New Post at The Dragonfly: The Professional in the System

Actor Marlon Brando as a professional gone rogue: Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now (1979). Image Source: Fandom.

I have a new post up at The Dragonfly about the evolution of public and private trust:

Character Development 2: The Professional in the System: What Price, Freedom?

Epstein's Island Temple Theatre

EXCLUSIVE: First-Ever Look Inside Epstein’s Private Island (28 October 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

The videos of the season are currently going viral on Youtube. They were posted three hours ago. Above, is We are Change's exclusive visit to Jeffrey Epstein's island of Little St. James in the Caribbean. Aside from drone footage from a channel run by an Anon under the name of 'Rusty Shackleford,' this is the first independent media footage of the island.

Not what it seemed. Image Source: Reddit.

The main discovery of alt-media interlopers Jeff Berwick and Luke Rudkowski is that the island is guarded by gargoyles, which are dotted everywhere. They bear shields with a star spanned by two crescent moons. Aside from that, they look like they come straight from a garden centre. For the most part, the place had been cleaned out and the house was unlocked. Berwick and Rudkowski did not have time to search the grounds for tunnels and underground structures, which had been the subject of widespread speculation.

However, Epstein's gaudy temple has a front door which is painted on; and the now-missing dome was not functional. This made the building look up close like a Hollywood movie set. You can see Rusty Shackleford's drone footage of the temple from 12 July 2019 here; the drone had trouble capturing and revealing this illusion.

These details raise the question: how much of the Epstein scandal was real, and how much of it was fake? It seems unlikely that the whole Epstein case was falsified to create a puppet show pantomime, which would deceive the conservative populists and crypto-anarchist part of the masses. It would not be the first time that a Potemkin Village was built to create a false impression of reality.

The possibility that Epstein's island was only theatre, and could have been a Potemkin Village den of child abuse is somehow more horrible than the possibility that it was a real site of torture, mind control, child rape and human trafficking. I do not mention this to play down the sufferings of potential victims. But the paranoia and world view that one would have to have in order to see the island as a Hollywood set for negative fake propaganda is somehow worse than seeing it as a real Island of Doctor Moreau.

The First Independent Media To Invade Epstein's Island [Share Before Taken Down] (28 October 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

Materialist Rhetoric: The Cosmic Indifference of Alien AI Gods

From Alan Moore's Lovecraftian comic, Providence. Image Source: Xataka.

This week, I am selecting vocabulary used by materialists to reveal their long game. Materialism here refers loosely to those who subscribe to secular and scientific values, that is, those who explore the world in the strictly physical sense.

I deconstruct some materialist values here, not to write an anti-scientific or technophobic screed, but to consider alternative approaches toward science and technology. I mean to show here that what we think of as 'rationalism,' 'secularism,' 'materialism,' 'science,' and 'technology' are social constructions, grounded in obsolete, 19th and 20th century modernist concepts of order and madness. I will discuss this historical background in future posts.

Can we build AI without losing control over it? | Sam Harris (19 October 2016). Video Source: Youtube.

In recent years, several tech leaders have come forward to predict the rise of artificial intelligence. The prediction rests on a definition of intelligence as 'information processing' and 'interactivity,' about which I have blogged here. Developers consider AI 'goal-setting' to be the same thing as human dreaming. The AI vocabulary projects machine processes onto human cognition, and removes the extra-sensory, the anti-materialistic, or any magical thinking that is otherwise undefined in physical terms.

If one adheres to this set of ideas, one removes emotional, moral and ethical concerns from intelligence. One ignores non-linear, lateral, interstitial, and other undefinable elements that are part of the purely human, non-mechanical experience. (Thanks to -D.)

Materialist Proposition 1: Progress is Worship, Expressed through Physical Augmentation of Natural Ability

Quantum Computers - An Altar To An 'Alien god'! Doorway To Other Dimensions And Image Of The Beast! (2 February 2017). Video Source: Youtube.

Tech leaders like Geordie Rose, father of marketed quantum computers, adhere to a 19th century vision of 'progress.' They believe that history is an upward story of human and scientific expansion. We must develop bodies, societies and systems which transcend the limits of biology.

ideacity 2019 - Geordie Rose - Synthetic Minds, Cooperation and the Future of Humanity (21 June 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

In this view, the brain is a machine, which we will decode, mechanize and develop with the help of artificial intelligence. Because of its independent functions and the symbiotic assistance it will provide during our brain upgrades, the AI will appear to us like an alien god. Technologists admit this god will destroy our humanity, but that is acceptable, because the god will help one nation get ahead of another in the geopolitical balance of power. That, or the god will cure cancer.

