Big Brother’s Gaze: How New World Order Surveillance Is Rewiring Our Brains, By Brian Simpson

Imagine walking through a bustling city, like Sydney, dodging pedestrians, and glancing at shop windows. You're minding your own business, but somewhere up above, a camera's lens is tracking your every move. Traffic cams, security systems, maybe even a drone buzzing nearby, it's just part of life now. We've all got used to being watched. But what if those electronic eyes aren't just recording us? What if they're actually changing the way our brains work? A fascinating new study out of the University of Technology Sydney suggests that's exactly what's happening.

The study, published in Neuroscience of Consciousness, investigates how surveillance, like those ubiquitous CCTV cameras, messes with the unconscious processes in our brains. We already know cameras can make us act differently, like when you decide not to jaywalk because you spot a traffic cam. But this research goes deeper, showing that being watched tweaks how we see the world, even when we don't realise it. It's not just about behaviour; it's about perception itself.

The researchers, led by Associate Professor Kiley Seymour, set up a clever experiment to test this idea. They rounded up 54 undergraduate students and split them into two groups. One group did a visual task while surrounded by cameras that were very obviously watching them, like multiple angles, a live feed showing their faces, and even their hands as they worked. They had to sign extra consent forms just to hammer home the "you're being watched" vibe. The other group, the lucky control group, did the same task without any cameras lurking around.

The task itself was straight out of a sci-fi movie. They used something called continuous flash suppression (CFS), which is a fancy way of saying they showed different images to each eye. One eye got a chaotic, colourful pattern that blocks conscious awareness of what the other eye sees, in this case, faces that were either staring straight at the participant or looking away. The goal was to measure how fast people could detect where the face was (left or right) and whether being watched made a difference.

The group under surveillance detected faces way faster, almost a full second quicker, than the group without cameras. This happened whether the faces were staring at them or not, though everyone picked up on direct eye contact a bit faster. Here's the interesting part: the participants had no idea this was happening. Their brains were working overtime to spot faces, but they didn't feel any different. It's like their unconscious minds were on high alert, scanning for social cues without them even knowing.

Seymour explains this as tapping into "ancient survival mechanisms." Back when our ancestors were dodging sabre-toothed tigers or sizing up rival tribes, spotting faces, especially ones staring right at you, was a life-or-death skill. Surveillance seems to crank that instinct into overdrive, making us hyper-aware of faces even when we're not consciously stressed about being watched. But here's the issue: when the researchers swapped faces for simple shapes, like squares or triangles, the surveillance effect vanished. It's not just that cameras make us more alert in general; they specifically amp up how we process social information.

This gets even more interesting, and a little unsettling, when you think about mental health. Seymour points out that people with conditions like psychosis or social anxiety, often feel hyper-sensitive to being watched, sometimes to the point of paranoia. If surveillance is already making healthy people's brains go into overdrive, what might it do to someone who's already struggling with those feelings? The study doesn't answer that directly, but it raises big questions about how our camera-filled world might be affecting vulnerable folks in ways we haven't even considered.

What's even more disturbing is the gap between what participants felt and what their brains were doing. They didn't report feeling super anxious or preoccupied with the cameras, yet their visual processing was significantly altered. It's like Big Brother's gaze is sneaking into our minds, tweaking how we perceive the world without us even noticing. That's not just a privacy issue, it's a question of how surveillance might be reshaping our cognition over time.

This study hits at a time when surveillance is everywhere. CCTV is just the start. Facial recognition tech, smart devices, and even the "Internet of Things" are tracking us 24/7. I mean, my phone probably knows more about my daily routine than I do. And with neurotechnology on the horizon, stuff that could potentially peek into our thoughts, the stakes are getting higher. If cameras are already messing with our unconscious perception, what happens when the tech gets even more invasive?

The researchers admit their study has limits. It was a small group of students, and the cameras were super obvious, unlike the sneaky surveillance we encounter in real life. They also only looked at short-term effects, so we don't know what constant exposure does over years. Still, the findings are a wake-up call. If being watched changes how we process faces, a basic, hardwired part of being human, what else is it changing? Are we becoming more guarded, more anxious, or just wired differently because of all this monitoring?

So, where does this leave us? It's not like we can ditch modern life and go live in a cave or a tent like our resident Alor.org survivalist John Steele (though sometimes that sounds tempting). The study doesn't offer solutions, but it's got me thinking about how we navigate this watched world. Maybe it's about pushing for more transparency about surveillance, who's watching, why, and what they're doing with the data? Or maybe it's about finding ways to carve out unmonitored spaces, like turning off the webcam during a Zoom call or taking a walk somewhere without cameras.

