By Nicholas West

The emergence of low-cost micro satellites is a trend that I’ve been covering for several years. It has spawned a global surveillance arms race that has drawn interest from the usual military sources like GEOINT, DARPA and Lockheed Martin, as well as commercial interests such as DigitalGlobe and EarthNow, the latter of which received backing from Bill Gates.

The holy grail is, of course, to create a web of surveillance with the capability to access streaming HD video in real-time for any location on the planet.

Such activities worth looking at have been noted as “tracking illegal fishing, monitoring the weather and tracking natural migrations globally.”  Gizmodo noted a few other possibilities, my emphasis added:

…watching hurricanes and typhoons as they evolve, detecting forest fires the moment they start, watching volcanoes the instant they start to erupt, assisting the media in telling stories from around the world, tracking large whales as they migrate, helping “smart cities” become more efficient, providing on-demand data about crop health, and observing conflict zones around the world.

Project developers at EarthNow have stated that they want to offer public access to this real-time data stream from their tablets and smartphones … so that we can better appreciate our precious planet and its inhabitants, of course:

‘We believe the ability to see and understand the Earth live and unfiltered will help all of us better appreciate and ultimately care for our one and only home.’

[…]

‘We are excited by the prospect of giving everyone a stunningly beautiful real-time window on your world from space,’ Mr Hannigan said.

‘With EarthNow, we will all become virtual astronauts.’

However, the rapid development and deployment of this technology is beginning to raise questions about privacy that previously had only been asked by independent media.

I was startled to see MIT Technology Review weigh in with this recent title: “Soon, satellites will be able to watch you everywhere all the time — can privacy survive?” It’s a long and extremely detailed article that begins by recounting a few select cases where satellite imagery has been called upon to observe suspected illegal activity. However, we are apparently approaching a new threshold where image quality is becoming far sharper, many more satellites have been launched, and cost is being reduced to the point where access to images and video could become much more commonplace. MIT also adds updates to some of the companies I previously covered. (My emphasis added.)

In 2008, there were 150 Earth observation satellites in orbit; by now there are 768. Satellite companies don’t offer 24-hour real-time surveillance, but if the hype is to be believed, they’re getting close. Privacy advocates warn that innovation in satellite imagery is outpacing the US government’s (to say nothing of the rest of the world’s) ability to regulate the technology. Unless we impose stricter limits now, they say, one day everyone from ad companies to suspicious spouses to terrorist organizations will have access to tools previously reserved for government spy agencies. Which would mean that at any given moment, anyone could be watching anyone else.

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But satellite imagery is improving in a way that investors and businesses will inevitably want to exploit. The imaging company Planet Labs currently maintains 140 satellites, enough to pass over every place on Earth once a day. Maxar, formerly DigitalGlobe, which launched the first commercial Earth observation satellite in 1997, is building a constellation that will be able to revisit spots 15 times a day. BlackSky Global promises to revisit most major cities up to 70 times a day. That might not be enough to track an individual’s every move, but it would show what times of day someone’s car is typically in the driveway, for instance.

Some companies are even offering live video from space. As early as 2014, a Silicon Valley startup called SkyBox (later renamed Terra Bella and purchased by Google and then Planet) began touting HD video clips up to 90 seconds long. And a company called EarthNow says it will offer “continuous real-time” monitoring “with a delay as short as about one second,” though some think it is overstating its abilities. Everyone is trying to get closer to a “living map,” says Charlie Loyd of Mapbox, which creates custom maps for companies like Snapchat and the Weather Channel. But it won’t arrive tomorrow, or the next day: “We’re an extremely long way from high-res, full-time video of the Earth.”

[…]

What will make the imagery even more powerful is the ability to process it in large quantities. Analytics companies like Orbital Insight and SpaceKnow feed visual data into algorithms designed to let anyone with an internet connection understand the pictures en masse. Investors use this analysis to, for example, estimate the true GDP of China’s Guangdong province on the basis of the light it emits at night. But burglars could also scan a city to determine which families are out of town most often and for how long.

We can now imagine a time (fast approaching) where the same privacy issues that have plagued smartphones and other smart gadgets could arise when there is a global camera that runs 24/7. However, as MIT states: “While GPS data from cell phones is a legitimate privacy threat, you can at least decide to leave your phone at home. It’s harder to hide from a satellite camera.”

Luckily, at this stage, there are still prohibitive costs associated with real-time long-term monitoring, but for how much longer? It also remains unclear how to protect protect privacy when the barriers between private and public are even less delineated than they’ve become already. Government regulation, for what that is even worth, hasn’t set out any firm rules yet.

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MIT concludes with comments from human rights activist Nathaniel Raymond that should have all privacy advocates concerned enough to start asking serious questions about where this is headed:

Until we can all agree on data privacy norms, Raymond says, it will be hard to create lasting rules around satellite imagery. “We’re all trying to figure this out,” he says. “It’s not like anything’s riding on it except the future of human freedom.”

Read the full article at MIT Technology Review HERE.

Also Read — Report: Pentagon Should Assume US Satellites Are Already Hacked

Nicholas West writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions?

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By Nicholas West

High-tech drug delivery systems continue to be researched. I’ve extensively covered the move toward nanorobotics that can do everything from deliver drugs to laying down labels for genetic marking that could one day connect the human brain to computers or rewire it completely.

The latest offering is a bit more direct than that – it involves eating a robotic caterpillar and having it swim through your insides to distribute medication, as you can see in the video below.



The design, according to an article in The Daily Mail, which cites the journal Nature Communications, will help deliver drugs to hard-to-reach areas that might otherwise require a surgical procedure. However, it is also magnetized, so researchers say it can be controlled remotely from outside of the body.

The robot is fabricated with a silicon material called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) embedded with magnetic particles which enables it to be remotely controlled by applying electromagnetic force.

