Public Intelligence Blog

Berto Jongman

These 12 technologies will drive our economic future

Neil Irwin

Washington Post, 24 May 2013

As the chart shows, the McKinsey folks believe that the most economically significant technologies over the next decade-plus will be those already well underway in their development — the mobile Internet, largely in place in the adv

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Indeed, maybe the single biggest takeaway from the study is this: The things that will have the greatest impact on the economy in the medium term aren’t the ones that seem to most excite the imagination and public interest. Instead, the potentially powerful innovations are mostly those that have been evolving for many years in new ways.

. . . . . . . .

The real economic benefits of innovation, at least over the near term, come not from the flashy, mind-blowing ideas, but from clever combinations of technologies that are just maturing with those that have been around for ages.

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Who? Mini-Me?

Huh?

NASA-funded research

The audacious plan to end hunger with 3-D printed food

Christopher Mims

Quartz, 21 May 2013

Anjan Contractor’s 3D food printer might evoke visions of the “replicator” popularized in Star Trek, from which Captain Picard was constantly interrupting himself to order tea. And indeed Contractor’s company, Systems & Materials Research Corporation, just got a six month, $125,000 grant from NASA to create a prototype of his universal food synthesizer.

But Contractor, a mechanical engineer with a background in 3D printing, envisions a much more mundane—and ultimately more important—use for the technology. He sees a day when every kitchen has a 3D printer, and the earth’s 12 billion people feed themselves customized, nutritionally-appropriate meals synthesized one layer at a time, from cartridges of powder and oils they buy at the corner grocery store. Contractor’s vision would mean the end of food waste, because the powder his system will use is shelf-stable for up to 30 years, so that each cartridge, whether it contains sugars, complex carbohydrates, protein or some other basic building block, would be fully exhausted before being returned to the store.

Ubiquitous food synthesizers would also create new ways of producing the basic calories on which we all rely. Since a powder is a powder, the inputs could be anything that contain the right organic molecules. We already know that eating meat is environmentally unsustainable, so why not get all our protein from insects?

If eating something spat out by the same kind of 3D printers that are currently being used to make everything from jet engine parts to fine art doesn’t sound too appetizing, that’s only because you can currently afford the good stuff, says Contractor. That might not be the case once the world’s population reaches its peak size, probably sometime near the end of this century.

“I think, and many economists think, that current food systems can’t supply 12 billion people sufficiently,” says Contractor. “So we eventually have to change our perception of what we see as food.”

Read full article with graphics, photos, video.

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David Swanson

The Government’s List of “Anti-Government” People

Should the U.S. government be building a list of people whom a stranger has concluded based on as little as a moment’s interaction are “anti-government”?  Look at this photo of a U.S. Census laptop.  There’s a box to check if a respondent is reluctant to participate in the census.

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The next screen wants the census interviewer to explain the potential interviewee’s reluctance:

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Notice that there is a box for hostile or threatening.  That seems important.  There are boxes for just not interested or too busy.  There is a box for those who object that too many personal questions are asked.  The basics all seem to be covered.  But the Census employee is to check multiple boxes, “all that apply,” and one is  “Anti-government concerns.”  What does that mean?  What do Census workers think it means?  It clearly means something other than reluctant to give the government this information.  To be “anti-” the government sounds like someone is in favor of overthrowing the government.  And a government that thinks purely in terms of violence would inevitably interpret such a desire as one in favor of violently overthrowing the government.  But surely nobody tells a representative of the government that they favor its violent overthrow unless they don’t really take themselves seriously and are not actually a threat.  So maybe this “Anti-government concerns” box is equivalent to “Seems nuts,” but what sort of training does the survey taker have in mental health?  The serious question is what lists your name goes on if somebody marks you down as Anti-government.

David Swanson

Connecticut Advances Conversion from War to Peace Economy

The Connecticut legislature has sent to the governor to sign a bill that would create a commission to develop a plan for, among other things:

“the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries with an emphasis on encouraging environmentally-sustainable and civilian product manufacturing. On or before December 1, 2014, the commission shall submit such report to the Governor and, in accordance with the provisions of section 11-4a, to the joint standing committee of the General Assembly having cognizance of matters relating to commerce.”

The commission “shall Advise the General Assembly and the Department of Economic and Community Development on issues relating to the diversification or conversion of defense-related industries” among other things.

