Tag: political

BEYOND ᴛʜᴇ ALGORITHM: ᴀɴ INVASION ᴏғ MINDS

(Animated by Pi-Slices)

“Compartmentalize your mind. Doubt what you know, know what you doubt. But the very moment you’re truly certain of anything, they’ll have you.”

—The Agitator, Deviation, C. M. Johnson

You finish buying an assortment of products online. Hours later you open up a different browser, an advertisement appears listing products similar to those you just purchased. Even though you might have opted out of data collection services, it isn’t a stretch of the imagination to understand what might be going on. So you go about your business.

You finish a conversation about a certain topic. Later on, recommendations, feeds, advertisements display the content of the topic of that very conversation. You’re very much aware that you possess (possibly many) devices that have the potential to monitor speech and correlate the recognized terms and phrases with what is virtually presented to you. But surely such a feature would only function if it were activated. You’ve grown awfully attached to said device(s), far too attached to want to entertain the thought that there are seemingly invasive agendas working behind the services they provide. So you put it out of your mind and you go about your business.

But every so often, you might find yourself wondering, in lieu of any restrictions, what WOULD an unscrupulous agency do, IF it had the means?

If you are of the inclination that this is already a reality, you are far from alone. In fact, the number of people harboring such a suspicion has been steadily growing across numerous countries as the value of data continues to rise (previously mentioned in ᵀᴴᴱ SYSTEM).

“According to a new survey by Nixplay, 60% of millennials think their phones are listening to them and then tailoring ads precisely to those conversations. Overall, 55% of Americans think that smartphones are spying on them, collecting data to customize ads.”

—John Koetsier, Forbes.com, 2019

But for some, their suspicions about the algorithm do not end there.

You have a spoken conversation, (to your knowledge) far from any technological device(s). Two (or more) organic lifeforms verbally exchanging information. Yet when you return to your device(s), again, there are indications, that the private conversation, far from the microphones, far from the cameras was seemingly heard all the same. In some instances, both (multiple) parties discovering that the topic of their “private” conversation, far from prying eyes and ears is somehow intrinsically linked with each their data-flow algorithms, on a number of digital services.

Finally, you think your private thoughts, as you often do. The mutterings of the inner-mind, utterly disconnected from the physical world beyond the cranium. Or so you would have thought, only you begin to notice that the same algorithm which once manipulated results from keystrokes and physical inputs, seems to now show indications that the private thoughts in your mind, are somehow being read. But that’s nonsensical. Absolutely impossible, isn’t it?

Surely it’s coincidental, or the correlations are misinterpreted, bouts of apophenia? Is this the evolution of ᵀᴴᴱ NOÖSPHERE?

“Facebook has assembled a team of 60 people, including machine learning and neural prosthetics experts, to enable such a system. Facebook is currently hiring a brain-computer interface engineer and a neural imaging engineer. Its goal? To create a system capable of typing one hundred words per minute – five times faster than you can type on a smartphone – straight from your brain.”

—Olivia Solon, The Guardian.com, 2017

Where there’s a will, there’s a way?

Such a brain-to-device concept would require localized hardware and technology, years of advancement from the currently available methods?

Not according to some.

Over the last few years, the belief in the (apparent and evident) invasions of privacy has begun to spread and increase so severely, that it has given rise to a concept known among some circles as, REMOTE NEURAL MONITORING (a means of electronic harassment/privacy invasion). There is a publicly available .pdf of the U.S. SUPREME COURT PETITION OF CERTORARI, Nov 10, 2018 (court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency) pertaining to the governmental use of such “mind reading technologies”.

NEWS HEADING: MICROWAVE WEAPON BLAMED FOR APPARENT ATTACK ON US EMBASSY IN CUBA

“Why did dozens of U.S. Embassy workers in Cuba hear loud sounds and suffer neurological symptoms in 2016? There’s a new, Cold War-era microwave explanation for the mystery.