[…]

Controlled by a magnetic manipulator used in experiments, the robot can move in both a flap propulsion pattern and an inverted pendulum pattern, meaning that it can use its front feet to flap forward as well as swinging the body by standing on the left and right feet alternately to advance respectively.

The researchers said this is merely a prototype version and they aim eventually to make a robot delivery system that can biodegrade without a trace after it completes its task.

Before conducting further tests in animals and eventually in humans, the research teams are further developing and refining their research in three aspects, namely finding a biodegradable material, studying new shapes, and adding extra features.

Science or mad science? The line continues to blur by the day.

Nicholas West writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon for as little as $1 per month. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.

Nicholas West
Activist Post

The era of Big Data is upon us. Major corporations in the areas of advertising, social media, defense contracting, and computing are forming partnerships with government agencies to compile virtual dossiers on all humans.

This data integration initiative is taking place across the board in our largest federal agencies and departments as part of an Office of Science and Technology outline (PDF) that includes a $200 million upfront investment, as well as a $250 million annual investment by military departments into human-computer interaction.

The $200 million in the Obama program will be spread among the National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Geological survey, and DARPA to see that the information they collect will move quickly “from data to decisions.”

Seeing the vast potential of Big Data management and applications, Oblong Industries – the actual creator of the software that appeared in the movie Minority Report, (known by its propriety name g-speak) – is now offering a commercial version in the marketplace. An AFP article posted at Raw Story is quick to point out that the software has been stripped of its “pre-crime” detection analytics. But should this blanket dismissal by a mainstream news agency be comforting in light of stated U.S. government goals that seek to turn science fiction into science reality?

John P. Holdren, Obama’s science czar, and author of the controversial eugenics tome, Ecoscience, is one of those directing the solution to the data overload problem. This alone should force us to be hyper-vigilant.

We also know that the NSA is constructing a massive new $2 billion data center that aims to expand its spy activities by September, 2013:

A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks.

(…) 

Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital ‘pocket litter. It is, in some measure, the realization of the “total information awareness” program created during the first term of the Bush administration… (Source)

The FBI has recently announced that facial recognition will be coming to a state near you:

Recently-released documents show that the FBI has been working since late 2011 with four states—Michigan, Hawaii, Maryland, and possibly Oregon—to ramp up the Next Generation Identification (NGI) Facial Recognition Program. When the program is fully deployed in 2014, the FBI expects its facial recognition database will contain at least 12 million “searchable frontal photos.” (p. 6) (Source)

While Oblong Industries claims to have disabled the analytics portion of the software that could be used in pre-crime screening taken right from the Minority Report film, they state that private companies and law enforcement agencies could certainly augment their scaled-back version by introducing their own analytics.

Furthermore, the earlier-mentioned AFP article downplays the significance of the software by stating that “Oblong currently has no government customers in the United States or abroad but offers itself as ‘a core technology provider.'”

However, two of Oblong’s current clients are Boeing – the world’s second largest defense contractor and drone specialists; and #12 General Electric – specialists in electronic warfare components and military communication systems. Their combined annual sales are more than $35 billion, which makes it quite likely that new technology will be embraced and proliferated. (Source)

Oblong’s own website states that their company “works with Global Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and universities to develop custom g‑speak solutions.” Their application areas include:

• financial services


• network operations centers


• logistics and supply-chain management


• military and intelligence


• automotive


• natural resource exploration


• data mining and analytics


• bioinformatics


• trade shows and theatrical presentations


• medical imaging


• consumer electronics interfaces

(Source: Oblong Industries “Client Solutions”)

To reinforce the obvious, Oblong’s Chief Executive, Kwin Kramer, has stated flatly that, “We think law enforcement and intelligence are big data users and we think our technology is the leader.”

It is also worth noting that the g-speak “Minority Report” technology was developed at MIT and has been 30 years in the making. MIT has quite a storied history of connections to intelligence agencies; the CIA having actually started the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies (MIT-CIS) in 1950. (Source)

The implied connections are in plain view on MIT’s own website: http://web.mit.edu/policies/14/14.5.html

And Orwell smiles.

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Until recently, we might have held out hope that it was the vastness of data collection that was the weakest point for potential tyrants, as it was nearly impossible to sift through, manage, and apply all of it. With the birth of Big Data applications that are literally coming straight from science fiction, however, we might do well to accept the possibility of a truly dystopian reality descending upon us even faster than the speed of thought.

For a glimpse into the cool sales pitch behind Oblong Industries’ Big Data management software, please view the following video. While we should keep an open mind to how advancements in computer tech can be exciting and rewarding, while offering novel ways of human interaction, it is most important to ensure that these technologies are not hoarded by governments and elites who have a clear history of negatively impacting true human development, as well as freedom of movement, expression and self-determination.

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By Nicholas West

Literature, TV, and movies have always had among them cautionary tales of science and technology gone wild; whether it is the technology itself that takes on intelligence, or through the nefarious deeds of covert elite forces using technology to enslave the rest of humanity.

Some researchers believe that the vast majority of these works have been a coordinated method of predictive programming that has been deliberately introduced to ensure that we are softened up for a reality that would at first seem inconceivable, but when later mirrored in the real world becomes easily accepted as the obvious evolution of an advanced society.

The following short sci-fi film is not making any great leaps when it demonstrates a future of augmented reality through the (contact) lens of a computer app-driven interface.

Augmented reality apps for the iPhone have been around for years, and continue to grow in popularity. Nor does the film below make an unbelievable jump in assuming that this future reality could be driven by a game-like incentive system; we can see that this is already an addictive pastime for countless millions of Facebook gamers through Zynga.

The systems are in place, but as yet have been available only through external devices. All that has been needed to create an all-encompassing new reality is to integrate information into the first-person everyday human experiential view.

