Re: Brin: Opacity

2008-02-11 Thread KZK 
  http://progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308

  bFinally... an alert.../b

  Have a look at InfraGard -- the FBI's program to
  develop a quasi-secret network of private businesses
  that are shielded from normal transparency by trade
  secrets laws, to assist in guarding national
  infrastructure... and to get oligarchic privilieges,
  in return.  Yes, the Progressive is lefty and biased.
  But the facts, alone, are utterly chilling.
  http://progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308

Not sure I believe everything the article claimed, not without more 
verifiable data points, but it appears that the FBI's secretly created 
another way for Elites to separate themselves from regular people.  But 
not even just any Elite, only Elite's among the Elite, those that hew to 
the proper ideology.

What makes it worse is that a large part of the program is essentially a 
corporate TIPS/Stasi system, where perverse incentives allow corrupt 
members to turn in non-corrupt people / members in order to get ahead. 
Like all Conservative/Libertarian systems, the Corrupt rise to the top.

  It makes you wonder:

  1) Are distractions like this the reason why the
  professionals of the FBI have let us down?  Running
  around frantically obsessing on an amorphous
  terrorist¢ foe that virtually doesn't exist and
  to the extent that it does, is controlled by friends
  of the administration and is being pumped up, around
  the world by administration actions?  Where are the
  smart professionals who should be following REAL
  leads... e.g. between domestic power brokers and
  genuinely hostile foreign powers?Doing insipid BS
  like ithis?/i

  2) Just how much of this can the next president
  dismantle?  Constituencies and agendas and terrible
  momentum have already built.  Things like InfraGard
  cannot be dismantled without accusations of tearing
  down our defense.

Perhaps.  But this system was built based on the principles of Opacity. 
   It's still relatively unknown to the general public.  Can what is 
built in the dark be more easily dismantled in the dark?

  These is a way to neutralize the threat WHILE keeping
  the aspects of these things that actually do some
  good.  It is called transparency.  KEEP all these new,
  paranoid endeavors.  But strip them bare.  Make clear
  that there is ino need for levels of secrecy far
  higher than we had when the enemy was a powerful and
  insidious Soviet KGB!  The very nature of the ¢terror
  threat¢ is one that is best countered with light.
  Secrecy is pointless, meaningless, counter productive,
  stupid.

  Ah, but secrecy and paranoia are the bobjectives/b
  of this entire exercise.  They are the goals, not the
  means.

Exactly.  Secrecy, Elite Cronyism, Paranoia, conspiracy, and greed, 
these are some of the Principles of what I dub Opacity, really the 
opposite of transparency. Whenever 
conservatives/libertarians/aristocrats gain power they will always try 
to subvert/suborn/create systems to implement opacity. 
Conservative/libertarian/aristocratic systems do not work well in the 
light of transparency.
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Brin: Opacity

2008-02-09 Thread KZK 
The New American SS:

http://progressive.org/mag_rothschild0308
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Re: Brin: Opacity

2008-02-09 Thread David Brin 
Thanks for the InfraGard link.

I'll post the following tonight on-blog:

---



The latest issue of Baen’s UNIVERSE MAGAZINE is out,
containing two big items from yours truly -- Part Five
of my comedic serial “The Ancient Ones”... plus a
fast-paced, action novella “The Smartest Mob.”  The
latter is an excerpt from my novel in progress,
another lavish, near-future exploration, like EARTH. 
This one is the best portrayal of rapid,
tech-empowered citizen action that you’ll see, this
side of Vernor Vinge!   Subscribe to the top online
magazine ever! http://baens-universe.com/

Now click to the coolest bit of urban theater. Will
somebody please tell the organizers that it is an
almost perfect rendition of a scene from my short
story Coexistence? 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

Some of the most influential leaders of the space
community are quietly working to offer the next U.S.
president an alternative to President Bush's vision
for space exploration -- one that would delete a
lunar base and move instead toward manned missions to
asteroids, starting in about 2025, along with a
renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft. 
Dang, is sanity popping out all over? 
http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0801/18avweek/

The latest in a long series of fascinating articles by
sexual-anthropologist David Buss has just come out:
“Women Want It All:  Good Genes, Economic Investment,
Parenting  Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment, in
the journal Evolutionary Psychology.
http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP06134146.pdf

Bill Gates and ex-Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi
have donated a combined $30 million to the Large
Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will feature the
largest digital camera ever constructed. Scientists
say it will provide a color movie of the universe.
The donation will go partly to the construction of
LSST's three giant mirrors, which will enable it to
survey more of the sky faster than any other
telescope. With its three-billion pixel camera, the
telescope will produce 30 terabytes of images that
will be immediately available to the public online.
(Comet and asteroid hunt from your home!) The LSST
requires huge amounts of data processing. Project
leaders estimate it will generate 1.2 gigabytes per
second, which is orders of magnitude more data than
the most data-intense astronomical application
available today.
http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/01/internet_telescope


bSome misc interesting things.../b

Aliens spying on us from another star system  might be
able to discern continents and oceans on our planet by
plotting the fluctuation in brightness as sunlight
falls on different surface features such as forests,
deserts and seas. 
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/080131-seti-galactic-wifi.html

Watching the Watchers: Why Surveillance Is a Two-Way
Street: If governments and businesses can keep an eye
on us in public spaces, we ought to be able to look
back. 
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4237005.html

Meanwhile, the FBI is gearing up to create a  massive
computer database of people's physical
characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says
to better identify criminals and terrorists.  What on
Earth makes the civil libertarians think they can stop
this trend, by trying to outlaw or regulate it?  Are
they really that stupid, to think that you can order
back the tide?  In ten years, not one of them has ever
been able to cite a single example, from history, when
top elites allowed themselves to be blinded. 
Fortunately, there is another approach... if anybody
will listen...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/04/fbi.biometrics/index.html?eref=ib_topstories

Speaking of surveillance... Aliens spying on us from
another star system might be able to discern
continents and oceans on our planet, using technology
barely more advanced than our own.
http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13126-alien-astronomers-could-discern-earths-features.html

Currently, the largest conventional wind turbines in
the world produce only five megawatts of power.
However, one large maglev wind turbine could generate
one gigawatt of clean power, enough to supply energy
to 750,000 homes. It would also increase generation
capacity by 20% over conventional wind turbines and
decrease operational costs by 50%. If that isn’t
enough, the maglev wind turbines will be operational
for about 500 years! 
http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/11/26/super-powered-magnetic-wind-turbine-maglev/

Speaking of which, Britain is to launch a huge
expansion of offshore wind-power with plans for
thousands of turbines in the North Sea, Irish Sea and
around the coast of Scotland.   The scheme could see
turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the
sky. 
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3022277.ece

An exceptional article about bizarre and tragic events
at the edges of artificial intelligence research.  (I
knew one of these guys.) Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre
Suicides.