The last couple minutes of this video are especially impressive...
Combine this with stem cell therapies and rapid advances in exoskeletons and we're looking at the elimination of paralysis, or at least seriously mitigating it.
Technology and the Future
Apr 10, 2014
Apr 4, 2014
Vast AI conspiracy...
...and its real...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RFLIj4a2kw#t=29
Amazing reporting by 60 minutes. On the one hand this sure feels like the system is rigged. On the other hand there is probably an epic arms race between high frequency traders to developer faster servers and better algorithms. Some of these algorithms are almost certainly using machine learning and neural nets; so the majority of the world's economic activity may be controlled, in a way, directly by AI.
Apr 2, 2014
Shadow Games...
Juarez, Mexico
August 8th, 2023
"This is News Hour. The group calling itself the Citizens Defense League of Juarez entered a third day of its standoff with Mexican Federal Police and military forces today. The tense confrontation follows three weeks of heavy and sustained fighting in Juarez between members of the vigilante militia and cartel forces. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths have been reported in the heaviest fighting in Mexico since the revolutionary period of the early 20th century. Both sides, heavily armed and well equipped, engaged in shelling and intense close quarters combat that resulted in heavy casualties and widespread destruction across the long ravaged frontier city.
After it became clear that the Citizens Defense League was gaining the upper hand, cartel elements reportedly fled the city in disarray while others captured by vigilante forces were summarily executed in front of media cameras. With the fighting dying down, Citizen Defense League forces moved quickly to seize police facilities and government buildings while expelling state and federal officials. The federal response, the deployment of some 8,000 Mexican soldiers around the city, led to the confrontation that continues this hour.
On the U.S. side of the border, the county bordering Juarez remains in a state of federal emergency with elements of the 5th mechanized infantry division cooperating with Texan national guard and homeland security forces to secure the border. Several stray mortar and artillery rounds resulted in three injuries and light structural damage on the U.S. side of the border. Several other stray rounds have been intercepted by defensive systems deployed by the 1st Cavalry division. So far, aggressive police and military presence and a state of virtual martial law have prevented the violence from spreading into the U.S. despite a known heavy presence of the Juarez Cartel in El Paso…”
Corporal Anthony "pancho" Sanchez stared across no man's land into Mexico, sweeping his view across sand bag emplacements and turned over cars that the Juarez Militia had hastily put in place as a makeshift barricade following rumors of a U.S. invasion. Information from intel-net filled his HUD; heavily armed men outlined in bright red, weapons systems and armor identified, firing solutions for his personal weapon and the grenade launchers in his gauntlets, and more. Total Tactical Information Awareness. It was the Army's latest mantra. They'd slayed the fog of war, or so the brass liked to think.
"laze" Sanchez said, the spoken command and subvocal signature activating his suit's targeting and ranging laser system. Taking careful aim, he directed the laser onto a barely visible lens a hundred meters beyond the barricade. Removing his right hand from its gauntlet enclosure, Anthony tapped a series keystrokes into the tactical computer below his HUD. The sequence activated a program hacked into the computer months before. Transmitting. The single word hung there, simple ascii text filling one corner of the trillion color display. Suddenly, Anthony felt the full 108 degree heat weigh down on him like a brick oven. Sweat beaded and ran from his forehead. An instant later the message went away, and he knew that his tactical computer would experience a sudden onboard memory failure after a couple dozen different erasure protocols wiped the storage clean.
"SnapFire one, Bravo unit three here, enemy is hunkered down and sitting tight. Over" Anthony spoke into his throat mike.
"Acknowledged Bravo unit three, hold your position and report any changes" came the reply. Anthony nodded. Brigade was under strict orders not to provoke an incident. Division had Washington up it's ass and the shit was rolling downhill hard. Anthony went into a crouch, his powered exoskeleton shifting to take his weight as he moved. Independent gyros kept his gauntlets aimed in sync with his HUD cross hairs. Settling in for what could be a long and hot afternoon, Anthony removed his hands from the gauntlets and began cleaning his rifle. Despite the suit, it remained his primary weapon. He was cavalry after all, not heavy infantry.
