05/28/26: Once a technology exists that can reliably decode intent ... in real time, every institution ... Governments ... Militaries ... Intelligence agencies ... Advertisers ... Employers ... Social media companies will want it. Insurance companies will absolutely want it."
And Charles Ponzi will be right there making trillions selling it, because he's also the guy creating and marketing it. I for one can't want to see all these fools (governments, etc.) fall for Fool's AI Gold.
(Disclaimer: The above was intuited by Advanced AI, and was written without the knowledge or authority of "Don Reed," a frequent commenter on this site whose intellect was child's play to emulate. This is Stage One. In future stages, we will impersonate "Don Reed" without issuing warnings.)
05/28/26: Oh. We should also note that every single comment posted below Dr. Malone's column was the work of Advanced AI, not the purported authors, "Don Reed," "DD," "Pamela Lorenz," "Jo Dee Preston," etc.
Which means that this form of communication, Substack, once corrupted, will cease to exist because humans will no longer want anything to do with Substack if "their" comments have been replaced by a massive counterfeiting system spinning off profits enjoyed by the degenerates Altman, et al.
With my 'military grade' Kyocera flip phone, I can do most anything.... like getting arthritis in my texting thumbs..... but, a little pain is worth the simplicity. From my laptop.....
"Supporters insist safeguards will emerge. The technology always overruns the oversight. The money always outruns the ethics." My son is fascinated with his self-driving Tesla and all that goes with it. He is driving in an EMF loaded vehicle and much more. He is a brilliant guy, but isn't really wanting to know these details that go along with this fascination...
All I can think of is, "We are Borg; resistance is futile." (Where is the USS Enterprize when we need her? will she and her crew get us out of this insane predicament?)
Let's see, what did Scotty say, " No stinking A, B or C!" I can't recall exactly. However I do remember the original getting blown to bits. (Sorry, Scotty.) :-( Was that when the Klingons had taken it over in the 2nd movie?
Movie 2, The Wrath of Khan, involves the survivors of the Botany Bay and Enterprise, tho badly damaged, is still (mostly) intact at the end - this is the ending where Spock dies of massive radiation poisoning, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." Spock is given a burial in space and ejected to land on the planet newly formed by the Genesis device. BUT, not before transferring his essence (katra?) into McCoy (Bones).
ST III, the Search for Spock takes up pretty soon after that and that’s where Klingons come in (forget how) and I forget what all transpires but the up shot is that Kirk and company end up with a resurrected Spock, the Klingons dead and gone, Enterprise destroyed (maybe?) and Kirk&Co flying away on the Klingon Man of War?, Bird of Prey?, 🤷♀️
Which then sets up the plot device in ST IV, where once again earth is threatened by an entity that this time is expecting a response from whales (ST I, earth is threatened by V’ger (Voyager)who is expecting a reply from its maker). The only problem is that like the Klingons in STIII, whales in that future are also dead and gone. Kirk&Co, with the now resurrected and mentally healed Spock have to take the commandeered Klingon warship into their and our past - well, 1990s 🤣 , retrieve an appropriate whale and return to their present, our future, in time to save earth. Again.
I think Nimoy directed STIV
A little rough on the recall, been a few years and a few strokes in the meantime. If I remember rightly, those first 4 Trek movies were all well received and then things kind’a fell off the wagon with #5, The Undiscovered Country, directed by Shatner. #5 was a mess.
The novelization of the first movie proposed that old style humans were needed for deep space exploration because the new style humans were over eager to merge with whatever or whomever came their way. That was seen as detrimental for exploration and first encounters.
And that movie featured a merging of man and machine.
