SOTOPIA: Artificial Pseudo-God

"In order to answer the question 'did he lie', we first need to analyze 'why did he lie'."

Steven turned the chair around and moved the computer to share a view with Moskevich, who was sitting cross-legged on his bed.After Steven's quick and detailed introduction, Moskevich quickly understood the current situation.

"Although today's field investigation seems to be fruitless, I have some new ideas." Steven chose to share his thoughts directly. "The superficial phenomenon can barely be explained, but it is not difficult to find out after careful analysis: this 'Elias' actually chose the place that can avoid further investigation, and it often takes a lot of work to prove his authenticity from the legal materials themselves. "

"Your survey subjects created a well-behaved image of ordinary coders, which is really inconspicuous." Moskevich commented. "However, there are still flaws in 'shaping' itself, which is the inevitable junction between illusion and truth—he needs to explain the dislocation between the two. If the explanation is not proper, it is easy to cover up."

"There are usually two ways of thinking about fake identities," Steven then raised two fingers, "to avoid trouble, or to create trouble."

"Which am I?" Moskevich asked him, laughing.

Steven looked at the ceiling and thought for a while: "You yourself are a problem."

Moskevich snorted provocatively, and returned to the original topic: "I'm afraid it's not difficult to distinguish between the two - you just need to observe who he usually deals with, which area he is active in, and deliberately avoids them." Something. There are very few people who really live alone, no matter how lonely they are, there will always be the most basic social relationship."

Steven laughed: "What if I have no direct access to this person at all?"

Moskevich looked sideways at Steven's computer screen, and he had already guessed what the other person was thinking: "Information hunting in cyberspace?" He approached Steven, reached for the mouse, and took over the computer after obtaining permission , to quickly browse the content on the web page.

"Facebook, Twitter, and even accounts on shopping websites are all important gateways for information flow. For ordinary youths like Elias with an IT background, there should be more online activities-looking at the current development trend, just Even old-fashioned ex-civil servants like me are still not exempt. You see, this is his personal account, and you can find some interesting things from it."

Steven looked at Moskevich, who was staring at the screen intently, browsing in the same way as when he was reading a book, which can be described as "scanning"-quickly pull down and change pages, the text and pictures are like colorful ribbons It usually passed quickly before his eyes, almost without any pause.

The alternating blue and white fluorescence of the computer hit Moskevich's face, making his eyes seem to have a strange look.The rapid processing of information did not prevent him from having a normal conversation with Steven: “Internet socialization is a burden on human beings in a sense-most people need to create a new self-image because of this, and even force themselves to believe that they are that kind of person. However, some people are basically a replica of real life, such as this young programmer Elias."

The online account of this mysterious figure is surprisingly normal: he speaks very regularly, and his daily itinerary can almost be deduced from the release time.There are a lot of content, such as the recent work status, changes in the surrounding living environment, and general blessings for public festivals; from time to time, some live photos of the party are released, but the photos are often mainly about food and crowds, and there are only a few lively group photos.Moskevich noticed that Elias had frequent interactions with several colleagues or friends, talking openly about vacations, entertainment, and the like.In short, everything looks like what a normal IT teen with no personality would do.

Moskevich raised his head, just in time to find that Steven was looking at him with a smile on the corner of his mouth: "You have heard of the structural hole theory, right?"

He gave Steven a blank look, with a very rude expression on his face: "I'm afraid I know better than you." Moskevich moved the computer that had been on his lap to the side - for the previous half an hour, he had been Maintaining the same posture, I flipped through the social accounts of Elias and his network interaction partners from beginning to end, only to feel that my legs were numb. "I know what you mean," he added.

The older men seem to be anticipating what the other thinks.Steven glanced at the remaining power of the computer, brought it back to the table, and connected the power supply. "Okay, let's share our conclusions?"

"That's exactly what I mean." Moskevich raised his head slightly, with a very confident expression.

After counting silently for three seconds, they all said the same answer in unison.