The Havana-based diplomats reported hearing loud, strange sounds and feeling movement in the air around them. Those affected went on to experience months of concussion-like symptoms, including cognitive impairment, balance issues and tinnitus (ringing in the ears). And as recently as February, researchers reported that they couldn’t tell what caused the problems, but they ruled out the most common early explanation: sonic attacks.

‘Sound in the audible range (20 Hz to 20,000 Hz) is not known to cause persistent injury to the central nervous system,’ they wrote in the journal JAMA.

Now, those same researchers have told The New York Times that microwave weapons may have been the cause.

Allan Frey, an American biologist, showed in the early 1960s that microwave beams can create the sensation of hearing noises when they hit the brain’s temporal lobe. The Times reported that Soviet researchers took a keen interest in the discovery after it was announced, going so far as to invite Frey to speak and then bring him to a military laboratory.”

—Rafi Letzter, LiveScience.com, September 04, 2018

On October 17th, 2017:

TRUMP SAYS CUBA ‘RESPONSIBLE’ FOR ALLEGED SONIC ATTACKS, BUT OFFERS NO EVIDENCE

“The state department has still not identified a culprit or even what weapon mysteriously injured 22 American government workers on Cuban soil.”

—The Guardian.com

December 7th, 2017:

MYSTERY ATTACKS CAUSED BRAIN DAMAGE IN US EMBASSY WORKERS IN CUBA.

—Tia Ghose, LiveScience.com

As suspicions and speculations have grown, so too have the numbers of individuals believing to be victims of various forms of electronic harassment.

“Electronic harassment, electromagnetic torture, or psychotronic torture is a conspiracy theory that government agents make use of electromagnetic radiation (such as the microwave auditory effect), radar, and surveillance techniques to transmit sounds and thoughts into people’s heads, affect people’s bodies, and harass people. Individuals who claim to experience this call themselves “targeted individuals“. They claim they are victims of gang stalking and many have joined support and advocacy groups.”

—Wikipedia

Sadly, as the gap between technology and imagination narrows, individuals afflicted with various forms of paranoia (often undiagnosed) can become consumed by this very idea, that minds are being invaded. Where once such a claim could be easily dismissed as impossible, with technological warfare the likes of the (alleged) voice of god (long range audio producing non-lethal weapon, developed by the U.S. military) and sonic warfare, dispelling fears as impossible is becoming increasingly difficult.

Unfortunately, as ways of life change and as new technologies are developed (or refined), once inconceivable dangers WILL emerge. Systems of control/surveillance that we might currently consider dystopian, immoral or terrifying may very well become a reality.

Could our global future be a new world, fighting one of the oldest battles to be fought, time and time again, throughout the ages. The struggle for freedom from tyranny. Sometimes it can take people quite awhile to realize their freedom is under attack, but when they do, they start to understand how valuable it truly is.

Until then, perhaps the invasion of minds has only just begun?

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 0

ᵀᴴᴱ SYSTEM

(Animation from GIPHY.com)

In 1859, Alfred Russel Wallace discovered a pathogenic fungus called Ophiocordyceps unilateralis. When an ant becomes infected by a spore of this fungus, the fungus alters its behavior, driving it to seek out an ideal place for the parasitic fungus to “reproduce”. Carpenter ants have adapted to detect this behavior and attempt to counter the effects by a single ant sacrificing itself to drag the infected individual as far from the colony as possible, where the two will die to minimize the losses of the collective. If however, the infected ant is not discovered in time, it will fix itself to a prime location with its mandibles and undergo a transformation. Over the course of several days, the ants body becomes the husk and lifeless host for the reproductive organ of the fungus to sprout. A horn, often several times longer than the length of the deceased ant’s body grows from its head. A bulb develops on the horn-like structure, which eventually bursts, loosing its spores, spreading the pathogenic fungus. In some events, resulting in the total obliteration of an ant colony. It’s been suggested that the specific colony that ophiocordyceps unilateralis targets is often undergoing a state of overpopulation. Acting as a sort of “rectification process”, to cull the insect masses and restore balance to the delicate ecosystem of the rain-forest.