Yes, it did but it wasn’t trivial nor was it to the hooman’s benefit. Vger, with all the knowledge of the galaxy/universe it had collected had returned to earth needing to meet its maker. Basically it had returned to find meaning to its existence. If you remember, Kirk, Spock, Dekker and the woman who Dekker once had a relationship with but had been recreated by vger ventured to where the signal was emanating from where through a plot device (if you know you know 😉) vger in the guise of the bald headed woman and Dekker merge, engage in a little bit of metaphysical hanky-panky, and a new entity combining vger’s knowledge and our humanity forms. Kirk&Co hustle back to Enterprise, sorry, no beam me up Scotty, Earth and humanity are saved and Paramount? Has an answer to Star Wars. And Shatner has to start wearing a girdle - or so I’ve heard 🤣
We don’t get to humans merging with machines until the Borg problem in TNG - 🤔 and that was not a voluntary merger. Was there a nod to the Borg in the "Enterprise" series, season 2? Anyway, haven’t read any Star Trek books, only a couple Star Wars novels (Timothy Zahn - the first authorized one I believe) and I suspect that the notion of humans and mechanical augmentation are not, or only loosely, canon.
Also, it just occurred to me that Geordy (TNG) with his visor might be considered augmentation, but that doesn’t occur until a 100 years or so after the events of TOS.
I thank the Heavens above that I am as old as I am….because…NONE OF THAT CRAP IS GOING INTO MY HEAD!!! Talk about controlling the masses…. This is a sure way of doing it, especially with promises (lies) of prosperity and monumental benefits ($$$). Walk right this way for your implant. Just watch out for that last step, it’s a doozy! Svengali of the computer chip world. Nothing to worry about. Put yourself in our hands. Now honestly…. Do you really think I’m that stupid? If it helps the injured regain movement, that would be the ultimate benefit to mankind. Any other uses make me wary of the quality of their intentions.
Boy, and I thought the surveillance architecture -- Prism Program, Fusion Centers, Gotham and Foundry AI platforms, Palantir, etc. -- was the looming problem. That there's growing dependence on a watch to tell you whether you got a good night's sleep. Now this. I want to crawl under a rock. A nice, organic, all natural rock.
Nothing…nothing can compare with the God-created human heart-to-heart interaction. Being reduced to a robotic interface system and/or having our innermost souls exposed for all to see and decipher and chronicle in some database is impure evil. It’s a tsunami now of dehumanization. Who needs artificial intelligence when God created us with the real thing? So, this is atheistic and compelled by the father of lies himself, satan.
Well, w/o getting into hysterics, I’ve made mention before about "The Great Filter," which is a theory that provides an explanation for the question: if there are so many stars, so many planets, where are the ETs? The premise being that as beings approach and encompass technological advancement, they/we have to navigate the perils that advanced tech brings with it.
Musk et al make the case that we need to become a multi-planetary species if we want to escape annihilation by some event that arises outside of our control - an ELE like a rogue asteroid. Thing is these brainiacs are focused the least likely apocalypse, not the one they are summoning. 100 years elapsed between Tunguska, a city killer event, and Chelyabinsk, which wasn’t quite as dangerous, during which man leapt from a short hop on a NC beach in a paper mache toy plane to planning vacations in orbit. Meanwhile, I’m aware of only two previous city killer, or worse, impacts in the past 50,000 years snout the time of the last stand of our Neanderthal cousins: the impact crater in Arizona 50,000yo and the speculation that the Younger Dryas die off in the northern hemisphere might have been caused by an air burst or dirt impact, approx 12,000yo.
But neither of those events would be Extinction Level Events today.
Outside of SciFi or fantasy I don’t see how hoomans manage to contain the threat from our big brains. As long as we’re dealing with the political, social, cultural, religious conflicts we’re arming up over today, a large part of me wonders if we’ll actually make it back to the moon or further to mars. This notion of MBI as a weapon or tool to control is just another factor I’ve added to the great filter algorithm.
That said, I’ve incorporated neural interfaces in most of the stories I’m working on - the most benign and helpful is useful artificial limbs; the worst, apart from use as a weapon or control, are folk like today’s drug addicts who get the interface for the loftiest reasons but get addicted to the artificial worlds they can create and then live in - I call’em juicers, which I’m pretty sure ain’t original to me. Like today’s junkies dying in the street, the juicers of tomorrow succumb to a similar fate.
