Are we already in World War III???

*** RANT ALERT ***

After reading yesterday about our new drone strike policy in Yemen (and the buildup to all of this), I've come to a historical conclusion.

I think the future historians will be able to call our current time period as World War III... They'll probably say that starting on 9/11/2001, WW III was started and no one really understood that until 10 years later.

Look at all the battlefields and all the various parties involved...

- Iraq

- Afghanistan

- Pakistan

- Libya

- Yemen

- Piracy around African waters (e.g. Somalia)

- Syria (soon)

- Iran (soon)

This will be particularly applicable if shooting starts anywhere else (e.g. non-Muslim states) like:

- North Korea

- Shooting war between Pakistan/India

- More former Soviet stuff (like George a couple years ago)

- Anybody w/ China

And the Electronic battlefield is currently more than a cold-war - look at all the state-sponsored hacking from North Korea and China... Probably Russia too... It will likely soon become an electronic "shooting" war as we start to force feed internet into conflict zones like Libya/Syria/Yemen (see yesterday's Engadget article on "Internet in a Suitcase") or deny internet to regimes conducting electronic offensive actions (wouldn't surprise me if we start filtering all international internet traffic some day soon). Plus the US and NATO are actively building electronic internet warfare units (sure, the public is told they are defensive in nature). Either the US or Israel took the first major shot with the Stuxnet attack on Iran...

On top of all of this, today Popular Science publishes an article stating that Chinese hackers ("currently unknown" if state-sponsored or not) have ALREADY been probing and dropping electronic bombs into our electric grid control systems. It sounds to me like they are preparing for war. You must realize that "exploding" these virtual bombs is NOT necessary to be called a state of war. Simply installing such "munitions" could easily be considered an act of war. Read about Stuxnet and SCADA if you are interested in this topic.

Include regime change in a handful of Middle Eastern countries (Egypt, Tunisia, probably Libya and Syria to follow) and you've got political mess too...

So, combine this with all the global economic problems and energy shortages -- we're in the same situation that Germany was in prior to World War II. We've got potential oil problems like Japan had prior to WWII. It is RIPE for MORE turmoil -- not less...

Sorry -- maybe I'm just having a Glenn Beck moment, but seems to me like World War III has already started... We're just late in calling it what it is...

-e

*** END RANT ***

Richard Clarke: China is Planting Digital Bombs Throughout the U.S. Power Grid

Yup... Cyber-war... If you ask me, we're already in World War III... It's just that no one is admitting it yet... -e

Richard Clarke: China is Planting Digital Bombs Throughout the U.S. Power Grid: "The U.S. government is doing little to protect American interests from cyber threats, claims Clarke in an op-ed
The cyber-security cat is slowly slinking out of the bag it seems. It's been a big month in cybersecurity news, ranging from some high-profile hacks at companies like Lockheed (home to sensitive American defense technologies) and a declaration from the Pentagon that cyber attacks perpetrated by foreign governments can be considered acts of war and dealt with accordingly. Now we're hearing more war metaphors and cautionary talk from Richard Clarke in this morning's Wall Street Journal, where he argues that China-backed hackers are systematically attacking America and meeting no resistance when they do so.
Clarke worked in various high-level security roles for every president from Reagan to G.W. Bush, leaving the White House in 2003 with the title Special Advisor to the President on cyber security. That is, he's got some background on the topic at hand. And his assessment is pretty bleak: Senior U.S. officials know--and have known--that Chinese hackers are systematically infiltrating our networks, stealing source code, valuable R&D, and trade secrets from corporations while probing our power grids and other critical infrastructure for weaknesses, leaving behind easy access for themselves should they ever need to return and carry out more malicious acts.

Google, he says, has had the stones to stand up and admit it when its networks have been breached. But other companies, usually out of fear of being labeled 'not secure,' haven't done so. The recent RSA Security breach says it all; Chinese hackers--with government support--are walking all over us digitally, and the U.S. government is doing little to protect jeopardized American interests that aren't on a .gov or .mil server.

How do we know the Chinese government is behind these hacks? The Chinese claim attacks originating on their soil are rogue hackers, not government-backed cyber warriors. But, Clarke says, cyber criminals breach companies for financial gain, swiping credit cards or otherwise making away with funds. There's no money in hacking the U.S. electrical grid, yet President Obama himself has admitted that the grid has been thoroughly probed by hackers. Says Clarke:
'What would we do if we discovered that Chinese explosives had been laid throughout our national electrical system? The public would demand a government response. If, however, the explosive is a digital bomb that could do even more damage, our response is apparently muted-especially from our government.'
Tough words from a former cybersecurity czar. The op-ed is worth a read if you're staying current on cyber threats and the larger geopolitical situation. Click through below for the whole story.

MoNETA: A Mind Made from Memristors

To finish off 2010 - We are all SO doomed! - G

"By the middle of next year, our researchers will be working with thousands of candidate animats at once, all with slight variations in their brain architectures. Playing intelligent designers, we'll cull the best ones from the bunch and keep tweaking them until they unquestionably master tasks like the water maze and other, progressively harder experiments. We'll watch each of these simulated animats interacting with its environment and evolving like a natural organism. We expect to eventually find the "cocktail" of brain areas and connections that achieves autonomous intelligent behavior. We will then incorporate those elements into a memristor-based neural-processing chip. Once that chip is manufactured, we will build it into robotic platforms that venture into the real world. Robot companions for the elderly, robots to be sent to Mars to forage autonomously, and unmanned aerial vehicles will be just the beginning." More

Future Crimes can be Predicted Perfectly?? But is there a Minority Report??