Robert Mendoza clutched the tablet, deftly gesturing his way through the custom OS of the Pakistani gadget. Of course the device had been rooted, its software guts replaced by specialists from one of the cartel’s IT divisions; probably outsourced to Crimean mafia or some black African hacker foundry if he had to guess. You couldn't exactly buy a tablet designed to operate an array of auto-firing mortars at Walmart.
He checked the readouts one last time to make sure the mortars were ready and then triple checked the code he’d gotten from intel. He had no idea where the Cartel brains had gotten the 2024 bit key...but they’d gotten it. Robert shrugged, armed the system, and initiated the sequence. He took a last long drag from his cigarette before smashing the tablet against a rock and kicking dirt over the littered parts. He sprayed a slurry of DNA contaminant over the entire area before he left.
It was 5:25 PM in El Paso and rush hour, such as it was here, was in full effect. Fair numbers of drones moved east and west in loose air lanes a hundred meters or so over the bustling traffic on interstate 10. One of the drones looked like a standard dronnet courier model, the same sort of cheap grey or beige Chinese or Vietnamese heavy quadcopter that shuffled physical packets over the physical package switching network that had arisen over the past half decade. This drone had the identifier of a nondescript local courier drone servicer, and the logo to match, but it had taken flight from Franklin Mountain State Park rather than some dronenet node. It flew along its route, blending in perfectly.
As the drone passed over central El Paso a custom transmitter activated, sending a short burst of radio traffic out over the area. Below, not far from the international border crossing, a receiver in the command trailer for the 1st Cavalry Division’s integrated third generation Iron Dome defense system received a communication. Software systems authenticated the incoming key, decrypted the command, and shunted it over to the computer running the system. After a second authenticated protocol was run the computer initiated shutdown protocols…
“...continued breaking news on CNN. Reports continue to come in of a large number of explosions occurring across residential and commercial parts of El Paso in what appears to be heavy shelling from the Mexican side of the border. Social media and local reporters are already getting accounts of casualties…”
President Warren gestured for the sound to be muted on the TV. She sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the numerous ways in which she would be politically savaged for this debacle.
Taking one more moment to compose herself, the president spoke to the assembled joint chiefs.
“Can any of you gentlemen please explain why the god damn Iron Dome system my administration has been touting for the past week just utterly failed to stop this attack?” she said in a cold, warning, tone.
John Darling Jr. loved synchronicity. He loved it when two opposed interests found common cause and came together for that cause. He especially loved it when that cause was one his employers backed. And they backed it in cold hard cash and bitcoins. His walk had an extra bounce in it this morning, a fine August morning indeed. Yes, he loved bringing people together. The grin that split his face had all the practiced innocence of highly refined sociopathic mimicry.
Records would show that his smart phone, display glasses, and smart watch geolocated him on the other side of the city. Several people would testify in court to back this up if it ever came to it. Numerous video captures would further back up his spoofed location.
The records would never show that Mr. Darling met with a shadowy representative of a conservative political action committee and a banker on the payroll of the Juarez cartel. Records never showed such things.
History would only show that the “El Paso folly” permanently wounded the Warren administration and that the U.S. occupation of Northern Mexico had the rather unfortunate side effect of suppressing the Mexican vigilante movement. In time the synth-meth would flow and Warren’s chosen successor would lose in a landslide in 2024.
August 8th, 2023
"This is News Hour. The group calling itself the Citizens Defense League of Juarez entered a third day of its standoff with Mexican Federal Police and military forces today. The tense confrontation follows three weeks of heavy and sustained fighting in Juarez between members of the vigilante militia and cartel forces. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of deaths have been reported in the heaviest fighting in Mexico since the revolutionary period of the early 20th century. Both sides, heavily armed and well equipped, engaged in shelling and intense close quarters combat that resulted in heavy casualties and widespread destruction across the long ravaged frontier city.
