The Militarization of Science and Space

There is alot to be said about the way in which science and space is being co-opted into the military-industrial complex. This is huge topic worthy of much research - especially the vast amounts of money going into the weaponisation of space, some of this filtered through scientific agencies and covert funding.

Some initial noteworthy links here:

1. A Google Video from Noam Chomsky speaking at MIT on The Militarization of Science and Space

2. A short yet informative article titled 'Master of Space' by Karl Grossman

3. A site with some good resources called 'Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space'

And I'm sure there's more to come...

Suspect Nation

Earlier in the week More4 aired a documentary on the state of Britain's surveillance - it was titled Suspect Nation .

For those who missed it, it can be viewed here as a free download on Google Video - while it lasts!

A very 'telling' exposure, and recommended viewing.

Also, I posted earlier upon the recent report that had just been released that had made a study of Britain as a surveillance state.

This study had been commissioned by the Information Commissioner and was undertaken by the Surveillance Studies Network, with the principal report authors having connection to the academic organisation/journal Surveillance & Society.

This 100 page report is now available in full here.

Awareness

John Baines is a Teacher. Well, this is the name he publishes under in the english-speaking world - his real name is Dario Salas Sommer. Dario is a teacher of Hermetic Philosophy and often takes a critical look at the current state of mankind. Dario likes to expose the “collective animal soul” which guides and directs humanity and to re-direct awareness onto Hermetic Philosophy that can aid the individual in freeing oneself from the collective influence.

in Hypsoconsciousness Dario states that:

Our modern world of rapid social, political, and technological change leaves much to be desired when trying to extract meaning from the kaleidoscope of our day-to-day lives. Behind all the difficulties that we encounter as we move through life driven to find "the answer", one single fundamental fact obliges us to suffer a host of needless ills, sufferings, misunderstandings and disappointments. This is the fact of man's low level of awareness.

He also states that 'humanity today in no way represents the peak of the species' evolution, which hasn't even met the half-way mark towards its evolutionary goal. The human being reveals himself as an incomplete structure, one that is only half-realised'.

In our present state we are under 'mass hypnosis' - falling in with the consensus of the mass mind without awakening or energising a sense of inner 'being'. Our situation is that 'the sleeper must awaken'.

Why shouldn't we be conscious of every present moment?

Also see - Dario Salas Institute and his official home web-site

Brilliant Minds on the Next 50 Years

Is the future knowable? Or, as the Tech Singularity suggests, will it just be beyond our terrestrial imaginations? Well - New Scientist had to take the role of 'ritual authority' and ask these questions to over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas:

the result is here in Brilliant Minds on the Next 50 Years: Instant Expert

And visit the following topics to find some answers/suggestions/assumptions/guesses?

Life: Ageing, alien life, consciousness, ecology, embryology, environment, evolution, genetics, health, humans, language, neuroscience, oceans, psychology, sex and social science.

Space and technology: Artificial intelligence, communications, computing, cosmology, space and technology.

Oil, Smoke & Mirrors

Oil, Smoke & Mirrors is a documentary film (50 mins) that discusses the issue of Peak Oil in the context of the US foreign policy and global climate trends.

This video is a sober and insightful discussion, with interviews with notable figures in both the Peak Oil/Environmental movement, such as Richard Heinberg, as well as political figures.

Definately worth a watch - and opens up the debate on civil unrest in a potential future of further resource scarcity and wars.

You can watch here via Google Video - or via the home page

The Way to Go

Great contemporary thinker Howard Bloom has delivered another thought-provoking speech on the way foward if our species is to prove successful during upcoming Mother Earth changes in
SCREW SUSTAINABILITY: THE AGE OF THE TORNADO TAMERS BUSTING THE BUBBLE OF SPACESHIP EARTH
Bloom ever so gently reminds us that: Every talk like this needs a take-home message. Before I go any further, let me sum up the most important take home message oozing from the facts I'm telling you. Mother Nature is a vicious bitch. Catastrophe is her stock in trade. And with our help or without it, Mother Nature will sooner or later yank everything we take for granted away. Unless we lay the foundations for a technology and for a civilization able to harness the energies and surmount the floods and freezes of change. What Bloom reminds us of is that the most successful species on this planet is bacteria - and we need to harness our resources and social functioning in similar patterns. In other words, a form of biomimicry. Worth listening to...

Britain has sleepwalked into pervasive surveillance

It's official - Britain is the most surveilled country amongst developed western nations. A recent report just out - The Surveillance Studies Network report- said there are up to 4.2m CCTV cameras - about one for every 14 people.

The report also stresses that dataveillance has increased drastically, as well as a future of targeted branding. This also includes satellite tracking of all future journeys and the introduction of individually customised payments, as well as job and school screening. This is the first report to really highlight the immediacy of this situation...and it sounds uncomfortable.

You can read separate accounts of this report from the BBC, Guardian, and The Times respectively:


Britain is 'surveillance society'

Spy planes, clothes scanners and secret cameras: Britain's surveillance future

By 2016, they'll be able to watch you everywhere


Also, of interest, is an article by Steve Wright called The ECHELON Trail: An Illegal Vision in which he describes how as an academic researcher at Lancaster University in the UK - he was investigating the Echelon surveillance system and was harrassed by Special Forces who came to his home and forced him to go with them to the university with the aim of confiscating his research... we researchers at Lancaster have a reputation, it seems...

This was first posted on my other blog - New Mobilities