Perhaps 🤔; I tend think that as a technologically advanced species capable of modifying our environment beyond just our own locality for our benefit, the ideas, constraints of Darwinism no longer apply, at least not as originally imagined. Foremost in my mind is that we are no longer responding to the/our environment but our environment is responding/reacting to us. It might be that that reaction/response is the death of the great majority of humans - not likely in the foreseeable tomorrows ; more likely is that the next ELE will be man made/caused.
Dr. Nita Farahany, Duke University, on the WEF stage/channel, 36 second video: Talking with a little smile about the imminent tech of spying on our brains. This was in 2016.
Those using smart phones are opting into this surveillance. They may not be implanted in your brain, but they have all the other characteristics you DON’T want. Let’s ditch the smart phones (use flip phones and even GMRS radios for emergencies) and CASH for payments. Less convenient, yes. But, the best way to fight the evil that’s coming.
Yes to all of that. (although I still am using a smart phone).
Some of my clients will leave their phone outside of my office, turned off, other than have it listening in on their personal stuff. Especially the ones where they've been a whistle blower of some type or are bringing litigation against am entity or agency that is big/powerful/well connected and fear retaliation or are already experiencing odd things that point to possible surveillance/intimidation.
It used to seem extreme. It seems the least one can do in terms of precautions now.
Also, there's this. Illuminate the Illusion (https://substack.com/@ajw3477) posted it and I reposted with this comment:
U.S. patent # 10,786,570 B2. Rockefeller University applied for it on July 30, 2018. The patent was granted September 29, 2020.
Ferritin nanoparticles compositions and methods to modulate cell activity.
I am not particularly scientific.
But when I read of a technology which is already patented and being used successfully in rats to remotely activate dopaminergic neurons in the mid-brain (the reward center), and that same technology is viable in vertebrates - which is us humans - then it seems to me that we don't have to dread or imagine the dystopian future.
It is here.
Read the patent
Naturally, I had several polite but befuddled/earnest sincere comments along the lines of "uuhhh, what's the problem? they're only going to use it to treat cancer, so isn't that a good thing?" (it was on FB, not here on Substack)
I can't even.
I'm not sure what is more upsetting: the evil that is brewing, or the determination of so many to not see it.
Big E, do you know of a flip phone that doesn't use google? Replacing a broken Iphone 6mos ago, I was determined to find one. I was 100% phoneless for a month (used email to connect with folks), but finally I gave up, and bought another used (so very inexpensive) SE Iphone.
We already are at a point where most of us have ceded control of our money to the government. Since almost all of us conduct our financial transactions (bill paying, investing, etc) digitally, we've set ourselves up for our government to freeze access to our own funds if they are displeased with anything we've done/thought/said/purchased.
It happened in Canada already. Truckers were peacefully protesting during covid - no one alleges that their protests were anything other than peaceful. Off goes their access to their own damn money as a form of discipline for unwelcome behavior.
Which means: you can't buy food, pay your electric bill or rent or mortgage, or buy anything you need.
You cannot even purchase gas to put in your vehicle to go somewhere else, nor can you purchase a plane or train or bus ticket.
A friend makes it a point to leave any establishment that no longer accepts cash, since it is U.S. legal tender, and she tells them WHY she's taking her business elsewhere.
And if anyone is naive enough to think that it would never happen here, ponder on this.
Joseph Mercola is an alternative Doc, one of the prominent "Disinformation Dozen" during the pandemic.
The bank where he had his accounts informed him that they would no longer provide him with banking services, he would need to go elsewhere.
The bank also refused to do business with his spouse and I think his adult children and some other family members - and their only offense was being related to the guy.
We are pretty much "there" in terms of being in an Orwellian nightmare.
What astounds me is people's ability to just . . . put that head in the sand.