The actual principles behind a first-person, human-computer interface system have been around for many decades – it can be seen in combat zones around the world through the military Heads Up Display system (HUD).

These principles, which began pre-WWII for fighter pilots, are now finding their way into the consumer market in video games, vehicles, and through info eyeglasses like Google X, which is supposed to be out by year’s end. Contact lenses are the next logical step, and in fact are already in development by the Department of Defense through a system called iOptik – and projected to be available to consumers in 2014.

As with nearly all computer interface and intelligence-driven systems, it is important to realize that these have generally been funded and implemented from the start by the military-industrial complex, and are likely to have been in existence for at least decades before trickling down to the consumer level.

With government now openly embracing a Minority Report-like future of pre-crime high-tech surveillance systems, combined with an insatiable imperial hubris that continues to devalue human life, all wrapped in a shroud of elite misanthropic thought known as Transhumanism, perhaps this should be the greatest cautionary note of all when we imagine our future.

[vimeo 46304267 w=100 h=450]

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. This article can be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.

Nicholas West
Activist Post

This four-part series, which will continue over the coming two weeks each Thursday on YouTube HERE, began as humanoid robot soldiers redefine the landscape of the battlefield in 2023 … and one of them is on the run.

In part 2, we get a glimpse of the human programmer behind unit 237 and the commander who wonders how a robot can make the decision to run.

The introduction of the programmer raises a question that the U.S. government has been trying to answer: How can robots be developed that will never question orders? This is the mission of programs like MUSIC, which incorporates Future Combat Systems to create a matrix of computer-to-robot interaction with humans on the periphery at best:

The objective of the FCS effort is to develop lightweight (no individual element greater than 20 tons), overwhelmingly lethal, strategically deployable, self-sustaining and survivable combat and combat support force, systems and supporting technologies for the 2012-2025 timeframe and beyond…. (Source) 

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDItEOBeEKk?feature=player_detailpage]

Part 1: DRONE: Rise of the Autonomous Super Soldier

Read other articles by Nicholas West HERE

By Nicholas West

Augmented reality apps for the iPhone have been around for years, and continue to grow in popularity. The next phase of evolution is to merge smartphone capabilities into a wearable interface. Google has announced Project Glass, which is advancing toward a major release of augmented reality glasses in 2014, as seen in the video below:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLn0cSZfl6c?feature=player_detailpage]

The systems are in place, but as yet have been available only through external devices. All that has been needed to create an all-encompassing new reality is to integrate information into the everyday human experiential view. Microsoft is now jumping into the ring with its own developments, which at this point seems to be geared strictly toward entertainment venues and video games, but hints at a major shift toward investing in wearable computing, as well as entertainment systems that can observe those being entertained.

The actual principles behind first-person, human-computer interface systems have been around for many decades – it can be seen in combat zones around the world through the military Heads Up Display system (HUD). What began pre-WWII for fighter pilots, is now finding its way into the consumer market through video games, vehicles, and info-glasses. Contact lenses are also already in development by the Department of Defense through a system called iOptik – which is also projected to be available to consumers in 2014.

Google is clearly investing heavily in wearable computing; along with Project Glass, they also have patented “smart glove” technology which offers the following:

electronics including cameras on the fingertips, a compass, gyroscopes, accelerometers and other motion detectors embedded in the fingers. The palm section plays host to the CPU, RAM and local storage, and wireless communication chips are mounted on the backside.

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…The cameras could be used to acquire a highly-magnified view of the world around them while the sensors would be the centerpiece to applications similar to what we use on smartphones like navigation. The wireless aspect could leech information from local open networks, satellites, or provide communication between a pair of Smart Gloves. (Source)

As with nearly all computer interface and intelligence-driven systems, the funding and implementation has its origins in the military-industrial complex, and are likely to have been in existence for at least decades before trickling down to the consumer level.

While info-glass makers Google and Microsoft both naturally tout the entertainment value, as well as the value of “capturing those special moments,” it would be naive not to also consider the ease with which people would begin to surveil and record one another. As this technology flourishes, full-time audio and video recordings will be stored, all in the blink of an eye.

With two intelligence agency-connected tech behemoths like Google and Microsoft investing so vigorously, a “smart” future appears to be on the way. And as government is now openly embracing a Minority Report-like future of pre-crime high-tech surveillance systems with their help, combined with a stated mission to intercept conversations and track Internet activity in real time, we should probably ask ourselves how much we really want to contribute to that endeavor by purchasing full-spectrum surveillance applications.

Additional sources for this article:
http://pressblue.com/google-project-glass-release-date-scheduled-for-2014/1171/andrea-weidlemeyer

Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. This article can be freely shared in part or in full with author attribution and source link.

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Nicholas West
Activist Post

Killer robots have been in the news quite a bit lately, even drawing the attention of major international human rights groups who have launched a campaign to stop the runaway development of robots for war.

The military-industrial complex and their partners in the Congressional “drone caucus” are reaping big profits from machine warfare. The rapid increase in computing power at a reduced cost is making a full-spectrum drone surveillance and weapons grid a very real possibility.

Most disturbing is that this war-matrix is projected to have the capability to make decisions independent of human review, despite Pentagon assurances that this will never be the case.

It is this autonomous decision making without accountability, as well as the theoretical self-propagation of robots coupled with AI computer interface systems, that is drawing the most concern.

As the video below covers, Cambridge University has now launched a “Terminator” study program known officially as the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk.

There is no question that technology can open doors to terrific developments which can enhance the human experience. In fact, technological progress can be a serious threat to Elite power. However, if we permit technology to be used against us by warmongers and central controllers, particularly within areas like nanotechnology, robotics and neuroscience, we are likely to see a door open up to very sinister possibilities.