The ant and the pathogenic fungus, are no doubt completely oblivious to the roles they play, the purposes they serve in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. Merely the victims of a system, they could never understand. The seemingly harsh and uncaring balance of the natural world. It’s the same reason the largest shark embryo cannibalizes around a dozen of its siblings while still in the womb. The same reason a starving baby bird might peck a rival sibling to death while waiting for a parent to return. The ugly and instinctual desire for preservation, at the cost of another’s loss. The innumerable “necessary evils” that have kept our planet in check since the dawning of the ages.

You might think, as a human being, the most advanced known form of life on this planet, that you’re generally above such primal turns of fate. You’re simply beyond the cruelty of nature’s grasp. But depending on where you are in this world and your level of exposure to the “system”, you might have a very different opinion on the matter. In the human world, the system is complex, elaborate and often difficult to detect or even comprehend (in some instances). But it is just as real as the systems in the natural world and in some cases, as equally ruthless as mother nature herself.

Could a “will” exist to “sustain”, “control” a societal existence by means and methods many might consider underhand and manipulative?

It’s complicated, because our “system” isn’t purely based around survival, not anymore. Survival is still an element of the system, but it is heavily involved in what we as a collective species believe. “They” want to know what we think and how they can influence that thought. If you can control the worldview, you can control the world. As ominous, daunting and unpleasant as that sounds, rulers have been using this tactic since the beginning of recorded civilization. The only problem is, myths and human sacrifice aren’t going to cut it anymore. So the best option they have is using the closest thing we have to deities, which are idols, idolized humans of the world celebrity status. Using revered individuals to set a standard of thought/opinion you can popularize a worldview just as efficiently as a prehistoric Shaman sharing a foreboding tale aside a campfire. Ruling the world isn’t about mass slave labor to build some grandiose structure anymore (well, maybe a metaphorical structure), it’s about influencing how and where money is spent. Despite all the outrageous explanations for who/what/why/when in the end, the system is only concerned about sustaining what they deem a specific desired standard and also, converting the individual into a more efficiently monitored source of income. The system seeks to preserve itself, at the expense of privacy, truth and the lives of the misinformed.

Belief is the key, because blind unquestioning allegiance has always been useful in the development (and destruction) of nations the world over. Great fortunes have been amassed through countless wars, where more often than not the men dying in them are the least informed of what the conflict is truly about. But that makes perfect sense, because if the “powers that be” at any stage in history were honest about their intentions, such as mere financial gains, there wouldn’t be quite so many willing to lay down their lives. So great elaborate stories are sung on both sides, telling of how either enemy offends and opposes everything the other side ever stood for. Many lives are lost, resources, lands are claimed and those orchestrating events grow a little more powerful.

The “system” is part of the reason that in the year 2019, economists have claimed data has surpassed oil in value. There are some who believe interference in the “system’s” agenda in some events, can lead to the death of an individual. That certain “truths” are kept secret from public knowledge and the control of said truths helps perpetuate the state of normality they have long cultivated (such as those explained in the book by M. W. Cooper, Behold a Pale Horse).

There are even extreme suggestions put forward, such as the belief that the system manipulates which chemicals appear in foods/products, to cause health implications that could cause various ailments (cancers, diseases) to purposefully control the population. Also, suppressing cures, medical technology for the same reason.

For better or worse, we are all part of “the system” or maybe even just “a system”. The depths at which these systems operate may be the general level that is publicly understood or they may run much deeper and darker than we could ever anticipate. At which point, we have about as much chance escaping our fate as the ant from the ophiocordyceps unilateralis fungus.

Posted on by ᵀᴴᴱ ARGONAUT 3