"I see nothing of concern, I observe nothing of concern. I have no idea what the nut job conspiracy theorists are so freaked out about, they're ridiculous, right?"
And don't get me started on MAID (medical assistance in dying) in Canada and the slippery slope I see with that can of worms.
Let's keep in our minds (as long as we have them) that it is not the technology which is the problem; rather it is the minds of some in society who use their own minds to misuse the technology their minds have discovered or developed. Any technology, whether a hammer or a brain-computer interface, is only a tool. It is the user of the tool which is the problem. No technology can fix that; only a properly disciplined mind can make things work correctly or for human betterment, and tools can be of assistance only when used properly. The most important tool is the human brain, but that tool can only be made to work properly through human effort, discipline, and ethics, not technology. This takes work, and most people are lazy, and are suckers for convenience. So, how do we motivate people to understand and rely upon our most important tool, accept its limitations, and use technology appropriately? I don't have the answer, but my advice is: do not rely upon technology to find it.
Completely agree, Brain Augmentation or trans-humanism, take your pick, whilst with regards certain applications as with any science, promises to over deliver, especially those individuals identified as being in real need to benefit the tech, essentially those for whom the altruistic reasoning to justify and usher in the new tech, applies, their lives enhanced, end up always being a miniscule minority, used as a Trojan Horse to usher in a nefarious agenda.
Data and information is the 21st 22nd 23rd Century’s and beyond currency, whoever controls it will dominate..
I see shades of minority report, a Palantir A.I sheriff rounding up reprobates on a wholesale, industrial scale, filthy thoughts no problem, shads da maddya? Porns good right, but anti Zionist Gaza, torturing, sodomising, raping prisoners, anti shooting with missiles Fishermen in the Caribbean and you’ll be locked up, think about how much you hate someone, a normal human reaction, oft made as a momentary flash of thought, never truly meant or followed through to it’s natural conclusion and you’ll be hunted down, yep, I know extreme, but think about it, it can be reality… a new normal under this technology, we saw in Minority Report how the system was subverted, the so called Good Guys hunted, the system was never wrong right… wrong, it was manipulated, used to remove threats, to hide criminal behaviour by tweaking the programme to have the fail safe A.I pre cog system hunt the hunter… the good cop… funny that, a portent of what’s to come..
The scariest thing is that we know how moronic it has gotten people deferring to the almighty, the computer, it’s never wrong … right? Wrong, how many instances have you had when you’ve had to stand your ground and argue the toss with a dim wit, to stupid to apply common sense, logic to resolve an issue, instead relying absolutely on the pixels say… madness, and we think that was insanity, this will be the same on steroids, it will be the end of humanity… empathy, the worst of it, I bet those who will want to take it up, the numbers will be staggering, the blind leading the blind, you can see it now in a Dr Strangeloveesque scenario, people chipped, hacked, a mad bastard in his dark basement tapping away furiously unleashing insanity, anarchy, chaos, madness… in some respects watching that play out would be better than Monty Python, alas… the resulting carnage to incredible to imagine, to contend with, personally I say leave the lid on that box but in reality know that will never happened, that horse has bolted, last out, leave the lights on, the nutters will need something to guide them home… one day..
As for me, akin the last mass produced good stuff they rammed down our throats.. the poison that was the Vaccine, which I politely refused, telling them to stick it, well, right up their jacksies, arseholes… I will do likewise with this latest boondoggle…if it wasn’t so serious, you’d die laughing, it really is better than Monty Python…. just saying
“What could POSSIBLY go wrong?!”
-Timmy Turner
05/28/26: Once a technology exists that can reliably decode intent ... in real time, every institution ... Governments ... Militaries ... Intelligence agencies ... Advertisers ... Employers ... Social media companies will want it. Insurance companies will absolutely want it."
And Charles Ponzi will be right there making trillions selling it, because he's also the guy creating and marketing it. I for one can't want to see all these fools (governments, etc.) fall for Fool's AI Gold.