It is the job of every individual to stay informed so that we can alter our track toward one of increased prosperity and self-directed freedom.

Read other articles by Nicholas West Here

No name yet for this bot; see it in the video below … if you can image source

Nicholas West
Activist Post

Beyond the economic debate of whether humans will officially be outsourced to robots — or not (maybe by 2045) — there is no question that the military-industrial complex loves the idea of creating robots that can serve the battlefield and beyond. Here are some of their current favorites.

• 
  PETMAN humanoid robot


• 
  Sand Flea jumping robot


• 
  Robobee – pollinator/surveillance


• 
  Cryo – robot jellyfish to patrol the oceans


• 
  Cheetah – designed to chase human prey (and now has had a cub)


• 
  Big Dog – Heavy lifting, like throwing cinderblocks, and transport

But, just as with drones, the next phase of miniaturized robot tech is offering some insane possibilities. The video below shows a new bot that Singularity Hub defined as “freaky fast” — like the equivalent of a human running 120 mph.

As Singularity Hub states:

…researchers from the University of Maryland and John Hopkins have constructed a miniature robot with independent drive motors propelling its four whegs, which are hybrid-wheel-legs that offer the best of both.

The bot can travel up to 30 body lengths a second (2.2 m/s or around 5 MPH). As IEEE Spectrum points out, a human traveling the equivalent relative distance in the same time would be going approximately 120 MPH.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0LQd4Mk42o?feature=player_embedded]

As miniturization continues right down to the nano-scale, as well as bots and drones that mimic nature, it might become increasingly difficult to see what exactly is coming next.

Source:
http://singularityhub.com/2013/07/05/miniature-freaky-fast-quadruped-robots/

Read other articles by Nicholas West Here

image source – click to enlarge

Nicholas West
Activist Post

Some might have heard about Smart Dust; nanoparticles that can be employed as sensor networks for a range of security and environmental applications. Now, however, literal Smart Dust for the brain is being proposed as the next step toward establishing a brain-computer interface.

The system is officially called “neural dust” and works to “monitor the brain from the inside.” Inventors are attempting to overcome the hurdle of how to best implant sensors that can remain over the course of one’s life. Researchers at Berkeley Engineering believe they have found a novel way to achieve this:

This paper explores the fundamental system design trade-offs and ultimate size, power, and bandwidth scaling limits of neural recording systems. 

A network of tiny implantable sensors could function like an MRI inside the brain, recording data on nearby neurons and transmitting it back out. The smart dust particles would all contain an extremely small CMOS sensor capable of measuring electrical activity in nearby neurons. The researchers envision a piezoelectric material backing the CMOS capable of generating electrical signals from ultrasound waves. The process would also work in reverse, allowing the dust to beam data back via high-frequency sound waves. The neural dust would also be coated with polymer. (Source)

The investment in neuroscience has received a $100 million dollar commitment via Obama’s BRAIN project, while Europe has committed $1.3 billion to build a supercomputer replica of the brain in a similarly comprehensive and detailed fashion as the Human Genome Project mapped DNA.

Concurrently, there is massive long-term investment in nanotech applications via the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Strategic Plan. This 60-page document lays out a projected future “to understand and control matter” for the management of every facet of human life within the surveillance matrix of environment, health and safety. Twenty-five U.S. Federal agencies are participating.

The concept of Smart Dust has been applied and/or proposed for use in the following ways, just to name a few:

• Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions.


• Bomb-sniffing plants using rewired DNA to detect explosives and biological agents.


• “Smart Dust” motes that wirelessly transmit data on temperature, light, and movement (this can also be used in currency to track cash).

Their idea is to sprinkle electronic sensors the size of dust particles into the cortex and to interrogate them remotely using ultrasound. The ultrasound also powers this so-called neural dust. 

Each particle of neural dust consists of standard CMOS circuits and sensors that measure the electrical activity in neurons nearby… 

The neural dust is interrogated by another component placed beneath the scale but powered from outside the body. This generates the ultrasound that powers the neural dust and sensors that listen out for their response, rather like an RFID system. 

The system is also tetherless–the data is collected and stored outside the body for later analysis. (source, MIT)

Read “tetherless” as “wireless” — or remote controlled analysis of the human brain, thus opening the door (theoretically) for remote mind control. As I’ve highlighted before, this is a two-way street — some people might feel content, for example, with sending their brain’s information out to a doctor for evaluation, but this sensor network could also transmit data back, as is admitted here:

That’s why Seo and co have chosen ultrasound to send and receive data. They calculate that the power required to use electromagnetic waves on the scale would generate a damaging amount of heat because of the amount of energy the body absorbs and the troubling signal-to-noise ratios at this scale. 

By contrast, ultrasound is a much more efficient and should allow the transmission of at least 10 million times more power than electromagnetic waves at the same scale. (emphasis added).

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In case anyone believes that this has little chance of success, MIT highlights that one of the authors of the research has already achieved this with a remote controlled beetle.

The human brain is clearly of vast, perhaps infinite, complexity — and this is without even introducing concepts such as “the mind” or “the soul.” Nevertheless, it is clear that the reductionists are doing their very best to “Solve the Brain” — measuring it, mapping it, and making sense of it. (source)

Are we to believe that “controlling it” has been left off the list for mere ethical reasons? Not likely.

Full paper available here:
http://arxiv.org/pdf/1307.2196v1.pdf

Read other articles by Nicholas West Here

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By Nicholas West

As we look around at the Police State being built across the world, combined with enhanced mind control techniques, it is easy to draw direct parallels with books like 1984 and Brave New World. It’s almost as if these books formed a clear blueprint for anyone seeking control over large populations.

