For example, in the study by Naccache, Blandin & Dehaene (2002), subjects were required to decide whether a visually presented digit between the range of one and nine is greater or smaller than the target number five. Before the digits appeared, there was another digit which was presented subliminally. As a result, the decision speed was increased when the subliminally presented digit was congruent to the target stimuli by being greater or smaller than the digit five. The authors concluded that subliminal priming can activate a particular connection in the memory and make responses faster. However, the priming effect disappears if the length of time between priming and target stimulus is greater than one hundred milliseconds. Another very recent priming study was carried out by Friedman et al. (2005), in which males who were subliminally primed with words related to alcohol rated women as more attractive than when they were primed with words not related to alcohol. Priming words were presented for a few milliseconds on the screen before the attractiveness of a woman had to be evaluated in a subsequent picture. Words related to alcohol were, for example, “wine” or “beer,” whereas words such as “coffee” or “milk” were not related to alcohol. Still, the priming effect could be observed only in subjects who preferred alcohol to stimulate their libido.”2
In order to further understand the world of modern technology, we talked to author and cyber expert R. J. Huneke:
When Wendy’s unveiled their new logo in 2013, many noticed the subtle inclusion of the word “mom” on Wendy’s collar. This is believed to be a subliminal message to equate Wendy’s with a home-cooked meal.
Meg: “Could you tell us about your background and how you got into cybersecurity?”
R. J Huneke: “I have been making websites ever since I was first published as a columnist for Newsday’s impulse reviews section just over fifteen years ago. I had been building computers and modifying them since I was a kid. As a writer, I wanted to make myself as visible online as possible and so I took my fascination and used it as inspiration to build my own websites and increase my exposure while I was still in college. Cybersecurity is not my specialty trade; I have interviewed and consulted with some of the best in the business for my own books’ research, and I would always defer to them in matters of cyber warfare. I have followed the scene closely over the last fifteen-plus years and I have helped a few companies out upon request when their sites were hacked, and I was able, through my knowledge of coding and research, to dispel some nasty adware. That said, I am not a certified cyber-security professional and those are the folks that you want to do penetration testing and security evaluations to keep you and your online presence safe.”
Kelly: “How have you brought your cyber know-how into your fiction writing? Was it an easy transition?”
R. J Huneke: “For me it could not have been easier to fit cyber ‘know-how’ into my works of fiction, as the ever-evolving Cyberverse is truly remarkable and impactful. I am reading up on it every day, writing about gadgets, robotics, and technology frequently, and I am in awe of where we have come from and where we are going. That said, the world online scares the hell out of me. I am a big Ray Bradbury fan, and, yes, touching upon the incredible and dangerous Cyberverse could not have felt more natural to make a fictitious world that calls upon this dichotomy.”
Mary Shelley, in Frankenstein, warned her readers about the dangers of science and technology.
Meg: “From Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to Stephen King’s Cell and the Mr. Mercedes trilogy, horror has a long tradition of warning its readers about the pitfalls of science and technology. Why do you think that is?”
R. J Huneke: “Stephen King is forthright in his criticism of technology and science with the near extinction of the human race due to a cell phone signal, in Cell, and the near mass suicide of children via subliminal advertising in a portable video game system in End of Watch, the last of the Mr. Mercedes trilogy. Though daunted by science-run-rampant at the outset of both tales, King has humanity prevail in the end of both stories. Throughout King’s works there are frightening aspects of advancing tech present and deadly—how can we forget Blaine the Mono, a suicidal AI tired of life and jealous of two-legs that loves riddles and taunts Roland and his Ka-tet in The Waste Lands (1991) with a riddle competition that, alone, can save their lives? And throughout his works human beings can use the technology to their advantage or outright defeat the science with positive aspects that often come down to their being human.”
Kelly: “It’s amazing to me how Stephen King actually got me to hate a train!”
R. J Huneke: “He shows how an admittedly technologically ignorant person in the character of old Bill Hodges can overcome the most sinister of subliminal and telepathic abilities. While Stephen King calls out science and technology for the danger that it is, he does speak to the ability to use the positives of human nature, like creativity and tenacity, to overcome the calamities that can ensue once science is unleashed haphazardly.”
Kelly: “When you read a book or watch a movie, are you generally impressed by the media’s portrayal of modern technology? Or are you often rolling your eyes at the inaccuracies?”
R. J Huneke: “That’s an interesting question. Most of the time when I read a book I do not find inaccuracies in portraying modern technology, and I think that is because when you read a really good book and the world-building is done right, your disbelief is suspended, and you are more invested in the characters’ story than all of the nuances. I think about some of the greats, like Bradbury who wrote about reality TV, virtual reality without goggles, and giant screen televisions in the walls. He was very much ahead of his time in portraying modern science. Works like The Expanse (2015–), both on TV and the books (2011–), that rely on hard science and accepted theory and the use of gravity boots, for instance, make it so that there is enough real science and cutting-edge tech that you can get away with stretching some of the things out on the science-side a bit and not having the reader and/or viewer suspect something is amiss. I cannot tell you how often I am like, ‘where is the explanation of how these spaceships have gravity,’ because without boots holding them to the floor, these people should be floating all over the place. I will not name shows, movies, or books, but you know them. I recently read comments from a few people about an article on William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984) and how it was a good read, but dated, because it was written in the eighties.”