POTA: "IT WAS ALL A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT AND YOU ACTED EXACTLY HOW I PREDICTED"

[Triple Zero]

(via @EnkiV2, copy/pasted here in full cause it's, well, really short)


A Short Hallowe'en Horror Story
By Charlie Stross

[The scene: The Oval Office. The President is addressing the nation -- and the wider world.]

"My fellow Americans:

"I'd like to start by confessing to a minor, but necessary, deception. My published biography has up to now listed my highest academic achievement as being an MBA. I'd like to take this opportunity to correct the record by revealing that in actual fact it was a Masters' degree in social psychology. In addition, I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize for dissembling about my intelligence to you, over the past decade. Believe me, it has been hard work pretending to be stupid. However, I am sure that those of you who have spent the past six years disparaging my lack of insight will be relieved to learn that your President is in fact a former member of MENSA, and has a higher IQ than Richard Feynman.

"And now, for the key issue I'd like to talk about today. For the past six years, in addition to occupying the office of President of the United States, I have been working on my doctoral thesis — a large-scale empirical verification of the pioneering studies of Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo. After consulting with my supervisors, Professors Cheney and bin Laden, I have concluded that the control phase of the largest ever experiment in applied social psychology has achieved its intended goals. We are therefore terminating the so-called 'War on Terror' with immediate effect. Thank you for you co-operation, which has been deeply appreciated. Those of you who have found yourself assigned to the 'reality based community' for the past six years will doubtless be relieved to learn that your performance has been excellent. I'd also like to ask for a warm round of applause for your 'winger' opponents, who have given sterling service in following their thankless (albeit lucrative) script.

"Finally, I'm very pleased to announce that the next phase of the experiment will commence shortly. Good night, and sleep well."




Hmmmm ... I just notice the story is from 2006 But it's still relevant as ever. I'm assuming they must be re-running the experiment, as it turned out somebody made a mistake in the amount of scripted wingers. The research assistant persists he's absolutely sure he only instructed 10% of the population to carry out the script, which is of course ridiculous as the numbers clearly show it's half the population, which would imply people started acting like this on their own without explicit instructions.