After it became clear that the Citizens Defense League was gaining the upper hand, cartel elements reportedly fled the city in disarray while others captured by vigilante forces were summarily executed in front of media cameras. With the fighting dying down, Citizen Defense League forces moved quickly to seize police facilities and government buildings while expelling state and federal officials. The federal response, the deployment of some 8,000 Mexican soldiers around the city, led to the confrontation that continues this hour.
On the U.S. side of the border, the county bordering Juarez remains in a state of federal emergency with elements of the 5th mechanized infantry division cooperating with Texan national guard and homeland security forces to secure the border. Several stray mortar and artillery rounds resulted in three injuries and light structural damage on the U.S. side of the border. Several other stray rounds have been intercepted by defensive systems deployed by the 1st Cavalry division. So far, aggressive police and military presence and a state of virtual martial law have prevented the violence from spreading into the U.S. despite a known heavy presence of the Juarez Cartel in El Paso…”
Corporal Anthony "pancho" Sanchez stared across no man's land into Mexico, sweeping his view across sand bag emplacements and turned over cars that the Juarez Militia had hastily put in place as a makeshift barricade following rumors of a U.S. invasion. Information from intel-net filled his HUD; heavily armed men outlined in bright red, weapons systems and armor identified, firing solutions for his personal weapon and the grenade launchers in his gauntlets, and more. Total Tactical Information Awareness. It was the Army's latest mantra. They'd slayed the fog of war, or so the brass liked to think.
"laze" Sanchez said, the spoken command and subvocal signature activating his suit's targeting and ranging laser system. Taking careful aim, he directed the laser onto a barely visible lens a hundred meters beyond the barricade. Removing his right hand from its gauntlet enclosure, Anthony tapped a series keystrokes into the tactical computer below his HUD. The sequence activated a program hacked into the computer months before. Transmitting. The single word hung there, simple ascii text filling one corner of the trillion color display. Suddenly, Anthony felt the full 108 degree heat weigh down on him like a brick oven. Sweat beaded and ran from his forehead. An instant later the message went away, and he knew that his tactical computer would experience a sudden onboard memory failure after a couple dozen different erasure protocols wiped the storage clean.
"SnapFire one, Bravo unit three here, enemy is hunkered down and sitting tight. Over" Anthony spoke into his throat mike.
"Acknowledged Bravo unit three, hold your position and report any changes" came the reply. Anthony nodded. Brigade was under strict orders not to provoke an incident. Division had Washington up it's ass and the shit was rolling downhill hard. Anthony went into a crouch, his powered exoskeleton shifting to take his weight as he moved. Independent gyros kept his gauntlets aimed in sync with his HUD cross hairs. Settling in for what could be a long and hot afternoon, Anthony removed his hands from the gauntlets and began cleaning his rifle. Despite the suit, it remained his primary weapon. He was cavalry after all, not heavy infantry.
Robert Mendoza clutched the tablet, deftly gesturing his way through the custom OS of the Pakistani gadget. Of course the device had been rooted, its software guts replaced by specialists from one of the cartel’s IT divisions; probably outsourced to Crimean mafia or some black African hacker foundry if he had to guess. You couldn't exactly buy a tablet designed to operate an array of auto-firing mortars at Walmart.
He checked the readouts one last time to make sure the mortars were ready and then triple checked the code he’d gotten from intel. He had no idea where the Cartel brains had gotten the 2024 bit key...but they’d gotten it. Robert shrugged, armed the system, and initiated the sequence. He took a last long drag from his cigarette before smashing the tablet against a rock and kicking dirt over the littered parts. He sprayed a slurry of DNA contaminant over the entire area before he left.
It was 5:25 PM in El Paso and rush hour, such as it was here, was in full effect. Fair numbers of drones moved east and west in loose air lanes a hundred meters or so over the bustling traffic on interstate 10. One of the drones looked like a standard dronnet courier model, the same sort of cheap grey or beige Chinese or Vietnamese heavy quadcopter that shuffled physical packets over the physical package switching network that had arisen over the past half decade. This drone had the identifier of a nondescript local courier drone servicer, and the logo to match, but it had taken flight from Franklin Mountain State Park rather than some dronenet node. It flew along its route, blending in perfectly.
