I have been off the air of recent with typing still a problem for the right hand/arm but saw this title mentioned in a PBS Newshour TV interview with Jaron Lanier and it fit in with the other news about the NSA phone snooping and my science fiction readings about possible transhuman futures and my viewing of the Canadian TV series, CONTINUUM, showing on my cable Scyfi channel, so a bit of left hand single finger poking. :-)
I have also been reading Alvin Toffler's 1970 book, "Future Shock" with thoughts about where our rapidly changing technology is taking us so I thought I would pass on some of the info for your consideration and hope the future treats you well. (however you chose to shape it)
- LRK -
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Who Owns The Future?
"Everyone complains about the Internet, but no one does anything about it...except for Jaron Lanier."
—Neal Stephenson, bestselling author of Reamde and Cryptonomicon
“Who Owns the Future? explains what’s wrong with our digital economy, and tells us how to fix it. Listen up!”
—George Dyson, bestselling author of Turing’s Cathedral
"Who Owns the Future? is a deeply original and sometimes startling read. Lanier does not simply question the dominant narrative of our technological age, but picks it up by the neck and shakes it. A refreshing and important book that will make you see the world differently."
— Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch
“This book is rare. It looks at technology with an insider’s knowledge, wisdom, and deep caring about human beings. It’s badly needed.”
—W. Brian Arthur, author of The Nature of Technology
—Neal Stephenson, bestselling author of Reamde and Cryptonomicon
“Who Owns the Future? explains what’s wrong with our digital economy, and tells us how to fix it. Listen up!”
—George Dyson, bestselling author of Turing’s Cathedral
"Who Owns the Future? is a deeply original and sometimes startling read. Lanier does not simply question the dominant narrative of our technological age, but picks it up by the neck and shakes it. A refreshing and important book that will make you see the world differently."
— Tim Wu, author of The Master Switch
“This book is rare. It looks at technology with an insider’s knowledge, wisdom, and deep caring about human beings. It’s badly needed.”
—W. Brian Arthur, author of The Nature of Technology
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Jaron Lanier from Wikipedia.
- LRK -
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Jaron Zepel Lanier (/ˈdʒɛərɨn lɨˈnɪər/, born 3 May 1960) is an American computer scientist, best known for popularizing the term virtual reality(VR). A pioneer in the field of VR, Lanier and Thomas G. Zimmerman left Atari in 1985 to found VPL Research, Inc., the first company to sell VR goggles and gloves. In the late 1990s, Lanier worked on applications for Internet2, and in the 2000s, he was a visiting scholar at Silicon Graphics and various universities. More recently, he has acted as an advisor to Linden Lab on their virtual world product Second Life, and as "scholar-at-large" at Microsoft Research where he has worked on the Kinect device for Xbox 360.
Lanier is also known as a composer of classical music and a collector of rare instruments; his acoustic album, Instruments of Change (1994) features Asian wind and string instruments such as the khene mouth organ, the suling flute, and the sitar-like esraj. Lanier was the director of an experimental short film, and teamed with Mario Grigorov to compose the soundtrack to the documentary film, The Third Wave (2007). As an author, Lanier has written a column for Discover magazine; his book, You Are Not a Gadget (2010), is a critique of Web 2.0. In 2010, Lanier was nominated (by himself) in the TIME 100 list of most influential people.
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So the news has been a buzz with what the NSA may be doing in its quest to find the bad guy that might have overseas connections. Today's Internet networking and smart phones lets you share a lot of information about yourself. (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) Often other applications as well require you to share a lot of information about the hardware you are using and your connection information as well. Don't want to share, read the preferences well and then don't install the application if it doesn't let you opt out. Even so, if you use the Internet your actions my well be tracked.
- LRK -
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The United States' National Security Agency (NSA) maintains a database containing hundreds of billions of records of telephone calls made by U.S. citizens from the four largest telephone carriers in the United States: AT&T, SBC, BellSouth (
The existence of this database and the NSA program that compiled it was unknown to the general public until USA Today broke the story on May 10, 2006.[1] It is estimated that the database contains over 1.9 trillion call-detail records.[2] According to Bloomberg News, the effort began approximately seven months before the September 11, 2001 attacks.[3] As of June 2013, the database is code named MARINA and stores the metadata for at least five years.[4]
The records include detailed call information (caller, receiver, date/time of call, length of call, etc.) for use in traffic analysis and social network analysis, but do not include audio information or transcripts of the content of the phone calls.
The database's existence has prompted fierce objections. It is often viewed as an illegal warrantless search and a violation of the pen register provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and (in some cases) the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.
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NSA Ground Breaking for new computing center.