(Disclaimer: The above was intuited by Advanced AI, and was written without the knowledge or authority of "Don Reed," a frequent commenter on this site whose intellect was child's play to emulate. This is Stage One. In future stages, we will impersonate "Don Reed" without issuing warnings.)
05/28/26: Oh. We should also note that every single comment posted below Dr. Malone's column was the work of Advanced AI, not the purported authors, "Don Reed," "DD," "Pamela Lorenz," "Jo Dee Preston," etc.
Which means that this form of communication, Substack, once corrupted, will cease to exist because humans will no longer want anything to do with Substack if "their" comments have been replaced by a massive counterfeiting system spinning off profits enjoyed by the degenerates Altman, et al.
What?
05/29/26: Facetious fiction (comedy). And that's all I hope that it will ever be.
It’s way past time to ditch smartphones, portable smart devices! Old school flip phone is what we use. Maybe it’s time to go “Amish”
With my 'military grade' Kyocera flip phone, I can do most anything.... like getting arthritis in my texting thumbs..... but, a little pain is worth the simplicity. From my laptop.....
We’re with you, Pamela!
"Supporters insist safeguards will emerge. The technology always overruns the oversight. The money always outruns the ethics." My son is fascinated with his self-driving Tesla and all that goes with it. He is driving in an EMF loaded vehicle and much more. He is a brilliant guy, but isn't really wanting to know these details that go along with this fascination...
All I can think of is, "We are Borg; resistance is futile." (Where is the USS Enterprize when we need her? will she and her crew get us out of this insane predicament?)
Which one?
Let's see, what did Scotty say, " No stinking A, B or C!" I can't recall exactly. However I do remember the original getting blown to bits. (Sorry, Scotty.) :-( Was that when the Klingons had taken it over in the 2nd movie?
Movie 2, The Wrath of Khan, involves the survivors of the Botany Bay and Enterprise, tho badly damaged, is still (mostly) intact at the end - this is the ending where Spock dies of massive radiation poisoning, "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one." Spock is given a burial in space and ejected to land on the planet newly formed by the Genesis device. BUT, not before transferring his essence (katra?) into McCoy (Bones).
ST III, the Search for Spock takes up pretty soon after that and that’s where Klingons come in (forget how) and I forget what all transpires but the up shot is that Kirk and company end up with a resurrected Spock, the Klingons dead and gone, Enterprise destroyed (maybe?) and Kirk&Co flying away on the Klingon Man of War?, Bird of Prey?, 🤷♀️
Which then sets up the plot device in ST IV, where once again earth is threatened by an entity that this time is expecting a response from whales (ST I, earth is threatened by V’ger (Voyager)who is expecting a reply from its maker). The only problem is that like the Klingons in STIII, whales in that future are also dead and gone. Kirk&Co, with the now resurrected and mentally healed Spock have to take the commandeered Klingon warship into their and our past - well, 1990s 🤣 , retrieve an appropriate whale and return to their present, our future, in time to save earth. Again.
I think Nimoy directed STIV
A little rough on the recall, been a few years and a few strokes in the meantime. If I remember rightly, those first 4 Trek movies were all well received and then things kind’a fell off the wagon with #5, The Undiscovered Country, directed by Shatner. #5 was a mess.
Out of that ‘universe’ came one of the futurist predictions that unaltered humans would always be needed for vital functions.
What do you mean, "needed for vital functions?"
The novelization of the first movie proposed that old style humans were needed for deep space exploration because the new style humans were over eager to merge with whatever or whomever came their way. That was seen as detrimental for exploration and first encounters.
And that movie featured a merging of man and machine.