"—Elias Blowy doesn't exist."

The unexpected tacit understanding made the two of them smile knowingly.As if intending to seize the upper hand in front of Steven, Moskevich first expressed his opinion: "Let's call the person who created the image of 'Elias' Mr. X. Whether it is a social account or what you got The personal information seems to repeatedly prove that Elias does exist from the social and legal aspects, and he is just an ordinary social person. But after browsing all his online speeches, I found a problem—he Although I have interacted with many people, although the content of other people’s pages is different, the objects of interaction are still highly similar. In other words, these ‘people’ form a small group with the help of an open online social platform, which is a closed circle.”

Steven gave Moskevich an approving look, and followed his analysis: "It's normal to form small groups among colleagues or friends, but it's impossible to be completely isolated from the outside world anyway." 'Elias' This is the case with his account, as are the friends he interacts with. It seems that all social interactions only happen among them, and I can’t find any openings to connect with people outside this group. If they themselves are taciturn, it’s understandable that their communication is narrow; but It now appears that the density of their participation in online life is too disproportionate to the openness of their social circles.”

Immediately afterwards, Steven opened a website casually in front of Moskevich: it belonged to the network security company written in Elias' information.In fact, it's more of a small studio than a "company."With a flat structure, business functions with obvious expertise, and a detailed list of employees, everything seems to be quite normal.But after the "fiction theory" was put forward, even the existence of this company has become an issue to be discussed.

"But what is his purpose for doing this? Looking at the amount of data, he probably used some kind of algorithm. Like wording and main content, although they have their own independent personalities, I can indeed 'see' that this is a deliberate design I even have such a hypothesis: not only 'Elias', this Mr. X has also created other false identities in reality - such as false identity certificates and bank statements, and maybe he has already put 'Elias N' was placed in other areas. He did it, perhaps to fake a background for one of the real people, or to hide a 'living person' with numerous smoke bombs."

As if sensing something was wrong, Moskevich frowned, and continued: "But this is not enough to be the key evidence, it is just an inference." He raised his head and asked Steven to explain.

And Steven just met his needs: "The 'key' you want may be in my hands." He pretended not to see the other party's dissatisfied expression, and dug out a remake photo of the contract from the computer . "The identity of 'Elias Blowy' cannot exist forever, there must be a starting point from scratch. In short, before going home, I used some unconventional 'technical means' to inquire about the moving company. The customer moved out of the location, and got the receipts and contracts from them at that time. Well, you have to believe that this is just a little 'trick' that can't be put on the table."

"You're cheating." Moskevich directly protested. "You said you wouldn't do it that way."

"Don't pay attention to these details." Steven patted Moskevich on the shoulder perfunctorily.

Young people will not be entangled in such trivial matters.He just pressed: "Why don't you exchange existing inferences with that Higgins first? I guess he has more information there."

Steven shrugged: "That's inevitable. This task itself is a test for me, and digging out the inside story is the result he wants to see more. I will follow up on this clue tomorrow."

"But I still have a problem that I can't figure out. There is absolutely no need for him to create a closed circular network of people, and he enthusiastically uses rich content to prove it. If it wasn't because of Higgins' commission, we specifically checked Elias' facebook, they don't communicate with the outside world at all—"

Moskevich suddenly stopped talking, obviously grasping the focus of the question suddenly.Responding to Steven's questioning look, he said slowly with a stiff expression: "Since Mr. X can forge official materials and details of online life to the point of being fake, then according to this level of technology, it is also easy to investigate who the visitor is, right? "

"... Shit," Steven covered his face in annoyance as if he had just woken up from a dream. "We were careless." Out of the corner of his eye, he glanced at the materials provided by Higgins again. The face of "Elias" on the position of the form photo was pale and ordinary, but in Steven's eyes, it seemed almost ironic.

"This is really a stupid mistake." Moskevich lay back in disappointment, lying on his side on Steven's bed.