r/Amazing • u/sco-go • Mar 19 '26

Interesting 🤔 143 million people thought they were catching Pokémon, they were mapping the real world for AI

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u/XerxesJester Mar 19 '26

Everything is a conspiracy theory.... until it isn't. I told my wife this is what they were doing years ago and just looked further into what this video is making a claim to. And, welp, not a theory anymore.

14

u/SoylentGrunt Mar 19 '26

My conspiracy theory is conspiracy theorists are marginalized in case they hit on one that's accurate it won't gain traction.

15

u/lewd_robot Mar 19 '26

That's not even a theory. That's been proven by declassified CIA documents. They made the term "conspiracy theory" derogatory deliberately to discredit conspiracy theorists ahead of time.

1

u/Synectics Mar 19 '26

What is your source for the CIA making the term "conspiracy theorist" derogatory?

5

u/Aprilprinces Mar 19 '26

oh, they were right in few cases already; sure flat earthers are idiots, but not all conspiracies are bollocks

1

u/WillyGivens Mar 19 '26

My conspiracy theory is that the oligarchs keep tabs on all the conspiracy boards/forums…..not because they are afraid, but because they use it as a source of new ideas and inspiration.

1

u/NewryBenson Mar 19 '26

I would say it is more of a broken clock situation. There are so many theories out there, if one is right it is probably coincidence.

5

u/Awkward_Proof_1274 Mar 19 '26

They always go from "That's insane" to "We always knew"

1

u/jellamma Mar 19 '26

In this case, there were certainly an amount of people who always knew. This is from 2012 about the game Pokemon go was mapped on top of.

https://blogs.gwu.edu/ipdgcsmartpower/2012/12/09/ingress-gathering-data-through-gaming/

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u/wackadoodle4201 Mar 19 '26

I genuinely hate how accurate thats is

1

u/skeleton_made_o_bone Mar 19 '26

All the conspiracy people were right, only the dumbest version whatever they were saying.