Xann Posted August 2, 2019 Author Share Posted August 2, 2019 Quote Since 2010, American intelligence agencies have been developing a top-secret “artificial brain” military AI system that they named — seriously — “Sentient.” Newly released confidential and classified documents first reported by The Verge describe the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO)’s Sentient Program as a fully-integrated intelligence system that can coordinate satellite positions and may soon be used to manage battlefield operations during military engagements. Futurism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 5, 2019 Author Share Posted August 5, 2019 Quote A video from the ongoing Hong Kong protests shows demonstrators shining lasers at police facial-recognition cameras in an apparent attempt to blind them. More than 1 million people have demonstrated in Hong Kong's streets since early June against a proposed bill that would allow Hong Kong to extradite citizens to mainland China. The bill's progress has stalled, but the protest movement has ballooned into a wider fight to preserve the autonomy of the region. The video, broadcast by Hong Kong's Now TV and shared on social media, shows people pointing laser pens at cameras, Hong Kong police officers, and government buildings. Shining a laser pen into a camera can disrupt its view and cause longer-term damage to its electronics. On July 21, protesters were seen spray-painting security cameras and using lasers to blind facial-recognition cameras outside the Chinese government office in Hong Kong, according to The New York Times. Meanwhile, a channel on the encrypted-messaging app Telegram called Dadfindboy with 50,000 members is seeking to combat police efforts to identify protesters by identifying the officers and publishing information, often personal or sensitive, about them, The Times said The International Laser Display Association says that "lasers emit concentrated beams of light, which can heat up sensitive surfaces" — like camera sensors — "and cause damage." During skirmishes with Hong Kong police officers, protesters have also deployed other simple and ingenious measures to fight back, including giving out a sodium-chloride solution to soothe eyes burned by pepper spray. Umbrellas, famously the symbol of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong in 2014, have been used as makeshift shields against tear gas. Protesters have also been seen pouncing on tear-gas canisters and dousing them with water before they can spread dangerous fumes. Business Insider Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 12, 2019 Author Share Posted August 12, 2019 Quote Wear 'racist' like a badge of honour, Bannon tells French far-right summit By the end of a 35-minute speech that Bannon delivered without notes as he paced the stage – pausing for the French translation and the increasingly warm applause that greeted his every translated thought – audience members were stomping their feet in unison as they clapped. “We’re here to learn from you,” he said, more than once, as the crowd revelled in his flattery. Bannon praised Le Pen’s ambivalence over the left-right divide, saying “she described it perfectly”. The more pertinent political split, he said, is whether “you consider the nation state as an obstacle to be overcome or as a jewel to be polished, loved and nurtured”. “What I’ve learned [visiting Europe] is that you’re part of a worldwide movement that is bigger than France, bigger than Italy, bigger than Hungary, bigger than all of it,” Bannon said to enthusiastic applause. “And history is on our side. The tide of history is with us and will compel us to victory after victory after victory!” France 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted August 14, 2019 Author Share Posted August 14, 2019 Quote Facebook isn't randomly turning on your microphone to sell you more targeted ads, as some conspiracy theories have asserted — but on Tuesday, the social media giant admitted that it has, in fact, been listening in on some users’ conversations. Following an investigation by Bloomberg, the company admitted that it had been employing third-party contractors to transcribe the audio messages that users exchanged on its Messenger app. The company said the messages used were “totally de-identified audio snippets used to improve AI transcription of messages from people who had opted into transcription on Messenger.” The company says the practice has now been stopped, at least temporarily. There is no indication that Facebook has used the information it collected to sell ads. “Much like Apple and Google, we paused human review of audio more than a week ago,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement. When asked if the practice was likely to be restarted, the company declined to answer. Vice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
choffer Posted August 15, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted August 15, 2019 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 Quote 7 Ways Hong Kong Protesters Used Low-Tech Hacks to Fight Back For the past month, the people of Hong Kong have used some ingenious methods to withstand a high-tech police force. Hong Kong has seen a struggle between a powerful high-tech police force and peaceful pro-democracy protesters. This week, Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam announced she would withdraw a controversial extradition bill to allow suspects to be extradited to mainland China, giving in to the protesters' main demand. Lam’s climbdown signals victory for low-tech ingenuity over the police state, won with umbrellas, traffic cones, Allen keys, and the philosophy of Bruce Lee. Popular Mechanics Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterms Posted October 12, 2019 Share Posted October 12, 2019 John Berger Quote Fellow Prisoners The best way to understand the world is not as a metaphorical prison but a literal one. ...Across the planet we are living in a prison. The word we, when printed or pronounced on screens, has become suspect, for it’s continually used by those with power in the demagogic claim that they are also speaking for those who are denied power. Let’s talk of ourselves as they. They are living in a prison. What kind of prison? How is it constructed? Where is it situated? Or am I only using the word as a figure