Helicopters were flying over the futuristic city as the girl sat on the rooftop, pondering life, and listening to peoples’ voices a few floors down. Communicating via radio, the girl’s covert team moved into position. Removing her clothes and cocking her gun, the girl does a backward flip fall off the top of the building before being stabilized and supported by cables. Simultaneously, police begin their raid and seemingly catch a group of people unware. Although bodyguards open fire on the police, cutting a few down, a man stands up and tells them to put their weapons away, before revealing that he is diplomat, and that the person with whom he is speaking has immunity and therefore the police have no jurisdiction. As the diplomat argues with the head of police, he says that he can do whatever he wants and ends his statement with “Our country is a peace loving democracy”. The next few seconds sees his head blown apart, as the girl that had been hanging outside the window 100 stories up, opens fire, assassinating him. The police immediately return fire, but she cuts her cables and slowly falls to the ground before her thermo-optic camouflage renders her invisible. “I don’t believe it”, the police chief says, as he slowly watches the girl disappear. Now, if you recognize this scene, that would be because it is from the 1995 anime, “Ghost in the Shell”, which is slightly different than the recently released movie. In the original, the hero of the story, the “Major”, as she is called, not only chases a mysterious hacker named the Puppet Master who can take over a person’s body at will, but seeks to understand who she is in a technologically advanced world.
This week was ablaze in groundbreaking news, as just recently the Trump administration decided to launch missiles into Syria, in an apparent bid to send a message not only to Assad, but to the world as well. And while it is still unclear what exactly this means and what the implications could be, others are still pondering Wikileaks’ recent release, named Marble.
RT recently reported that — “WikiLeaks’ latest batch of documents, named ‘Marble’, details CIA hacking tactics and how they can hamper forensic investigators from attributing viruses, trojans and hacking attacks to the spy agency.
The article continues — “The third release, which contains 676 source code files for the agency’s secret anti-forensics framework, is part of the CIA’s Core Library of malware.” Specifically, WikiLeaks said- “Marble hides fragments of texts that would allow for the author of the malware to be identified, meaning the agency allows another party to be blamed for the hack.” That’s right. So not only now do we have to worry about hackers, but it seems as if those very same hackers are able to not only hide their trails, but are able to apparently attribute their mischief to other, innocent, nation-states. Crazy, right?
The article continued by noting — “Marble framework document reveals it supports the ability to “add foreign languages” to malware. “Now comes the fun stuff,” it reads, listing Chinese, Russian, Korean, Arabic and Farsi in example code, indicating the potential for the CIA to divert attention to international actors. And while these apparent skills can be used to hack computers, others are working on hacking the human body.
The Sun recently ran an article on this, which read in part — “US military is using brain-stimulation technology to create super-smart warriors of the future.” That’s right. Biohacking. The article continued — “…the US government was conducting trials using a brain boosting headset to improve soldier’s learning skills and muscle responses.” So, how does it work?
The article noted — “The US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said it was testing a headset, which looks similar to Beats by Dre headphones, which is manufactured by a Californian company called HALO. The headset sends electrical impulses to the person wearing it, and can be used in combination with brain training lessons.” But, is it effective?
Military.com addressed this issue when it wrote — "In experiments, people who were watching these screens… their ability to concentrate would fall off in about 20 minutes. But they did studies whereby a little bit of electrical stimulation was applied, and they were able to maintain the same peak performance for 20 hours." That is a pretty amazing improvement, right?
In fact, the article at the Sun noted — “The soldiers of the future are set to become like super heroes seen in Hollywood blockbusters thanks to incredible scientific advances.” Going one step further, it wrote — “The US military inked a multi-million contract to provide its troops with bionic exoskeletons that can boost leg power and harness kinetic energy which can charge batteries.” And going one step further beyond that — “It’s also expected to trial an Iron Man-style robot suit called Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS) in 2018.” Now, if all of this sounds too Hollywood-ish, it should be noted that there is and has been for years now a movement called Transhumanism, or the merger of Man and Machine. Some even call it the Singularity.
To this extent, the SingularityHub recently wrote a story where it noted — “In the real world, the notion of networked minds is already upon us. Touchscreens, keypads, cameras, mobile, the cloud: we are more and more directly and instantly linked to a widening circle of people, while opening up our personal lives to surveillance and potential manipulation by governments, advertisers, or worse.”
In fact, the article continued — “Brain-computer interfaces are also on their way. There are already brain implants that can mitigate some of the symptoms of brain conditions, from Parkinson’s disease to depression. Others are being developed to overcome sensory impairments such as blindness or to control a paralyzed limb. Now, while there would be some benefits to all of this, many are asking, where does it lead?
Recently, an article at the Daily Mail noted — “Using biotechnology and genetic engineering, a Professor claimed the wealthy will transform into a new type of divine, immortal human with complete power over life and death. He argued that the rich are set to become God-like cyborgs in what could be the 'biggest evolution in biology' since life emerged.” That’s right. God-like Cyborgs. In fact, he specifically stated — “I think it is likely in the next 200 years or so homo sapiens will upgrade themselves into some idea of a divine being, either through biological manipulation or genetic engineering of by the creation of cyborgs, part organic part non-organic.” And while that sounds pretty awesome, the professor also claimed it wouldn’t be for everyone, as — “The technology to do this, however, will be restricted to the very wealthy”, because, as everyone knows, you have to pay to play.
So, what do you think dear listeners — “Will we all become God-like Cyborgs?”
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