- LRK -
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Groundbreaking Ceremony Held for Computing Center
FORT MEADE, Md. - The National Security Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke ground today on the High Performance Computing Center-2, an NSA-run facility that will be located on base.
The project is an outgrowth of the Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative (CNCI), which the White House launched in 2008 to provide a unified approach to securing America's digital infrastructure. Scheduled for completion in 2016, the center will help to carry out the CNCI's mission by protecting national security networks and providing U.S. authorities with intelligence and warnings about cyber threats.
Dignitaries who attended the ceremony included GEN Keith B. Alexander, Commander, U.S. Cyber Command/Director, NSA/Chief, CSS; Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski; Rep. C.A. "Dutch" Ruppersberger; Major General Todd T. Semonite, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; COL Edward Rothstein, Garrison Commander, Fort George G. Meade; and Dr. Harvey Davis, NSA's Associate Director for Installations & Logistics.
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I enjoyed the season 1 episodes and now season 2 has started. I managed to view again season 1 on YouTube but there is a DVD out and many of the links have gone dark and a number of sites want you to down load a viewer and ask too many questions and want credit card information so beware.. http://www.imdb.com/
I like their special effects and wish I had some of the heads up displays.
Continuum - Second Listen 1/4 (one of four parts of Season 2, Episode 8) - Unless blocked - LRK -
Kiera's suspicions, confirmed finally; there were time jumpers before she and Liber8 came to the present. Now they're popping up dead, and she must find out who's behind it. Alec is kidnapped by Garza, acting on orders...from Alec's future self.[20]
Continuum - Second Listen 2/4
Continuum - Second Listen 3/4
Continuum - Second Listen 4/4
Here is of the Continuum episodes.
- LRK -
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Continuum is a Canadian science fiction television series created by Simon Barry. It was first shown on the Showcase channel on May 27, 2012. It premiered in the U.S on the Syfy channel on January 14, 2013. The series revolves around Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols), a CPS "protector" (police officer) from the year 2077 who was transported back to 2012 with a group of terrorists called Liber8 who were scheduled for execution, before their time jump. Kiera must stop Liber8 from changing the past, so she disguises herself as a special agent, and teams up with Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster) and Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen) to stop them. Along the way, she forms an alliance with Matthew Kellog (Stephen Lobo), a reformed member of Liber8.
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And books where you have to use your own imagination for the visuals.
- LRK -
Last month I read "MORE THAN HUMAN - EMBRACING THE PROMISE OF BIOLOGICAL ENHANCEMENT" (non fiction) and "neXus" (fiction) by RAMEZ NAAM.
I found "MORE THAN HUMAN" (cr 2005) a light read of what was happening in biological enhancements back in 2005 time frame and his comments set the stage for the later fiction novel, "neXus", that is copyright 2013.
"neXus" starts out at Moffett Field, hanger 3, where there is a big drug party going on. This brought back memories of my being in VP-9 that was based in hanger 2 and although blImp hangers are certainly big enough to throw large drug parties I don't remember that being the case. :-) Most of the story then goes on to unfold in the Bangkok,Thailand and points further north in Thailand, so again caught my attention. (my wife is Thai) Several times Ramez uses phonetic transliteration of spoken Thai with English clarification which seemed to fit with my understanding of the language so a nice touch.
The action plays out with transhuman enhancements making for a lot action. Would make for a bloody X-Box game. Language a bit more explicit than I would use but fit the situations.
The preachiness of both books is that governments tend to do what THEY think is correct and people that are different often have laws passed against them and which use others to carry out orders that may be against humanity.
I grew up during the McCarthy witch hunts for suspected communists so again caught my attention.
LRK
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And if the Internet becomes intelligent.
- LRK -
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Wake, also called WWW: Wake, is a 2009 novel written by Canadian novelist Robert J. Sawyer. It is the first installment in the WWW Trilogyand was followed by two sequels, Watch (2010) and Wonder (2011). An audio book was released on 7 April 2009.
Wake details the spontaneous emergence of an intelligence on the World Wide Web, called Webmind. It gains sentience through the efforts of Caitlin Decter, a 15-year-old blind girl who gains sight through a new treatment that allows her optic nerve to correctly decode the visual signals from her retinas. Caitlin struggles to understand and communicate with the emerging technological intelligence, as she is its only contact to the real world. Subplots involve a deadly disease outbreak in China and its cover-up, and a chimpanzee–bonobo hybrid, Hobo, whose perception of the world is altered after a web call with an orangutan.
Sawyer developed the initial idea for Wake in January 2003 when he wrote in his diary about the emergence of consciousness on the World Wide Web. The novel was named a 2010 Hugo Award nominee in the category for Best Novel.
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Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK -
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