Read the full text.

According to Peace Action, sponsor State Senator Toni N. Harp from New Haven has said,

“The proposed Futures Commission will set up a framework that allows us to convert many of our military related jobs and infrastructure into non-military industries.”

This is a remarkable breakthrough that didn’t just come out of nowhere:

“In November 2012, a ballot referendum passed in New Haven that called for moving the money from war to jobs rebuilding our infrastructure and human needs. This referendum won support nearly 6 to 1! This winter in Connecticut, the US Peace Council, No Nukes No War, the City of New Haven Peace Commission with the support of the state AFL-CIO and International Association of Machinists worked to get  SB619 introduced in the state legislature calling for a Futures Commission whose goals is to investigate how to convert the weapons manufacturing industries to producing civilian, green products and retain and develop manufacturing in the state. The Commission that this bill creates will include representatives of labor, peace and environmental organizations.”

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Chuck Spinney

The popular perception of Hezbollah as simply an Islamic terrorist organization has been colored by American-Israeli propaganda (particularly wrt to relations with Iran and Syria), sloppy reporting, and a growing sense of Islamophobia in American culture.

Rami Khouri is a prolific Lebanese intellectual who writes widely on the Middle East.  His austere, direct form of writing lays out arguments clearly and concisely.  Like all writers of Middle Eastern affairs, his predictions are often wrong, but unlike most, his fault lines, when they occur, are easily traced.  In short, Khouri is always a good read and well worth following, because even if his arguments turn out to be erroneous, they are a fount of useful information.

Attached below is his fascinating take on Hezbollah.  I reformatted it to highlight his points but have not changed a word or the order of his words.  Some readers find my highlighting distracting, others like it; if you are one of the former, the link below will take you to the original.

Chuck Spinney

Hezbollah’s Moment of Reckoning in Qusayr

22 May 2013

BEIRUT — The most fascinating aspect of the war in Syria this month — and perhaps also the most significant in terms of long-term regional geo-politics — is the direct involvement of Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite party and resistance group that is closely allied to Iran and Syria. The significance of Hezbollah’s participation in the battle for the Syrian town of Qusayr comprises several distinct elements:

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Sterling Seagrave

Responding to 2013 Robert Steele Answers on OSINT to PhD Student in Denmark

You refer several times to what you call “unethical private sector parties whose only focus is on money in, not intelligence out.” This is what corrupted Truman’s initiative. Covens like this go way back in history, but in the US more recently it coalesced around the group that set up the Fed, expanded to include globetrotters like Wild Bill Donovan and the Dulles Brothers. They, in turn, brought in collusion with Meyer Lansky, a merger of Mafia with highest level Masons, and a very powerful group of attorneys (Paul Helliwell, etc), financiers (Averell Harriman, etc), who were vigorously engaged in financing the Bolsheviks, the Nazis, the Fascists, Imperialists, and eventually Neo-Cons.  While financing these groups to put power into dictatorship-of-the-State (everyone else being disposable serfs), they profited from moving heroin and other drugs, and siphoned off all the gold they could to personal offshore caches. In effect, this created a covert government-within-a-government, enabled them to take over mass media, and to use pharmaceuticals to stupefy the general public.  The formal government of the US is now 90% corrupted into what’s been called “a parliament of whores”. Huge sums provided to “rescue” Greece, etc., vanish. The coven has brought together as many fascist foreign governments as possible, so in effect it is attempting to set up its “invisible government” as the new global government. In doing so it has subverted the UN, and virtually all global organizations such as the FAO.  This is why OSINT is having such a difficult time, reversing the poisonous current.  The last thing the coven wants is an honest, moral, and open source of truthful information for the public.

How many and which fascist governments?

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Tom Atlee

Doing democracy differently

In Is Democracy in Trouble? E.J. Dionne describes major studies suggesting that “Across most of the democratic world, there is an impatience bordering on exhaustion with electoral systems and political classes” because governments don’t follow the will of “the people”.

It would be one thing if governments made wiser decisions than what “the people” want. But they so seldom do. Usually they make decisions that favor special interests regardless of the common good.

It saddens me that this is framed as people losing faith in democracy. I don’t think governments that act this way are good examples of democracy. I’m also not sure that such a system can be fixed within a corrupted democratic process.

