Not only fake "followers", we have fake personae to be followed.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/04/youre-not-following-barackobama-twitter/63930/ http://j.mp/ZkvbCh The 29,503,030 people who follow Barack Obama's Twitter account might see his picture, see his name, see that little blue verified account badge and think they're following the President -- but it's not him. All of the president's named social media accounts, in fact, have been handed over to a non-partisan, not-for-profit group that isn't overly concerned if you didn't notice the transition. I seem to be the fiction guy so I'll mention here Bruce Sterling's 1996 short story, "Bicycle Repairman", in which nearly everybody has a "mook" [1], a digital AI persona that answers your phone, deals with routine email and, in the case if politicians and public figures, takes care of TV and on-line speeches, meetings and appearances. The story emerges from the fact that Sen. Creighton, 117, has become umm... a little slow -- better say pretty much a vegetable -- so his mook has been handling all his correspondence and public appearances for the last decade or so. Only his mook is getting a tad weird... And thereby hangs a tale. Now Obama has a mook. Cool. Maybe, Mike G., you can buy a similar account, offload the work onto someone who's less constrained by such frivia as truth, reality or relevance than are you. And have those 10,000 followers in no time. ;-) - Mike [1] An excerpt from the story sketching the "mook" idea is here: http://readr.ru/bruce-sterling-bicycle-repairman.html?page=3 and I think you can read the whole story starting here: http://readr.ru/bruce-sterling-bicycle-repairman.html?page=1 -- Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~. /V\ [email protected] /( )\ http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