With the quickening pace of technological advancement it is no surprise to see “ideas” become reality quicker than ever before. Philip K. Dick explored the concept of pre-crime in his short story “The Minority Report” in 1956, but it wasn’t until Steven Spielberg offered it on the big screen as Minority Report in 2002 that the audience got a true look at a potential day-to-day existence under corporate and government data management and control.

We are now at the point where “Minority Report” is being used as a sound description of current technological applications, even in mainstream news, which means that the future is actually the present. Below you will find 10 signs that we have now entered the world depicted in fiction.

The latest news from Chicago only adds to this list, as police are moving beyond simply possessing the technology and are now putting it into effect.

Chicago’s “Heat List” is an index of approximately 400 people who have been identified by a computer algorithm as being future threats to commit violent crime. Without having actually committed a crime, some of those on the list are beginning to get visits from Chicago police warning them that they are already being watched:

When the Chicago Police Department sent one of its commanders to Robert McDaniel’s home last summer, the 22-year-old high school dropout was surprised. Though he lived in a neighborhood well-known for bloodshed on its streets, he hadn’t committed a crime or interacted with a police officer recently. And he didn’t have a violent criminal record, nor any gun violations. In August, he incredulously told the Chicago Tribune, “I haven’t done nothing that the next kid growing up hadn’t done.” Yet, there stood the female police commander at his front door with a stern message: if you commit any crimes, there will be major consequences. We’re watching you.

Chicago is apparently considering this to be part of “policing in the 21st century.” A report from The Verge explains how Chicago has taken the lead in predictive behavior police tech:

googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1526143560956-5'); });

In 2009, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) made millions of dollars in grants available for any police department with a burgeoning predictive program. Police all over the country applied to tap into those NIJ dollars. The big winner was Chicago; its combination of headline-making homicide rates and already established data- and tech-focused policing made it a perfect fit. The CPD received more than $2 million to test two phases of its experimental program.

Though it took awhile to get started in earnest (staff turnover and internal politics in 2011 and 2012 stalled the project), last year the CPD’s predictive program picked up steam. One man behind that progress was Miles Wernick.

Wernick is the Motorola professor and director of the Medical Imaging Research Center at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. He says he’s been doing predictive analysis work since the 1980s, when he worked with the US military to recognize potential targets in the battlefield. From there he proceeded to medical imaging. A lot of his current work focuses on analysing data and brain scans to make automated diagnoses of dementias in elderly patients — not exactly police work.

These paragraphs encapsulate two of the major warnings that the alternative media has been shouting for years: namely that military tech always trickles down into local law enforcement; and, secondly, that Big Data initiatives which are heralded by the establishment as solutions in the computing and medical fields have a range of privacy-killing additional applications that affect people far beyond the initially stated reach.

Also highlighted are the same concerns that are cropping up in the area of NSA spying – association is an assumption of tendency toward eventual guilt. Miles Wernick goes on to say:

“It’s not just shooting somebody, or being shot,” he says. “It has to do with the person’s relationships to other violent people.”

This is in line with what Andrew Papachristos, a Yale sociologist and Chicago native, calls a social networking theory. When it comes to violence, Papachristos recently told Chicago Magazine, “It’s not just about your friends and who you’re hanging out with, it’s actually the structure of these networks that matter.”

So while Wernick acknowledges that sometimes people such as Robert McDaniel — who haven’t been convicted of a violent crime — may find themselves in the wrong social networks, their presence on the list is not random.

A commander of the program stated it even more simply:

 If you end up on that list, there’s a reason you’re there.

This indicates a fundamental shift in the way policing will be done in the future of America. Until now, we have been reporting on this type of technology and have been forced to speculate about its coming implementation. Well, now there is no doubt. And lest anyone believe that this is just an outcropping of Chicago’s notoriously Police State-happy mentality, Police Commander Jonathan Lewin matter-of-factly states the following:

This [program] will become a national best practice. This will inform police departments around the country and around the world on how best to utilize predictive policing to solve problems. This is about saving lives. [emphasis added]

Whether or not it will actually save lives is debatable. Has the No-Fly List saved lives? Have any of the other of the many lists one can be added to these days actually saved any lives? These lists are secretive and have become nearly impossible to independently verify as to how someone got on the list, if they deserve to be there; and, if not, how to get off the list … or if the lists are effective.

The Verge article linked below highlights the potential racial profiling of such policies – and indeed this has happened in the case of New York’s own low-tech Stop-and-Frisk policy.

So the verdict is out on saving lives. But one thing is for certain: the arrival of the high-tech Police State is certainly not about saving freedom, nor is it about preserving a Constitution designed to protect us from a Minority Report society.

Source:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/19/5419854/the-minority-report-this-computer-predicts-crime-but-is-it-racist
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10 Signs We Live In a “Minority Report” World

Individual pieces of news often get lost or forgotten rather easily in today’s fast-paced news cycle, so let’s look at an aggregate of 10 mainstream news items that offer a comprehensive picture of where we are and where we are likely to be headed both from a government surveillance standpoint, as well as targeted advertising.

image source

1. They’re watching … Japanese electronics company NEC develops ‘Minority Report’ style billboard, The Telegraph, 3/10/2010: “Engineers have developed the billboard, similar to one used in the Tom Cruise blockbuster, that uses built in cameras to instantly identify a shopper’s age and gender as they walk past. The facial-recognition system, called the Next Generation Digital Signage Solution, then offers consumers a product it thinks is suited to their demographic.”

2. Microsoft Kinect Learns to Read Hand Gestures, Minority Report-Style Interface Now Possible, IEEE Spectrum, 3/10/2013:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwZMNMmODJA?feature=player_embedded]

3. The Long Eye of the Law: So Who’s Ready for a ‘Minority Report’-Style Future? Motherboard, 3/20/2013: On Monday, Japanese tech developers Fujitsu announced they had created . . . a bit of technology that can measure a person’s pulse using a camera or a computer webcam, just by analyzing that person’s face . . .  It’s Minority Report-style technology, to be sure—another in a burgeoning list of tech-driven ways police could prevent crimes before they happen.”