Yes, it did but it wasn’t trivial nor was it to the hooman’s benefit. Vger, with all the knowledge of the galaxy/universe it had collected had returned to earth needing to meet its maker. Basically it had returned to find meaning to its existence. If you remember, Kirk, Spock, Dekker and the woman who Dekker once had a relationship with but had been recreated by vger ventured to where the signal was emanating from where through a plot device (if you know you know 😉) vger in the guise of the bald headed woman and Dekker merge, engage in a little bit of metaphysical hanky-panky, and a new entity combining vger’s knowledge and our humanity forms. Kirk&Co hustle back to Enterprise, sorry, no beam me up Scotty, Earth and humanity are saved and Paramount? Has an answer to Star Wars. And Shatner has to start wearing a girdle - or so I’ve heard 🤣
We don’t get to humans merging with machines until the Borg problem in TNG - 🤔 and that was not a voluntary merger. Was there a nod to the Borg in the "Enterprise" series, season 2? Anyway, haven’t read any Star Trek books, only a couple Star Wars novels (Timothy Zahn - the first authorized one I believe) and I suspect that the notion of humans and mechanical augmentation are not, or only loosely, canon.
Also, it just occurred to me that Geordy (TNG) with his visor might be considered augmentation, but that doesn’t occur until a 100 years or so after the events of TOS.
Don’t take the chip
I thank the Heavens above that I am as old as I am….because…NONE OF THAT CRAP IS GOING INTO MY HEAD!!! Talk about controlling the masses…. This is a sure way of doing it, especially with promises (lies) of prosperity and monumental benefits ($$$). Walk right this way for your implant. Just watch out for that last step, it’s a doozy! Svengali of the computer chip world. Nothing to worry about. Put yourself in our hands. Now honestly…. Do you really think I’m that stupid? If it helps the injured regain movement, that would be the ultimate benefit to mankind. Any other uses make me wary of the quality of their intentions.
The injured will have Med Beds.
Boy, and I thought the surveillance architecture -- Prism Program, Fusion Centers, Gotham and Foundry AI platforms, Palantir, etc. -- was the looming problem. That there's growing dependence on a watch to tell you whether you got a good night's sleep. Now this. I want to crawl under a rock. A nice, organic, all natural rock.
Nothing…nothing can compare with the God-created human heart-to-heart interaction. Being reduced to a robotic interface system and/or having our innermost souls exposed for all to see and decipher and chronicle in some database is impure evil. It’s a tsunami now of dehumanization. Who needs artificial intelligence when God created us with the real thing? So, this is atheistic and compelled by the father of lies himself, satan.
And once they can steal and/or control our thoughts, they will come for our souls.
How will atheists be able to spin that? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Well, w/o getting into hysterics, I’ve made mention before about "The Great Filter," which is a theory that provides an explanation for the question: if there are so many stars, so many planets, where are the ETs? The premise being that as beings approach and encompass technological advancement, they/we have to navigate the perils that advanced tech brings with it.
Musk et al make the case that we need to become a multi-planetary species if we want to escape annihilation by some event that arises outside of our control - an ELE like a rogue asteroid. Thing is these brainiacs are focused the least likely apocalypse, not the one they are summoning. 100 years elapsed between Tunguska, a city killer event, and Chelyabinsk, which wasn’t quite as dangerous, during which man leapt from a short hop on a NC beach in a paper mache toy plane to planning vacations in orbit. Meanwhile, I’m aware of only two previous city killer, or worse, impacts in the past 50,000 years snout the time of the last stand of our Neanderthal cousins: the impact crater in Arizona 50,000yo and the speculation that the Younger Dryas die off in the northern hemisphere might have been caused by an air burst or dirt impact, approx 12,000yo.
But neither of those events would be Extinction Level Events today.
Outside of SciFi or fantasy I don’t see how hoomans manage to contain the threat from our big brains. As long as we’re dealing with the political, social, cultural, religious conflicts we’re arming up over today, a large part of me wonders if we’ll actually make it back to the moon or further to mars. This notion of MBI as a weapon or tool to control is just another factor I’ve added to the great filter algorithm.
