Bird brains are for real

A campaign that says birds are mechanical drones sent out to spy on people shows that almost any conspiracy theory can be sold now

By Hari Kumar

As computers became more powerful, performing complex tasks, the dystopian fear was that machines would take over the world one day. From Arthur C. Clarke to Stanley Kubrick delved into such scenarios and painted some startling predictions. But luckily most of them had remained on paper.

Now here is the thing: What if they were looking at the wrong end? Maybe it is not that machines are becoming intelligent, what maybe happening is people are becoming dumb.

What made human beings distinct from other animals was their power to think, reason, and act logically. But through prolonged interaction with computers, human beings have started mimicking the machines – just processing the information given to them and acting according to the instructions coded in them.

Not convinced? Then, explain this: a group of people believe that birds are not real, but drones sent out by governments to spy on people. They hold rallies, take out ads and want Twitter to remove their bird logo.

They have a whole history of birds and mechanical drones linking it to President John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War.

Want more? There are still people out there who believe the Earth is flat, that Neil Armstrong never landed on the moon and the footage was faked, and that Covid-19 is a plot by Bill Gates to put nanochips into people.

Conspiracy theories had thrived forever, long before the advent of computers – some of them backed by the brightest brains.

Arthur Conan Doyle, who created Sherlock Holmes as the epitome of logical thinking, was a prominent supporter of garden fairies and believed photos (one shown below) of them were real. Years later, two girls admitted they made it up. 

But with the internet and social media, made-up facts, myths, and hate campaigns have expanded their influence over almost every sphere and in nearly every country. And the speed by which information appears on your computer screen or mobile device makes it difficult to verify the facts.

Thus, when speed replaced accuracy, a fertile ground for conspiracies emerged. Eagle-eyed opportunists and populist politicians like Donald Trump quickly grabbed it, and their camp started spinning stories that spoke of a deep state, a mysterious alliance of powerful enemies who engage in paedophilia, devil worship, and what not, to thwart Trump and his policies.

The QAnon conspiracy started with some posts in the 4chan message board system about six years ago by an anonymous person named Q, who claimed he, or she, was a top government official.

QAnon quickly became viral among Trump supporters. Some also believed that the then-president himself was sometimes sending out some coded messages.

Even when Trump tweeted out the completely nonsensical word “covfefe” three years ago, some of his supporters believed it was some kind of a code. In January 2021, Valerie Gilbert, a Harvard-educated QAnon believer told the New York Times she was convinced it was, though she doesn’t know what it meant or who it was meant for.

The Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte, also proved himself to be adept in utilising social media well to his advantage. Celebrities with huge followings pushed out fake stories, like famous people praising Duterte.

It was later found that some of the purveyors of the fake news were getting paid for it, and Facebook blocked some pages due to this.

However, the president’s followers continued to accept whatever came to them. No one wondered why someone like Hollywood star Angelina Jolly would praise Duterte.

In India, supporters of Prime Minister Modi relentlessly spin tales about his government policies. For example, when the Modi government withdrew large-denomination currencies without warning, theories were floated that new notes the government planning would have nanochips in them to trace currency hoarders.

It didn’t matter no such technology existed anywhere in the world, but there were groups of people and “experts” taking part in debates on television channels praising the technology.

In these countries, the supporters of these leaders who make up the majority – as all three leaders were elected to power with handsome margins – were happy to accept the information fed to them. They were acting like mind-less computers – receive inputs and not question the logic of the data.

It is not just the spinning of stories that became easy. Powerful groups with the resources also had the means to brush things under the carpet and even recast history. The 1989 Tiananmen Square uprising is an example.

Information about the bloody crackdown that followed is hardly available on the Chinese internet. But versions which the authorities later pushed out claim that the protesters had lynched soldiers.

In the case of China, where the state controls every aspect of the life of its citizens, it may be easy to do. But this is also happening in other countries that boast freedom of information and robust media.

The ongoing US Senate hearings about January 6 events reveal that Fox News people warned and pleaded to end the march on the Capitol. But now they slam the probe into the incident and paint the events on January 6 in a completely different hue.

In India, hate messages are continuously flowing through WhatsApp forums. Almost everyone is part of such groups, be it a family/alumni/local forum. All of them are vehicles for such campaigns, some based on religion, ethnicity, place of origin, or just urban myths.

There are people in India who genuinely believe that all Muslims spit on their food before giving it to others, as WhatsApp videos seem to portray.

The ongoing pandemic and controversies linked to vaccination have poured more fuel into this fire. The mix of half-truths, science, religion, and local politics have led to some really bird-brain theories.

Bird brains. Ah, that brings us back to the issue of whether birds are real or mechanical drones sent out by some governments.

It is now revealed that this campaign was started by Peter McIndoe, a 23-year-old college dropout in Memphis, as he was fed up with people he knew believing conspiracy theories like QAnon without raising any question.

Soon many youngsters who had similar concerns about their family members and friends backed him and formed a Bird Brigade to push out this outrageous campaign. But McIndoe now has decided it is time to reveal the truth: birds are real.

The group did this as they were aware their wild campaign could take wings of its own.

McIndoe, who, along with a friend, wrote the fake history of mechanical drones, says that the local media often swallowed the outrageous claims they made. 

“It basically became an experiment in misinformation,” McIndoe told the New York Times. “We were able to construct an entirely fictional world that was reported on as fact by local media and questioned by members of the public.”

 “It’s a way to laugh at the madness rather than be overcome by it,” he said.

Wish we had McIndoes in every country to remind us not to get caught in the net of lies and conspiracy theories.