*Also see New York’s Domain Awareness System helped along by Microsoft.

How to Disappear Off the Grid Completely (Ad)

4. Minority Report moves step closer as Lord Sugar launches face recognition adverts, The Telegraph, 7/9/2013: “The media company has launched OptimEyes, which will be used in more than 6,000 of its screens to target over 50m people in the UK, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, UAE, Oman, Kenya, Angola and South Africa. However, the majority of the screens, some 3,561, are in the UK in doctors’ surgeries, hospitals, convenience stores, petrol forecourts, Halifax banks, airports and train stations . . . The product comes less than a week after Sky Deutschland revealed it has developed technology to transfer adverts from train windows directly and silently into commuters’ heads.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvfe8tlhsNA?feature=player_embedded]

5. Brain scans of inmates could lead to ‘Minority Report’ style ability to predict if they will re-offend, The Daily Mail, 7/15/2013: “Groundbreaking new research could allow scientists to predict if prisoners will re-offend – potentially condemning those convicted of serious crimes to a lifetime behind bars . . . It could also be used to the benefit of society in using brain imaging in deciding parole.”

6. Gesture Through News Minority Report-Style With New York Times’ Leap Motion App, Fast Company, 7/18/2013: Rather than having to flick through headlines on a touch-screen device or scroll through articles using a mouse — how antiquated! — the company’s new app allows readers to navigate through stories by motioning their hands in mid-air, with Leap Motion sensors interpreting the signals . . . The New York Times has also suggested it will give the company an opportunity to implement new advertising capabilities ‘that [will] allow brands to connect with readers using motion-controlled ad units.'”

7. Minority Report finally becomes a reality: new hi-tech video wall will let law enforcement agencies sift through data with a wave of their hand, The Daily Mail, 7/23/2013: “The hi-tech computer system behind the film Minority Report – where Tom Cruise speeds through video on a large screen using only hand gestures – is making its way into the real world. American computer experts have revealed the software has become a reality – and they hope to sell it to law enforcement agencies around the world. The interface developed by scientist John Underkoffler has been commercialized by the Los Angeles firm Oblong Industries as a way to sift through massive amounts of video and other data.”

*Also see this report on Big Data and pre-crime software.

Secret $1.8 Million Cryptocurrency Script

8. Control Google Earth with Minority Report-style gestures, via Leap Motion, TNooz, 8/5/2013:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RebX7YEn3GQ?feature=player_embedded]

9. Minority Report-style Advertising Coming to NYC, 247Sports, 8/8/2013: “Recycling bins data mine your smartphone when you are in proximity to tailor ads when you walk by the screen and stuff. Already in London, looking to expand to NYC and other World cities soon.”

10. Google Submits Patent For Minority Report Style Eye Tracking Device, Prison Planet, 8/15/2013: “The patent filing describes a “head mounted device”, for example hi-tech glasses, that would have the ability to track eye movement, effectively monitoring reactions to external stimuli, including changes in emotion.” From The Verge: “Google could be betting that advertisers will pay to know whether consumers are actually looking at their billboards, magazine spreads, and online ads.”

From the patent application, which was filed in May 2011:

Pay per gaze advertising need not be limited to on-line advertisements, but rather can be extended to conventional advertisement media including billboards, magazines, newspapers, and other forms of conventional print media. Thus, the gaze tracking system described herein offers a mechanism to track and bill offline advertisements in the manner similar to popular online advertisement schemes.

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The ways that we are tracked, traced, and databased are increasing every day. Some of it is arriving without our agreement and is being utilized by private corporations and governments without our explicit approval, as the recent revelations of data spying have exposed. If we have learned one thing it is that information is knowledge and knowledge is power. The power of data collection in the hands of those who wish to exert more control is not likely to halt.  And all indications show that it is not enough to have logged and charted where we have been; the surveillance state wants to know where we are going.

Our Orwellian world is beginning to look nostalgic compared to what is in production. Neuroscientists in 2010 stated that they know you better than you know yourself.  Meanwhile, it is being estimated that computers know to a 93% accuracy where you will be, before you make your first move. The recent major global funding of neuroscience and narrative control indicates that the final target is the human brain and every thought that resides there.

However, we ought to be aware that much of our data is willingly being given via social media and the gadgets we choose to buy. As technology continues to march forward at an exponential rate, we might do well to consider how much of this we are comfortable buying into.  And if we must, should we be seeking ways to subvert the information stream?

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Updated 5/26/2016

image source

Nicholas West
Activist Post

Discussion of the “Singularity” — the moment when computer intelligence surpasses that of humans to such an extent that humans become practically redundant — has been gaining steam across the social spectrum. In 2006, Ray Kurzweil pointed to 2045 as the date of this tipping point, after which anyone unprepared for merging with machines would likely face a very unproductive future.

With the exponential rise of automation, and the announcement that Moore’s Law could lapse within 10 years, the tipping point might already be upon us, with The Singularity arriving as soon as 2029.

With the goals of transhumanists and futurists so close to full realization, the world’s leading scientists are beginning to voice their concern that general humanity might not comprehend the full weight of their discoveries. Scientists like Stephen Hawking have formed a group of “scientific superheroes” who supposedly aim to ensure that humanity does not choose the lethal side of the double-edged sword of technology. Let’s see what they are planning to do to save humanity from itself at the dawn of The Singularity.

Our current position as we head toward The Singularity is being called The Hybrid Age by futurists, as discussed in the candid video below. It is an increasingly synthetic age of bio-computing, enhanced artificial intelligence and the merging of man and machine through augmented reality. Also stated below is the increasing indication that humanity is not the only biology susceptible to The Singularity; nature, too — the climate, for example — will be increasingly manageable and augmented.