That said, I’ve incorporated neural interfaces in most of the stories I’m working on - the most benign and helpful is useful artificial limbs; the worst, apart from use as a weapon or control, are folk like today’s drug addicts who get the interface for the loftiest reasons but get addicted to the artificial worlds they can create and then live in - I call’em juicers, which I’m pretty sure ain’t original to me. Like today’s junkies dying in the street, the juicers of tomorrow succumb to a similar fate.
Maybe there's something Darwinian in all that.
Perhaps 🤔; I tend think that as a technologically advanced species capable of modifying our environment beyond just our own locality for our benefit, the ideas, constraints of Darwinism no longer apply, at least not as originally imagined. Foremost in my mind is that we are no longer responding to the/our environment but our environment is responding/reacting to us. It might be that that reaction/response is the death of the great majority of humans - not likely in the foreseeable tomorrows ; more likely is that the next ELE will be man made/caused.
Dr. Nita Farahany, Duke University, on the WEF stage/channel, 36 second video: Talking with a little smile about the imminent tech of spying on our brains. This was in 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkCQMYTwLoc
Wow—blows my mind, so to speak. 😱
Those using smart phones are opting into this surveillance. They may not be implanted in your brain, but they have all the other characteristics you DON’T want. Let’s ditch the smart phones (use flip phones and even GMRS radios for emergencies) and CASH for payments. Less convenient, yes. But, the best way to fight the evil that’s coming.
Yes to all of that. (although I still am using a smart phone).
Some of my clients will leave their phone outside of my office, turned off, other than have it listening in on their personal stuff. Especially the ones where they've been a whistle blower of some type or are bringing litigation against am entity or agency that is big/powerful/well connected and fear retaliation or are already experiencing odd things that point to possible surveillance/intimidation.
It used to seem extreme. It seems the least one can do in terms of precautions now.
Also, there's this. Illuminate the Illusion (https://substack.com/@ajw3477) posted it and I reposted with this comment:
U.S. patent # 10,786,570 B2. Rockefeller University applied for it on July 30, 2018. The patent was granted September 29, 2020.
Ferritin nanoparticles compositions and methods to modulate cell activity.
I am not particularly scientific.
But when I read of a technology which is already patented and being used successfully in rats to remotely activate dopaminergic neurons in the mid-brain (the reward center), and that same technology is viable in vertebrates - which is us humans - then it seems to me that we don't have to dread or imagine the dystopian future.
It is here.
Read the patent
Naturally, I had several polite but befuddled/earnest sincere comments along the lines of "uuhhh, what's the problem? they're only going to use it to treat cancer, so isn't that a good thing?" (it was on FB, not here on Substack)
I can't even.
I'm not sure what is more upsetting: the evil that is brewing, or the determination of so many to not see it.
Big E, do you know of a flip phone that doesn't use google? Replacing a broken Iphone 6mos ago, I was determined to find one. I was 100% phoneless for a month (used email to connect with folks), but finally I gave up, and bought another used (so very inexpensive) SE Iphone.
Just say NO!
Easier said than done.
We already are at a point where most of us have ceded control of our money to the government. Since almost all of us conduct our financial transactions (bill paying, investing, etc) digitally, we've set ourselves up for our government to freeze access to our own funds if they are displeased with anything we've done/thought/said/purchased.
It happened in Canada already. Truckers were peacefully protesting during covid - no one alleges that their protests were anything other than peaceful. Off goes their access to their own damn money as a form of discipline for unwelcome behavior.
Which means: you can't buy food, pay your electric bill or rent or mortgage, or buy anything you need.
You cannot even purchase gas to put in your vehicle to go somewhere else, nor can you purchase a plane or train or bus ticket.
A friend makes it a point to leave any establishment that no longer accepts cash, since it is U.S. legal tender, and she tells them WHY she's taking her business elsewhere.
And if anyone is naive enough to think that it would never happen here, ponder on this.
Joseph Mercola is an alternative Doc, one of the prominent "Disinformation Dozen" during the pandemic.