As the drone passed over central El Paso a custom transmitter activated, sending a short burst of radio traffic out over the area. Below, not far from the international border crossing, a receiver in the command trailer for the 1st Cavalry Division’s integrated third generation Iron Dome defense system received a communication. Software systems authenticated the incoming key, decrypted the command, and shunted it over to the computer running the system. After a second authenticated protocol was run the computer initiated shutdown protocols…
“...continued breaking news on CNN. Reports continue to come in of a large number of explosions occurring across residential and commercial parts of El Paso in what appears to be heavy shelling from the Mexican side of the border. Social media and local reporters are already getting accounts of casualties…”
President Warren gestured for the sound to be muted on the TV. She sat in silence for a moment, contemplating the numerous ways in which she would be politically savaged for this debacle.
Taking one more moment to compose herself, the president spoke to the assembled joint chiefs.
“Can any of you gentlemen please explain why the god damn Iron Dome system my administration has been touting for the past week just utterly failed to stop this attack?” she said in a cold, warning, tone.
John Darling Jr. loved synchronicity. He loved it when two opposed interests found common cause and came together for that cause. He especially loved it when that cause was one his employers backed. And they backed it in cold hard cash and bitcoins. His walk had an extra bounce in it this morning, a fine August morning indeed. Yes, he loved bringing people together. The grin that split his face had all the practiced innocence of highly refined sociopathic mimicry.
Records would show that his smart phone, display glasses, and smart watch geolocated him on the other side of the city. Several people would testify in court to back this up if it ever came to it. Numerous video captures would further back up his spoofed location.
The records would never show that Mr. Darling met with a shadowy representative of a conservative political action committee and a banker on the payroll of the Juarez cartel. Records never showed such things.
History would only show that the “El Paso folly” permanently wounded the Warren administration and that the U.S. occupation of Northern Mexico had the rather unfortunate side effect of suppressing the Mexican vigilante movement. In time the synth-meth would flow and Warren’s chosen successor would lose in a landslide in 2024.
Mar 31, 2014
Hyper News...
November 6th, 2020
Crown Point, Indiana
“Fraud, theft, traitors on the left! Fraud, theft, traitors on the left!” the crowd chanted, the roar growing more powerful as the impassioned crowd whipped itself further into a fury. They’d been arriving individually or via arranged buses for the last three days; ever since the country had been thrown into a political uproar by the vote deadlock in Indiana and subsequent Republican allegations of massive election fraud. Tea Party, National Conservative Action Committee, Concerned Conservatives For America, and many other groups were represented in the protest in addition to embedded right wing media and an assortment of concerned or angry individuals here on their own initiative.
The mainstream media were putting the crowd at 50,000 but rumors of up to several times that number were circulating elsewhere. The police surrounding the Lake County administration facility were as stoic as usual, ringing the complex and looking relaxed but ominous in their cutting edge tactical riot gear. Overhead; media and police helicopters and drones hovered or circled over the scene, and smaller drones of less clear origin were occasionally visible flitting about the area as well. Homeland Security, blogcasters, curious individuals; everyone wanted a live view of the unfolding events.
So far things had been peaceful, if intense, and even the much smaller counter-protest by Re-Occupy activists and Progressive Party cadre from Gary and elsewhere hadn't resulted in anything beyond a few shouting matches. But there was a spark in the air, a grim determination among the anti-Warren protesters to not let the alleged vote fraud stand. Mixed with the undercurrent of outrage that police from Gary and been called in to supplement local police as the protests grew, the air was electric.
Dan Simmons certainly felt that outrage and determination. He’d watched Obama ruin the country for eight years, watched him steal the election in 2012, watched him flip the Supreme Court with his illegally appointed crony justices even as the economy imploded yet again. He’d stood by while the feds smashed the Republic of Texas patriots and murdered his hero, John Smith.