The power available is a God-like one, giving us the divergent paths of Heaven or Hell. One slide from the presentation issues this stark assessment about the potential outcomes.

“Heaven”

• Re-make the planet (geo-engineering)


• Create new life (and new lifeforms)


• Re-engineer humanity (values and essence)


• Abundance and plenty for all (mastery over energy and material transformation)


• Super-intelligence (omniscience)


• Super-longevity (death as a disease to be cured, immortality)


• Better than well


• Transcendental experiences 


• “The cosmos wakes up” (as a new humanity moves off planet)

“Hell”

• Destroy the planet


• Plagues and pestilence (arising from genetic engineering)


• Enfeeble and divide humanity (as new technological divisions arise)


• Environmental catastrophe 


• Ubiquitous surveillance 


• Super-dictatorship


• Worse than the Dark Ages


• Nuclear holocaust (enabled by new weaponry)


• “Terminator enslavement” (artificial intelligence decides that humanity itself is the risk)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GplcPeh6JM0?feature=player_embedded]

With these concerns as the backdrop, we need to assess what we see taking place already that might indicate which path we are currently on.

Toward Heaven or Hell?

We have seen some of the negative consequences of robotics, at least in the economic area. There is the possibility that humans will eventually be fully outsourced to robots through the period of The Singularity. Even if this does not come to full fruition, a recent study points to dramatic technological unemployment over the next 20 years.

We have seen major advancements in direct mind control, which also point toward a decidedly negative direction being implemented in an area that also potentially can help enhance the human brain.

A paper published by Cambridge highlighted an extreme example of existential threat when they presented their case that “Terminators” should be listed as one of the greatest threats to humanity. And, yet, technologies like autonomous drones continue to be developed with an increasing miniaturization right down to the insect and nano level. Coupled with advanced artificial intelligence, the military is seeking ways for these systems to make decisions on their own, as well as communicate and replicate at their own discretion.

The technological ability to track, trace and database everyone and everything is already being used as a system of control and pre-crime evaluation that is ushering in a Minority Report-style world.

Control over the climate continues to remain a shadowy and hotly debated topic. One thing we can be certain of is the desire of the military to control the weather for use as a weapon. They issued a document called Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning The Weather in 2025 – curiously coinciding with the arrival of The Singularity. We also can be sure that elites from societies like the UK’s Royal Society have openly discussed playing God with the climate. Who will this God-like power be given to? Well, themselves of course.

The continued genetic engineering of the food supply is also having negative consequences for humanity’s health as well as the health of the environment.

Nevertheless, the increasingly open-source nature of access to technologies which are dropping rapidly in cost offers a potential push-back to would-be controllers. This is often presented as a danger in the case of 3D printed weapons, but 3D printing also offers a wealth of solutions for restoring power to the people and creating new means of solving mankind’s most critical issues in the areas of health and the economy. Developments in free energy are also beginning to move beyond the halls of traditional science and elite control. It is even being speculated that DARPA’s efforts to produce a low-cost, portable brain recorder could spark a DIY brain scanning movement.

However, we would be quite gullible not to be aware that science has traditionally been joined at the hip with the military-industrial complex. Whether it is the atomic bomb, drones, or nanotech; the halls of science have not been perfectly available for the general public to walk among. The dangers inherent in the new science as we race toward The Singularity are most likely the same dangers that humanity always have faced: Will technology be used to free humanity or enslave us? And who will ultimately be in charge?

Who’s in Charge?

There is no question that new technologies can and will benefit select people in select ways, but when it comes to the issue of extinction, who has brought us closest time and time again? It is ironic, then, to hear 27 self-appointed superheroes of science assume the role of vanguard for the rest of us.

From crippling cyber-attacks by terrorists using the internet to cause havoc, to the release of engineered diseases and killer computers, they warn the future is far from rosy.

[…]  

Other scenarios being considered by the 27-strong group, which also involves academics from Oxford, Imperial, Harvard and Berkeley, include extreme weather events, fast spreading pandemics, and war or sabotage resulting in a shortage of food and resources.

Secret $1.8 Million Cryptocurrency Script

[…]

The group’s manifesto is clear: ‘Many scientists are concerned that developments in human technology may soon pose new, extinction-level risks to our species as a whole.’

This is a puzzling manifesto coming from a group that largely represents the anti-human ends of transhumanism, where humanity is “upgraded” to become a nearly unrecognizable version of its former self. Hawking himself has echoed Kurzweil when he states that ‘in the future brains could be separated from the body’.

The cosmologist, 71, said the brain operates in a similar way to a computer programme, meaning it could in theory be kept running without a body to power it.

The worldview of these “superheroes” is at its heart an Orwellian one: humanity must be eliminated in order to save it. This is the exact machine-like mindset that runs the world at every level … and we see their terrific results so far. Who invented the Internet surveillance apparatus? Who creates those “crippling cyber attacks”? Who engineers diseases? Who uses food shortages as a weapon? Who created the dangerous algorithms behind the world’s economy? And who wages war in the name of peace?

These are the saviors of humanity? We’re in big trouble.

If we are to survive and thrive as a species, we must codify what type of research will or will not be explored, and which will be discarded due to irreversible negative consequences. Until we realize that the only safeguard against the improper use of technology is humanity, our current path toward a robotized, synthetic world of mindless automatons is virtually guaranteed.

* For a quick refutation of the arguments made by technocrats, please see Jon Rappoport’s article:
One-page proof that attributing consciousness to the brain is absurd

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war zone mobile scanner credit: Cross Match Technologies

Nicholas West
Activist Post

The San Diego Police Department is reporting their involvement in the largest facial recognition program to date. It is something straight out of theaters of war, but is set to hit the streets of America in the very near future if all goes according to plan.