of speech? No, it’s not a metaphor, the imprisonment is real, but to describe it one has to think historically... ...The authorities do their systematic best to keep fellow prisoners misinformed about what is happening elsewhere in the world prison. They do not, in the aggressive sense of the term, indoctrinate. Indoctrination is reserved for the training of the small élite of traders and managerial and market experts. For the mass prison population the aim is not to activate them, but to keep them in a state of passive uncertainty, to remind them remorselessly that there is nothing in life but risk, and that the earth is an unsafe place. This is done with carefully selected information, with misinformation, commentaries, rumors, fictions. Insofar as the operation succeeds, it proposes and maintains a hallucinating paradox, for it tricks a prison population into believing that the priority for each one of them is to make arrangements for their own personal protection and to acquire somehow, even though incarcerated, their own particular exemption from the common fate... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 24, 2019 Author Share Posted October 24, 2019 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted October 24, 2019 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2019 She's very good at questioning people. I've seen her do it a few times amd she's got a knack of clarity and focus that most don't have. Either to get to a point, or to determine some information hitherto unknown. More doing the same would be good, instead of grandstanding or waffling. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisp65 Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Is the Zuckerburg still the top model that Tyrell Corporation do, or is there a newer more realistic one yet? 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Zuckerberg 2.0 should be out in time for Xmas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturdaygig Posted October 24, 2019 Share Posted October 24, 2019 Thing is, it doesn't even know it's a replicant. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bickster Posted October 24, 2019 Moderator Share Posted October 24, 2019 1 hour ago, chrisp65 said: Is the Zuckerburg still the top model that Tyrell Corporation do, or is there a newer more realistic one yet? Its an absolute belter of a fringe that 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted October 31, 2019 Author Share Posted October 31, 2019 Interestingly the new social media craze Tiktok (like a vine that allows you to overdub audio), is the creation of Bytedance. Bytedance being the cuddly social media end of Chinese state surveillance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xela Posted October 31, 2019 Share Posted October 31, 2019 5 hours ago, Xann said: Interestingly the new social media craze Tiktok (like a vine that allows you to overdub audio), is the creation of Bytedance. Bytedance being the cuddly social media end of Chinese state surveillance. Millions and millions of people signing up every day Turkeys voting for Christmas comes to mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted November 7, 2019 Author Share Posted November 7, 2019 Quote Chinese military contractors have already started to sell dangerous, autonomous killer robots to customers in the Middle East. For instance, a Chinese company called Ziyan is actively marketing its Blowfish A3 — an autonomous helicopter-like drone armed with a machine gun — to international buyers, according to Defense One. While several countries have been working towards this tech for years, this news means we’re finally, and unfortunately, living in the era of killer robots. Deadly Exports While Ziyan works to sell its autonomous killbots to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the Chinese government is already entrenched in the killer robot trade. “As we speak, the Chinese government is already exporting some of its most advanced military aerial drones to the Middle East, as it prepares to export its next-generation stealth UAVs when those come online,” said Defense Secretary Mark Esper, per Defense One. “In addition, Chinese weapons manufacturers are selling drones advertised as capable of full autonomy, including the ability to conduct lethal targeted strikes.” Mixed Feelings While many countries support a ban on fully-autonomous weapons, major military leaders like Russia and the U.S. have been racing to develop their own killer robots. If Ziyan is telling the truth about its autonomous helicopter drones, it would seem China may have won the race. Esper called it troubling that corporations are “inadvertently or tacitly providing the technology or research behind China’s unethical use of AI,” according to Defense One. Futurism Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 Quote China has been accused by Brussels of running disinformation campaigns inside the European Union, as the bloc set out a plan to tackle a “huge wave” of false facts about the coronavirus pandemic. The European commission said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally”. While the charge against Russia has been levelled on many occasions, this is the first time the EU executive has publicly named China as a source of disinformation. Grauniad Still getting Huawei in? Why don't we just nuke ourselves? Coincidentally, ss soon as I'd read the above, my ads changed. Caltrops! - Thanks Facebook. Have the Chinese identified me as a potential trouble maker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted June 10, 2020 Moderator Share Posted June 10, 2020 33 minutes ago, Xann said: Have the Chinese identified me as a potential trouble maker? I dunno, but I have 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xann Posted June 10, 2020 Author Share Posted June 10, 2020 9 minutes ago, blandy said: I dunno, but I have Is that because I'm recruiting and training a small band of freedom fighters, Darth Blandy? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blandy Posted June 10, 2020 Moderator Share Posted June 10, 2020 1 minute ago, Xann said: Is that because I'm recruiting and training a small band of freedom fighters, Darth Blandy? We don't comment on ongoing matters of surveillance. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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