Now he felt he was watching Obama’s chosen successor-in-chief steal the presidency yet again. It could not stand, he thought, not if America as he knew it was going to survive. And Dan was determined that it would survive, no matter what.
He felt nervously for the 9mm pistol at his waist again, felt his determination stiffen as he ran his fingers over the familiar holster concealed beneath his thick jacket. It wasn't even illegal, strictly speaking. Indiana had been a concealed carry state for many years now. But the knowledge of why he had brought the pistol to the protest made him nervous none-the-less. He was, after all, here to make history.
The media, mainstream and otherwise, had been in a frenzy since election night. And Dan was about to give them something new to feast on. He looked at this watch again. The legal team for the Warren campaign was supposed to arrive any minute now if the latest reports were to be believed. Even thinking of the slick, power-brokering, lawyer they’d brought in to give legal backing to their election theft made the rage boil in his mind, forcing him to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to regain control.
He’d been slowly making his way towards the front of the crowd for the past hour, and he’d finally gotten right up to the temporary metal barricade in front of the entrance to the county administration building. Now he stood in place calmly, holding up his phone to watch one of the many blogcasts covering the events. This one had a live view of the sedan said to be carrying the legal team. It was just minutes away according to the scrolling text beneath the live video.
Dan fished in his shirt pocket for a moment and retrieved his newly purchased smart glasses. He'd never been a fan of the things but he'd heard good reviews about them on one of the hobby gun forums he followed. He'd practiced with the aim-assist app for several hours the day before. He thought the odds were better than 50/50 that he would hit his target despite what would probably be a bad line of sight. Time seemed to slow and take on a surreal tinge as Dan waited with an icy resolve for his target to arrive...
...Twelve minutes later the internet was on fire with the news of the assassination of President Warren's chief legal consul. It had been captured in clear 4k video by dozens of drones, phones, and smart glasses. Nearly a billion people had heard about it and half of those had seen it from at least four perspectives. Three minutes after that blogs and twit streams blasted the name and address of the assassin, his political views, and dozens of photos and videos of the man culled from across the web. Five minutes after that someone released a VR POV experience constructed by merging dozens of video and photo sources together into a detailed 3D mesh. Mainstream media talking heads droned on in pretend disgust as the FundMe legal defense for the assassin crossed one million U.S. dollars and the price on the assassin's head on crypto-currency markets surpassed five million U.S. dollars.
Within an hour more information had been exchanged in relation to the assassination than all the information ever exchanged in all of human history up through 2013.
Crown Point, Indiana
“Fraud, theft, traitors on the left! Fraud, theft, traitors on the left!” the crowd chanted, the roar growing more powerful as the impassioned crowd whipped itself further into a fury. They’d been arriving individually or via arranged buses for the last three days; ever since the country had been thrown into a political uproar by the vote deadlock in Indiana and subsequent Republican allegations of massive election fraud. Tea Party, National Conservative Action Committee, Concerned Conservatives For America, and many other groups were represented in the protest in addition to embedded right wing media and an assortment of concerned or angry individuals here on their own initiative.
The mainstream media were putting the crowd at 50,000 but rumors of up to several times that number were circulating elsewhere. The police surrounding the Lake County administration facility were as stoic as usual, ringing the complex and looking relaxed but ominous in their cutting edge tactical riot gear. Overhead; media and police helicopters and drones hovered or circled over the scene, and smaller drones of less clear origin were occasionally visible flitting about the area as well. Homeland Security, blogcasters, curious individuals; everyone wanted a live view of the unfolding events.
So far things had been peaceful, if intense, and even the much smaller counter-protest by Re-Occupy activists and Progressive Party cadre from Gary and elsewhere hadn't resulted in anything beyond a few shouting matches. But there was a spark in the air, a grim determination among the anti-Warren protesters to not let the alleged vote fraud stand. Mixed with the undercurrent of outrage that police from Gary and been called in to supplement local police as the protests grew, the air was electric.