Despite their supposed adherence to logical explanations, these technologists justify themselves through glib asides. They never ask if there is an alternative to 19th century scientific progress. They do not reflect on whether their political biases pose problems for their planning. They never consider whether the nation-state is a dated idea. They never refer to the evolutionary purpose which cancer may serve, about which I have blogged, here and here. They certainly never ask (at least publicly) if there are extra-physical aspects of human cognition, which cannot be simulated. It does not matter if the consequences of technologists' blind spots will result in species-wide slavery. In fact, that is the expected result.

The real question, then, concerns the developers' ambitions. A very small number of humans aim to control the machines that will control the bulk of humankind. XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis remarked:

"Today, a group of 20 individuals empowered by the exponential growing technologies of AI and robotics and computers and networks and eventually nanotechnology can do what only nation states could have done before."

These humans will act, based on their limited intelligence and values. If the story of the AI as alien god is really a story about the ambitions of a tiny group of tech moguls and billionaires, we should identify the real beliefs of this group.

Where Non-Fiction and Fiction Meet: New Post at The Dragonfly

Image Source: Fanpop.

I have a new post up at The Dragonfly:

Fiction and Truth Inside the Broken System

The post uses the Alien franchise of movies to begin to describe the anti-materialist perspective of technology.


See all posts in the What's Left Over? series on materialism and anti-materialism in technological advancement.

Materialist Rhetoric: The Savage

Ariana Grande - 7 rings (2019). Video Source: Youtube.

This week, I am selecting words from the technosphere that reveal the materialist mindset, be it from scientists, technologists or capitalists. Today's word, from the last, is savage. The lyrics are below; this video version of Grande's My Favorite Things cover on Youtube has over 603 million views.

Image Source: Broadway.

Ariana Grande, 7 Rings (released 1 February 2019)

Yeah, breakfast at Tiffany's and bottles of bubbles
Girls with tattoos who like getting in trouble
Lashes and diamonds, ATM machines
Buy myself all of my favorite things (yeah)
Been through some bad shit, I should be a sad bitch
Who woulda thought it'd turn me to a savage?
Rather be tied up with cuffs and not strings
Write my own checks like I write what I sing, yeah (yeah)
My wrist, stop watchin', my neck is flossin'
Make big deposits, my gloss is poppin'
You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it

I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (yeah)
I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it
I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it
You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it
I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (yeah)

Wearing a ring, but ain't gon' be no "Mrs."
Bought matching diamonds for six of my bitches
I'd rather spoil all my friends with my riches
Think retail therapy my new addiction
Whoever said money can't solve your problems
Must not have had enough money to solve 'em
They say, "Which one?" I say, "Nah, I want all of 'em"
Happiness is the same price as red-bottoms
My smile is beamin', my skin is gleamin'
The way it shine, I know you've seen it (you've seen it)
I bought a crib just for the closet
Both his and hers, I want it, I got it, yeah

I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it
I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it (baby)
You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it (oh yeah)
I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (yeah)

Yeah, my receipts, be lookin' like phone numbers
If it ain't money, then wrong number
Black card is my business card
The way it be settin' the tone for me
I don't mean to brag, but I be like, "Put it in the bag," yeah
When you see them racks, they stacked up like my ass, yeah
Shoot, go from the store to the booth
Make it all back in one loop, give me the loot
Never mind, I got the juice
Nothing but net when we shoot
Look at my neck, look at my jet
Ain't got enough money to pay me respect
Ain't no budget when I'm on the set
If I like it, then that's what I get, yeah

I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it (yeah)
I want it, I got it, I want it, I got it (oh yeah, yeah)
You like my hair? Gee, thanks, just bought it
I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it (yeah)


Songwriters: Ariana Grande / Kimberly Krysiuk / Njomza Vitia / Oscar Hammerstein / Richard Rodgers / Taylor Monet Parks / Victoria Monet

7 rings lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Concord Music Publishing LLC, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd. All rights belong to owners.

Reproduced non-commercially under Fair Use.