Facial recognition technology, and the databases that catalog and store the results, is advancing at a pace that is difficult to contain. In 2006, the performance of face recognition algorithms were evaluated in the Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC). High-resolution face images, 3-D face scans, and iris images were used in the tests. The results indicated that the new algorithms are 10 times more accurate than the face recognition algorithms of 2002 and 100 times more accurate than those of 1995. Some of the algorithms were able to outperform human participants in recognizing faces and could uniquely identify identical twins. (Source) And that was 2006.

Hometown America mobile scanner Credit: Roque Hernandez/Univision: image source

One of the latest military-grade systems can now scan 36 million faces per second, or every face in the U.S. within 10 seconds. It is a technology that has trickled down from use in war zones like Afghanistan to catalog potential terrorists, to U.S. border control applications for combating illegal immigration, to FBI crime detection, to post-riot analysis, and right on down to establishing personal ID for a wide range of private companies.

One of the more troubling aspects of what the San Diego PD is looking to implement is that it will be used on the presumably innocent until proven guilty.

We reported in August that the new iPhones had an embedded code for a biometric kit including a fingerprint censor among other features.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4GNNkqecQQ?feature=player_embedded]

As further evidence that these technologies are being introduced with dual-use functions, the San Diego PD is employing smartphones and tablets like the Samsung Galaxy to not only collect biometric information, but then use an existing database to draw matches in real time to those formerly arrested:

On a residential street in San Diego County, Calif., Chula Vista police had just arrested a young woman, still in her pajamas, for possession of narcotics. Before taking her away, Officer Rob Halverson paused in the front yard, held a Samsung Galaxy tablet up to the woman’s face and snapped a photo.

Halverson fiddled with the tablet with his index finger a few times, and – without needing to ask the woman’s name or check her identification – her mug shot from a previous arrest, address, criminal history and other personal information appeared on the screen.

Halverson had run the woman’s photograph through the Tactical Identification System, a new mobile facial recognition technology now in the hands of San Diego-area law enforcement. In an instant, the system matches images taken in the field with databases of about 348,000 San Diego County arrestees. The system itself has nearly 1.4 million booking photos because many people have multiple mug shots on record.

As noted by the Center for Investigative Reporting, this technology is being rolled out without public hearings or dialogue. While the above example is offered as a supposedly clear-cut arrest of a repeat offender, the raft of abuses by the NSA and other intelligence agencies and government entities misusing “metadata” indicates a more shadowy system. Apparently, this is of exactly zero concern to the new militarized police force spreading across America:

Twenty-five local, state and federal law enforcement agencies – including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Border Patrol, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego State University –participate in the system. The project is coordinated by the San Diego Association of Governments and relies on a vast data-sharing program called the Automated Regional Justice Information System.

For some, the use of biometric technology by police represents a radical milestone in the militarization of American law enforcement.

For years, technology that was developed on the battlefield has been migrating into domestic police agencies. Since 9/11, America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have sped up that transfer. Facial recognition technology, which has been widely used by the military, is the next frontier.

“What we’re seeing now is much more surveillance oriented, and it’s in the guise of preventative policing,” said Kevin Keenan, former executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties. “It’s really this aspiration of prevention and social control through the monitoring of everyone’s every action and storage in perpetuity.”

San Diego’s program, if considered successful, easily could expand beyond the county’s borders.

And it most likely will … and then some. There simply has been too much invested in a coming Minority Report world to turn back now. They are going full steam ahead whether the public likes it or not. And wait until the drones take to the skies in full force come 2015. They, too, will be equipped with facial recognition linked to the growing databases.

The plan is so openly touted that even the establishment Associated Press had to report on it:

From seeing just the image of a face, computers will find its match in a database of millions of driver’s license portraits and photos on social media sites. From there, the computer will link to the person’s name and details such as their Social Security number, preferences, hobbies, family and friends.

Adding that capability to drones that can fly into spaces where planes cannot — machines that can track a person moving about and can stay aloft for days — means that people will give up privacy as well as the concept of anonymity. (Source)

It is important to keep in mind that one need not be found guilty of anything to wind up in this particular database, only arrested … or secretly put there via data sweep as we already have seen in the area of communications.

With the increasing police state and new laws and regulations that one could be in violation of at any given moment, arrests will explode offering plenty of fodder for the databases.

The FBI has already been sued over the same type of secrecy and plans for the wide-scale use of biometric databases. The Electronic Frontier Foundation launched a suit against the FBI’s sweeping plans for an upgrade to their existing systems and databases:

Secret $1.8 Million Cryptocurrency Script

Since early 2011, EFF has been closely following the FBI’s work to build out its Next Generation Identification (NGI) biometrics database, which would replace and expand upon the Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). The new program will include multiple biometric identifiers, such as iris scans, palm prints, face-recognition-ready photos, and voice data, and that information will be shared with other agencies at the local, state, federal and international levels. The face recognition component is set to launch in 2014.

“NGI will result in a massive expansion of government data collection for both criminal and noncriminal purposes,” says EFF Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch, who testified before the U.S. Senate on the privacy implications of facial recognition technology in July of last year. “Biometrics programs present critical threats to civil liberties and privacy. Face-recognition technology is among the most alarming new developments, because Americans cannot easily take precautions against the covert, remote, and mass capture of their images.”

When one connects the above data points and tracks the current developments and dates of planned implementation, it doesn’t look good for privacy in the United States. What is your opinion? Could additional leaks from whistleblowers and the work of digital privacy activists help to thwart plans to enter all citizens into the real-time surveillance matrix, or will they serve only to chronicle our coming enslavement?

Source:
http://cironline.org/reports/facial-recognition-once-battlefield-tool-lands-san-diego-county-5502

Hat tip: The Verge

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