Dan Simmons certainly felt that outrage and determination. He’d watched Obama ruin the country for eight years, watched him steal the election in 2012, watched him flip the Supreme Court with his illegally appointed crony justices even as the economy imploded yet again. He’d stood by while the feds smashed the Republic of Texas patriots and murdered his hero, John Smith.
Now he felt he was watching Obama’s chosen successor-in-chief steal the presidency yet again. It could not stand, he thought, not if America as he knew it was going to survive. And Dan was determined that it would survive, no matter what.
He felt nervously for the 9mm pistol at his waist again, felt his determination stiffen as he ran his fingers over the familiar holster concealed beneath his thick jacket. It wasn't even illegal, strictly speaking. Indiana had been a concealed carry state for many years now. But the knowledge of why he had brought the pistol to the protest made him nervous none-the-less. He was, after all, here to make history.
The media, mainstream and otherwise, had been in a frenzy since election night. And Dan was about to give them something new to feast on. He looked at this watch again. The legal team for the Warren campaign was supposed to arrive any minute now if the latest reports were to be believed. Even thinking of the slick, power-brokering, lawyer they’d brought in to give legal backing to their election theft made the rage boil in his mind, forcing him to close his eyes and take a few deep breaths to regain control.
He’d been slowly making his way towards the front of the crowd for the past hour, and he’d finally gotten right up to the temporary metal barricade in front of the entrance to the county administration building. Now he stood in place calmly, holding up his phone to watch one of the many blogcasts covering the events. This one had a live view of the sedan said to be carrying the legal team. It was just minutes away according to the scrolling text beneath the live video.
Dan fished in his shirt pocket for a moment and retrieved his newly purchased smart glasses. He'd never been a fan of the things but he'd heard good reviews about them on one of the hobby gun forums he followed. He'd practiced with the aim-assist app for several hours the day before. He thought the odds were better than 50/50 that he would hit his target despite what would probably be a bad line of sight. Time seemed to slow and take on a surreal tinge as Dan waited with an icy resolve for his target to arrive...
...Twelve minutes later the internet was on fire with the news of the assassination of President Warren's chief legal consul. It had been captured in clear 4k video by dozens of drones, phones, and smart glasses. Nearly a billion people had heard about it and half of those had seen it from at least four perspectives. Three minutes after that blogs and twit streams blasted the name and address of the assassin, his political views, and dozens of photos and videos of the man culled from across the web. Five minutes after that someone released a VR POV experience constructed by merging dozens of video and photo sources together into a detailed 3D mesh. Mainstream media talking heads droned on in pretend disgust as the FundMe legal defense for the assassin crossed one million U.S. dollars and the price on the assassin's head on crypto-currency markets surpassed five million U.S. dollars.
Within an hour more information had been exchanged in relation to the assassination than all the information ever exchanged in all of human history up through 2013.
Fiction...
I'm going to start posting little bits of fiction here and there to try to capture the feel of the near-term future from my perspective.....
Posting again...
...after a three year hiatus ;)
Looking at my 2019 predictions that I made in 2011 and I have to say most of them are still looking spot on in my opinion. If anything most of the predictions are looking conservative. The one big miss is the 3D TV one I think. It seems clear by now that 3D TV is not going to go mainstream. Though now that virtual reality seems on the verge of going mainstream then its probably no big loss that 3D TV isn't panning out.
I do think that 3D movies will remain a lucrative niche in movie theaters though - at least as long as movie theaters are around at all.
Looking at my 2019 predictions that I made in 2011 and I have to say most of them are still looking spot on in my opinion. If anything most of the predictions are looking conservative. The one big miss is the 3D TV one I think. It seems clear by now that 3D TV is not going to go mainstream. Though now that virtual reality seems on the verge of going mainstream then its probably no big loss that 3D TV isn't panning out.
I do think that 3D movies will remain a lucrative niche in movie theaters though - at least as long as movie theaters are around at all.
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