There are other ways to do democracy. Most people don’t realize that ancient Athenians – our alleged democratic forebears – were radically in favor of random selection and opposed to voting for representatives. They figured that aristocrats would dominate any electoral system. (Sound familiar?) Aristotle summarized their view, saying “It is accepted as democratic when public offices are allocated by lot [random selection]; and as oligarchic when they are filled by election.”

Although John Adams and James Madison (the first and fourth US Presidents) may not have been aware of the use of random selection in democracy, they did make statements that sound like it. Adams said that a legislature “should be an exact portrait, in miniature, of the people at large, as it should think, feel, reason, and act like them.” And Madison added that “The government ought to possess… the mind or sense of the people at large. The legislature ought to be the most exact transcript of the whole society.”

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Berto Jongman

EU tax: Barroso urges full automatic exchange of data

The head of the European Commission has told the European Parliament he wants EU-wide exchange of income data as part of the fight against tax evasion.

Jose Manuel Barroso said he would urge Wednesday’s summit of EU leaders to support automatic exchange of people’s earnings data between tax authorities.

Tax evasion costs EU states 1tn euros ($1.3tn; £0.85tn) a year, more than was spent on healthcare in 2008.

MEPs are expected to call for a Europe-wide blacklist of tax havens.

Pressure is likely to be put on Switzerland to relax banking secrecy amid anger over revelations about Greek and French politicians holding secret Swiss bank accounts.

The debate comes a day after UK Prime Minister David Cameron urged British overseas territories which operate low-tax regimes to “get their house in order” and sign up to international treaties on tax.

Mr Barroso said he wanted to see the principle of automatic exchange “become the standard at international level as well”.

Read full article.

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Berto Jongman

Socom’s goal: Pre-empt wars

Tampa is headquarters for the commandos who are gaining a bigger role in military operations around the globe. Military writer Howard Altman travels with them this month in Afghanistan.

By Howard Altman | Tribune Staff

Tampa Tribune,  May 19, 2013

They make small footprints at the edges of the Earth.

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Sometimes they hunt and kill. Sometimes they teach rural tribes how to govern and farm.

But after more than 12 years of war, special operations forces are frayed — and in more demand than ever. With the military facing big spending cuts and a new emphasis on places around the globe, U.S. Special Operations Command, headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base, is working to adapt to new realities.

Where will they make footprints next?

“There has been a shift in strategy away from war to defensive tactics,” said Stuart Bradin, an Army colonel helping bring a new global special operations network to life.

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“The primary pieces are a pivot to Asia while keeping a very strong eye and focus on the Middle East, as well. We are going to go out in small footprints and work with key partners to ensure that small regional issues don’t become major theater operations. We can’t afford that in blood or treasure.”

The new network has a name, “Global SOF Network,” and a theme, “you can’t surge trust,” and it’s the vision of Socom commander Adm. William McRaven.

Full story and PBI comment below the line.

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Stephen E. Arnold

Google Implants By 2030?

From Marketplace Tech comes an interesting article on Google Glass and the projections into the future in regards to similar projects. The article, “Google’s Ray Kurzweil on the Computers that will Live in our Brains,” discusses how everything Google puts its hands on is changing how we search, retrieve and interact with information. As in nearly all articles these days discussing Google Glass Ray Kurzweil, the director of engineering at Google, leads the conversation.

Kurzweil posits that we will eventually move beyond devices that simply allow us to look at the world through a keyhole. Instead, he forecasts that people will be online all the time. He projects that devices post-Glass will ultimately be the size of blood cells able to be sent inside the brain and connect to the cloud around the mid-2030’s.

The article tells us more:

“In Kurzweil’s vision, these advances don’t simply bring computers closer to our biological systems. Machines become more like us. ‘Your personality, your skills are contained in information in your neocortex, and it is information,’ Kurzweil says. ‘These technologies will be a million times more powerful in 20 years and we will be able to manipulate the information inside your brain.’ As that data locked up inside our brain becomes searchable, inimitable human qualities suddenly become easier to emulate. Kurzweil denies that the searching and backup up of the brain itself is a bloodless pursuit, depleted of human emotion.”

Artificial intelligence and the melding of biology and machine is increasingly discussed in the media in reference to Google Glass. Will Glass evolve to Google impants? The bigger question is touched upon in this particular article: is it altruistic intentions or advertising that is driving this kind of technology?

Megan Feil, May 20, 2013

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