is more than just a matrix shared meme.

[Longshot23]

IMHO, Possible, but  . . .

I think Primeira Vaga despises the non-natural [parts of the] world too much to even try to arrange to harness its mechanics to their own purposes.

It's unknown who came up with the idea of the unwilling dream pact a la Tempo, except it does seem (to me) to feel . . . un(meta)human.

[Sichr]

xactly. Something creepy beyond the Horizon...

[CanRay]

Hitler wasn't the first, wasn't the last...

No, but he is the one that all people can point to and go, "That raight there ain't right!"

Just finished "Uncharted 2", where Nathan Drake had to deal with a middle-of-nowhere up a goddamned mountain Tibetan Local who didn't know English (Tibetan wasn't one of Nathan's languages either), and tried to explain that the skeletons were all SS...  Finally, out of desperations, "NAZIS!", "Nazis? *Spits on a long-dead SS Troop* Nazis."