The bank where he had his accounts informed him that they would no longer provide him with banking services, he would need to go elsewhere.
The bank also refused to do business with his spouse and I think his adult children and some other family members - and their only offense was being related to the guy.
We are pretty much "there" in terms of being in an Orwellian nightmare.
What astounds me is people's ability to just . . . put that head in the sand.
"I see nothing of concern, I observe nothing of concern. I have no idea what the nut job conspiracy theorists are so freaked out about, they're ridiculous, right?"
And don't get me started on MAID (medical assistance in dying) in Canada and the slippery slope I see with that can of worms.
Let's keep in our minds (as long as we have them) that it is not the technology which is the problem; rather it is the minds of some in society who use their own minds to misuse the technology their minds have discovered or developed. Any technology, whether a hammer or a brain-computer interface, is only a tool. It is the user of the tool which is the problem. No technology can fix that; only a properly disciplined mind can make things work correctly or for human betterment, and tools can be of assistance only when used properly. The most important tool is the human brain, but that tool can only be made to work properly through human effort, discipline, and ethics, not technology. This takes work, and most people are lazy, and are suckers for convenience. So, how do we motivate people to understand and rely upon our most important tool, accept its limitations, and use technology appropriately? I don't have the answer, but my advice is: do not rely upon technology to find it.
Completely agree, Brain Augmentation or trans-humanism, take your pick, whilst with regards certain applications as with any science, promises to over deliver, especially those individuals identified as being in real need to benefit the tech, essentially those for whom the altruistic reasoning to justify and usher in the new tech, applies, their lives enhanced, end up always being a miniscule minority, used as a Trojan Horse to usher in a nefarious agenda.
Data and information is the 21st 22nd 23rd Century’s and beyond currency, whoever controls it will dominate..
I see shades of minority report, a Palantir A.I sheriff rounding up reprobates on a wholesale, industrial scale, filthy thoughts no problem, shads da maddya? Porns good right, but anti Zionist Gaza, torturing, sodomising, raping prisoners, anti shooting with missiles Fishermen in the Caribbean and you’ll be locked up, think about how much you hate someone, a normal human reaction, oft made as a momentary flash of thought, never truly meant or followed through to it’s natural conclusion and you’ll be hunted down, yep, I know extreme, but think about it, it can be reality… a new normal under this technology, we saw in Minority Report how the system was subverted, the so called Good Guys hunted, the system was never wrong right… wrong, it was manipulated, used to remove threats, to hide criminal behaviour by tweaking the programme to have the fail safe A.I pre cog system hunt the hunter… the good cop… funny that, a portent of what’s to come..
The scariest thing is that we know how moronic it has gotten people deferring to the almighty, the computer, it’s never wrong … right? Wrong, how many instances have you had when you’ve had to stand your ground and argue the toss with a dim wit, to stupid to apply common sense, logic to resolve an issue, instead relying absolutely on the pixels say… madness, and we think that was insanity, this will be the same on steroids, it will be the end of humanity… empathy, the worst of it, I bet those who will want to take it up, the numbers will be staggering, the blind leading the blind, you can see it now in a Dr Strangeloveesque scenario, people chipped, hacked, a mad bastard in his dark basement tapping away furiously unleashing insanity, anarchy, chaos, madness… in some respects watching that play out would be better than Monty Python, alas… the resulting carnage to incredible to imagine, to contend with, personally I say leave the lid on that box but in reality know that will never happened, that horse has bolted, last out, leave the lights on, the nutters will need something to guide them home… one day..
As for me, akin the last mass produced good stuff they rammed down our throats.. the poison that was the Vaccine, which I politely refused, telling them to stick it, well, right up their jacksies, arseholes… I will do likewise with this latest boondoggle…if it wasn’t so serious, you’d die laughing, it really is better than Monty Python…. just saying
Kia Kaha (Stay strong) From New Zealand
No no no no no no no no no no no no NO!