No way... Minority Report, here we come... -e

Future Crimes Can Be Predicted Perfectly, Scientists Say

Published August 04, 2010

| NewsCorp Australian Papers

AFP

Scientists read a woman's mind by examining her brain waves.

A team from Northwestern University claim they have achieved 100 percent accuracy in reading the minds of make-believe terrorists -- simply by attaching electrodes to their scalps and examining their brain waves.

For the study, 29 students were given mock terrorist plans and 30 minutes to learn about an attack on a certain U.S. city. They were asked to work out their own details based on information they were given regarding weapons and methods.

The researchers, who also knew about the mock terrorist plans, monitored the students' brain waves to find out whether they gave away details of where and when the attacks were to take place. They correlated a rise in brain wave activity to guilty knowledge with 100 percent accuracy across all the students that participated.

According to psychology professor J. Peter Rosenfeld, the "guilty" patterns occur in "P300" brain waves when meaningful information is shown to a person with "guilty knowledge."

What makes the result so impressive is that in a real-life situation, the knowledge would be much more deeper entrenched, given the months or years of planning that a participant would be subject to.

Such testing would be done on people picked up on the basis of activity or "chatter," Rosenfeld said.But how does such technology get used to save us from another 9/11?

The investigators would have heard prior chatter that detailed specifics such as weapons, time and place and the P300 testing would be carried out on suspects in order to determine their level of culpability and confirm the details of the attack.

Obviously, that means authorities need some prior knowledge of an attack, but a more impressive result from another test hinted at a future whereby non-suspects could be scanned for potential crimes.

In the second range of tests, researchers had no idea what they were looking for.

"Without any prior knowledge of the planned crime in our mock terrorism scenarios, we were able to identify 10 out of 12 terrorists and, among them, 20 out of 30 crime-related details," he said.

"The test was 83 percent accurate in predicting concealed knowledge, suggesting that our complex protocol could identify future terrorist activity."

LiveLeak.com - Israeli Army To Deploy Robot Snakes

A cute alternative to the hummer sized robots that the US is fond of.

LiveLeak.com - Israeli Army To Deploy Robot Snakes

The end of the human race is nigh, maybe

If nothing else, this should motivate us as a race to quicken the evolution toward singularity. If carbon based viruses can wipe us out, it would not matter if he had already moved to a silicone consciousness.

The end of the human race is nigh, maybe: "An influential Austrailian virologist and human ecologist says humans could die out within a century. How worried should we be, asks Debora MacKenzie

Rex, the robotic exoskeleton, aims to make wheelchairs obsolete

This is a bit bulky, but clearly the future of medicine is in robotics and eventually in cybernetics. First the bulky walking suit, then a light exoskeleton, and finally an endoskeleton made entirely out of unobtanium or liquid metal.

Rex, the robotic exoskeleton, aims to make wheelchairs obsolete:

New Zealand isn't exactly known for being a hotbed of tech innovation, but this set of bionic legs might just realign that perception a little bit. The product of seven years of development work, the Rex exoskeleton is capable of supporting the full weight of a person -- making it suitable for paraplegics -- and moving him or her around in a familiar bipedal fashion. It's operated using a joystick and control pad and is simple enough for handicapped users to self-transfer in and out of. The best news, perhaps, is that it's about to go on sale in its home country this year, with an international launch following in 2011. The worst news? Probably the $150,000 (US) initial asking price, but then we'd hardly say we're qualified to judge the value of being able to walk again. Video and full press release after the break.



[Thanks, Kurt and Simon]
Continue reading Rex, the robotic exoskeleton, aims to make wheelchairs obsolete

Give the Human Body Some Much-Needed Upgrades [PhotoshopContest]

Clearly the evolution of humanity is tied to cyborgs and robotics. Before brains are replaced by silicon, every other part of a human will be, so we might as well get comfortable with the idea of cyborgs.

Give the Human Body Some Much-Needed Upgrades [PhotoshopContest]: "

The human body is OK, I guess. But why is it so fragile? And why can't I stream my thoughts to my TV? And you know, it'd be pretty nice to be able to fly. More »

Robots Will Feed Us Pancakes Before They Destroy Us [Pancakes]

Remember the Robot Manual is called "To Serve Man"

Robots Will Feed Us Pancakes Before They Destroy Us [Pancakes]:

Here's a robot learning to flip pancakes. It's hard not to laugh, watching this dumb bot flub flip after flip. But we won't be laughing when we're running for our lives, slowed down by a stomach full of fluffy pancakes. More »

Rise of the Helpful Machines

Ahhhhrrgg!! I find this degree of machines touching people to be truly frightening... -e

Rise of the Helpful Machines: "

A Forklift for Humans John B. Carnett

Meet 10 of the most advanced human-assist 'bots from around the world
The world's most sophisticated robots don't assemble trucks or cruise around Mars. They're designed to support our surging population of elderly and disabled citizens. Meet 10 of the most promising senior-friendly 'bots.