See all posts in the What's Left Over? series on materialism and anti-materialism in technological advancement.

Materialist Rhetoric: The Splice

A rat embryo. Image Source: Science Pictures ltd/SPL via Science.

This week, I am highlighting vocabulary which is being used by materialists to explain their long term goals and beliefs. I will then expand on where all this is going. For today, a news headline from The Post Millennial: Japanese scientists to grow rat embryos spliced with 30 percent human DNA. The plan is to grow human organs inside animals, and the word 'splice' is equated with 'help.' The plan was explained in Nature on 26 July 2019:

"A Japanese stem-cell scientist is the first to receive government support to create animal embryos that contain human cells and transplant them into surrogate animals since a ban on the practice was overturned earlier this year.

Hiromitsu Nakauchi, who leads teams at the University of Tokyo and Stanford University in California, plans to grow human cells in mouse and rat embryos and then transplant those embryos into surrogate animals. Nakauchi's ultimate goal is to produce animals with organs made of human cells that can, eventually, be transplanted into people.

Until March, Japan explicitly forbade the growth of animal embryos containing human cells beyond 14 days or the transplant of such embryos into a surrogate uterus. That month, Japan’s education and science ministry issued new guidelines allowing the creation of human–animal embryos that can be transplanted into surrogate animals and brought to term. ...

Nakauchi says he plans to proceed slowly, and will not attempt to bring any hybrid embryos to term for some time. Initially, he plans to grow hybrid mouse embryos until 14.5 days, when the animal’s organs are mostly formed and it is almost to term. He will do the same experiments in rats, growing the hybrids to near term, about 15.5 days. Later, Nakauchi plans to apply for government approval to grow hybrid embryos in pigs for up to 70 days."

See all posts in the What's Left Over? series on materialism and anti-materialism in technological advancement.

Quantum Computing Rhetoric: In a Word, Supremacy

Demonstrating Quantum Supremacy (23 October 2019). Video Source: Youtube.

In an attempt to understand where advanced technology is headed in cultural terms, I will begin simply by presenting examples of rhetoric used at Silicon Valley Corporations and by other tech developers. Each word provides the vocabulary of a new priestly class. Today's word comes from Google: supremacy.


See all posts in the What's Left Over? series on materialism and anti-materialism in technological advancement.

What's Left Over? The Materialist Algorithm for Cognition

Image Source: Morten Tolboll.

This post continues my investigation of materialism and anti-materialism as competing responses to technology. My central argument is that right-wing and left-wing descriptions of politics and the economy are misleading and obsolete. Politics and economics are evolving to mirror tech-oriented materialism and anti-materialism. The worst of the former is leading to tyrannical political oppression. The worst of the latter is leading to an alienation from the mainstream consensus about reality.

Thus far in this blog series, I have focussed on materialism as a way of seeing the world, which is grounded in empiricism, scientific exploration, rationalism, secularism, and the associated economic mode of capitalist consumption. All of these aspects concentrate on humankind's five senses and how they can measure and experience the physical realm.

More radical forms of materialism reveal where this is stance is headed. In 2013, Stephen J. Cowley and Frédéric Vallée-Tourangeau edited a collected volume of scholarly essays entitled, Cognition beyond the Brain: Computation, Interactivity and Human Artifice. The editors explain that the notion that we are free to think inside our heads is a fairy tale. They argue that the thoughts we have inside our own heads as private expressions of personal existence, and as ego-controlled responses to the outside world, constitute a bedtime story we tell ourselves about our independence as individual beings.

'Thinking,' for these academics, is not an internalized activity expressing the cognitive power and freedom of a single, rational creature. Rather, as I suggested in my post, Who Writes Your Reality?, 'thinking' is a culturally-modulated experience. It is even possibly constructed from the outside in. That is, your brain from this materialist standpoint is like a Tabula rasa, upon which the outside world may write its programs as it wishes. The editors of Cognition beyond the Brain call old-fashioned notions of subjective 'thinking' a 'folk concept,' a culturally-shaped story we tell ourselves about what we are doing:

"Like all folk concepts, ‘thinking’ is a second-order construct used to ‘explain’ observations or, specifically, how action is—and should be—integrated with perception."

This is a radical departure from the earlier Postmodern deification of the subjective mind, wherein social objectivities were demolished and everyone's personal truth was considered sacrosanct.