Basement Whatever

If you’re unaware, there’s a new conspiracy theory moving around the Internet that Roy Jay, an eccentric 1980s comedian, never existed. According to the theory, our memories have been manipulated by AI, so that we believe his existence, making it a deliberate Mandela effect.

This is not true, but the longer, more interesting answer is that it’s increasingly possible with digital technology. Current technology can mass overwrite data and we would never know about it.

Now that we’ve essentially offloaded our cultural memory onto the cloud, how can we tell if anything we didn’t directly experience really happened? Are the dates on some YouTube videos enough proof for you? Are the comments on forums that seem to be from real people enough evidence? What do you do with the vague feeling that it just isn’t right?

Some conspiracies are meaningless; this one offers an early chance to think about how to deal with new technologies. There is an excellent write up here.