For now, I'm just a little more aware of those electronic eyes. Next time I'm strolling through the city, I'll wonder: is that camera just recording me, or is it quietly rewiring how I see the faces around me? It's a strange thought, but in a New World Order regime where Big Brother's always watching, it's one worth pondering.

https://studyfinds.org/big-brother-watching-surveillance-changing-how-brain-works /

"Every time you walk down a city street, electronic eyes are watching. From security systems to traffic cameras, surveillance is ubiquitous in modern society. Yet these cameras might be doing more than just recording our movements: according to a new study that peers into the psychology of surveillance, they could be fundamentally altering how our brains process visual information.

While previous research has shown that surveillance cameras can modify our conscious behavior – making us less likely to steal or more inclined to follow rules – a new study published in Neuroscience of Consciousness suggests that being watched affects something far more fundamental: the unconscious way our brains perceive the world around us.

"We found direct evidence that being conspicuously monitored via CCTV markedly impacts a hardwired and involuntary function of human sensory perception – the ability to consciously detect a face," explains Associate Professor Kiley Seymour, lead author of the study, in a statement.

Putting surveillance to the test

The research team at the University of Technology Sydney, led by Seymour, designed an ingenious experiment to test how surveillance affects our unconscious visual processing. They recruited 54 undergraduate students and split them into two groups: one group completed a visual task while being conspicuously monitored by multiple surveillance cameras, while the control group performed the same task without cameras present.

The monitored group was shown the surveillance setup beforehand, including a live feed of themselves from the adjacent room, and had to sign additional consent forms acknowledging they would be watched. To ensure participants felt the full weight of surveillance, cameras were positioned to capture their whole body, face, and even their hands as they performed the task.

The visual task itself employed a clever technique called continuous flash suppression (CFS), which temporarily prevents images shown to one eye from reaching conscious awareness while the brain still processes them unconsciously. Participants viewed different images through each eye: one eye saw rapidly changing colorful patterns, while the other saw faces that were either looking directly at them or away from them.

'Ancient survival mechanisms' turn on when being watched

The results were remarkable: "Our surveilled participants became hyper-aware of face stimuli almost a second faster than the control group. This perceptual enhancement also occurred without participants realizing it," says Seymour. This held true whether the faces were looking directly at them or away, though both groups detected direct-gazing faces more quickly overall.

This heightened awareness appears to tap into ancient survival mechanisms. "It's a mechanism that evolved for us to detect other agents and potential threats in our environment, such as predators and other humans, and it seems to be enhanced when we're being watched on CCTV," Seymour explains.

Importantly, this wasn't simply due to participants trying harder or being more alert under surveillance. When the researchers ran the same experiment using simple geometric patterns instead of faces, there was no difference between the watched and unwatched groups. The enhancement was specific to social stimuli – faces – suggesting that surveillance taps into fundamental neural circuits evolved for processing social information.

Effects on mental health and consciousness

The findings have particular relevance for mental health. "We see hyper-sensitivity to eye gaze in mental health conditions like psychosis and social anxiety disorder where individuals hold irrational beliefs or preoccupations with the idea of being watched," notes Seymour. This suggests that surveillance might interact with these conditions in ways we don't yet fully understand.

Perhaps most unsettling was the disconnect between participants' conscious experience and their brain's response. "We had a surprising yet unsettling finding that despite participants reporting little concern or preoccupation with being monitored, its effects on basic social processing were marked, highly significant and imperceptible to the participants," Seymour reveals.

These findings arrive at a crucial moment in human history, as we grapple with unprecedented levels of technological surveillance. From CCTV cameras and facial recognition systems to trackable devices and the "Internet of Things," our activities are increasingly monitored and recorded. The study suggests that this constant observation may be affecting us on a deeper level than previously realized, modifying basic perceptual processes that normally operate outside our awareness.

The implications extend beyond individual privacy concerns to questions about public mental health and the subtle ways surveillance might be reshaping human cognition and social interaction. As surveillance technology continues to advance, including emerging neurotechnology that could potentially monitor our mental activity, understanding these unconscious effects becomes increasingly crucial.

Like the participants in the study who detected faces faster while being monitored, we might all be unconsciously adapting to our increasingly surveilled world in ways we don't yet fully understand. Big Brother, it seems, isn't just watching us – he's changing how we see the world.