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

More HAARP

The subject of HAARP just never seems to go away - in fact it's growing: exactly! And the project isn't finished yet.

Free Press International has a short video introducing this subject in a post titled Haarp: Altering Our World

Also...

Alongside this it's worth mentioning a recent story from NASA which I found to be very revealing: in A Growing Intelligence Around Earth NASA explains how its new breed of satellites around the Earth have machine intelligence and can spontaneously respond to events happening on Earth, and communicate between other satellites on this information. It says:

'EO-1 is a new breed of satellite that can think for itself. "We programmed it to notice things that change (like the plume of a volcano) and take appropriate action," Chien explains. EO-1 can re-organize its own priorities to study volcanic eruptions, flash-floods, forest fires, disintegrating sea-ice—in short, anything unexpected.

And now the intelligence is growing. "We're teaching EO-1 to use sensors on other satellites." Examples: Terra and Aqua, two NASA satellites which fly over every part of Earth twice a day. Each has a sensor onboard named MODIS. It's an infrared spectrometer able to sense heat from forest fires and volcanoes—just the sort of thing EO-1 likes to study. "We make MODIS data available to EO-1," says Chien, "so when Terra or Aqua see something interesting, EO-1 can respond."'

Well... enjoy!

Practical and Realist

Tom Montalk - over at Montalk.Net - has written a constructive argument for being practical during these confusing and disruptive times. He calls it The Trap of Combative Dualism:

in this he discusses that it is necessary to understand, and not deny, unpleasant impacts in our lives for it will be only worse if we go through life with rose-tinted glasses, like a kind of Pollyana - this does not mean dwelling on such matters. It is about being practical and realist, yet to remain positive and determined in our paths. I feel it is worth reading.

And the article ends on a quote from Steiner, which I reproduce here:

'In An Outline of Esoteric Science Rudolf Steiner wrote:

An additional way of training our thinking and feeling is by acquiring a quality we can call “positivity.” There is a beautiful legend that tells of Christ Jesus and several other people walking past a dead dog. The others all turned away from the ugly sight, but Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the animal’s beautiful teeth. We can practice maintaining the soul-attitude toward the world that this legend exemplifies. The erroneous, the bad, and the ugly must not prevent the soul from finding the true, the good, and the beautiful wherever they are present. We must not confuse positivity with being artificially uncritical or arbitrarily closing our eyes [YCYOR] to things that are bad, false, or inferior. It is possible to admire a dead animal’s “beautiful teeth” and still see the decaying corpse; the corpse does not prevent us from seeing the beautiful teeth. We cannot consider bad things good and false things true, but we can reach the point where the bad does not prevent us from seeing the good and errors do not keep us from seeing the truth.'

Manipulation of Will

Today we are living through a battle of Wills - can people be fooled as easily as the foolers want us to be? Do we give permission?

Conflict in developed regions is less about physical cohercion and more about covert manipulation. The real objective of war - as well as these days since we are living in 'days of war' - is the imposition of Will.

Prussian military strategist von Clausewitz called war 'an extension of diplomacy by other means. Imposition of will, not physical destruction, is the appropriate measure of success'

For example, look into this influential US military document that did the rounds - O'Neill, Richard P. (CDR, USN). Toward a Methodology for Perception Management. Newport, RI, Jun 1989. 58 p. (Naval War College (U.S.) Center for Advanced Research. Paper)Doc. call no.: M-U 41662-6 D58t

As Retired Colonal John Alexander puts it:

'The fact is, perception management has become a well-honed, fine art in the civilian sector. We call it politics!...Perception management is ubiquitous in today's society...and the target of information warfare is the human mind. The only logical solution is to acknowledge perception management and execute it well' (Future War - p. 112-3)

Our we literally losing our minds...???

The Coming Bio-Economy

Going small... the future is in the minute, micro universe rather than the macro - according to the bio-economy. In LIFEBOAT FOUNDATION SPECIAL REPORT - GETTING READY FOR THE COMING BIO-ECONOMY: AN ADVANCE SURVEY WITH TEN PRACTICAL TIPS Scott Borg - Director and Chief Economist of the U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit - has this to say:

TEN TIPS ON GETTING READY FOR THE BIO-ECONOMY
1) Learn to Let Things Operate Slightly Out of Control
2) Think Small, Think Very, Very Small
3) Look First in the Cracks and Shadows
4) Open Everything to the Spotlight Right Away
5) Don't Let Your Big Picture Be a "Picture"
6) Promote Collective, Self-Organizing Processes
7) Look for Biological Efficiencies, Not Mechanical Ones
8) Expect the Value to be in the Source Codes
9) Don't Assume Politics Will Remain Less Changed Than Business
10) Watch for the Tipping Points in These Technological Waves

'If we step back and try to take a long-range view of these developments, there are three big themes that emerge:

The first big theme is that everything, in the future, will be saturated with ideas. This is not just a matter of information permeating everything. It's a matter of thought or concepts dominating the economy in a new way.

The second big theme is that everything will be recognized to depend on creativity.

The third big theme is that everything will become increasingly individualized.

This, too, is something that was already happening as a result of information technology. For several years now, there has been talk of "mass customization", of "personalizing" information media and advertising, and of providing "unique solutions." But the bio-economy takes this to a whole new level.'

So we are dealing with the information of ideas... and individualisation - question is, will it be a positive or negative type of individualism?

Last man standing... or we all stand together?

To not Fear

There is alot of what appears to be deliberate stimulation - perhaps 'over-stimulation'? - going on in the world today. Alot of this is noise; distractions from ourselves; disturbances to our inner peace. Making us fear.

They want us to fear. To be fearful. To be fearful of others. To produce fear.

What better way to keep us bound up in our self-perpetual prisms of insecurity. Fear attracts fear. Like attracts like. That which we project determines what we encounter.

If we resonate in these lower frequencies we give away our capacity, and our power to act for ourselves. Passivity and apathy is not about failing to take to the strees to protest or to fight against the system like a 'great rebel' - this is exactly what is expected of us for it gives the appearance of democracy. Genuine apathy is to give over our self-determination, faith, and confidence to those external to ourselves. To always resonate with balance, goodness, strength and energy is to defy the grand delusion being fostered upon us in these days...


'The times propel you to create new neurological patterns in your being, and what seems at first to be too much stimulation, eventually becomes manageable. Every species goes through a similar process of an expansion of consciousness when it is their time.' - Family of Light

Ancient Soundtracks

Various sources have discussed the use of accoustics for interfering with objects and either moving or destroying them. The famous Biblical story of the fall of Jericho is often cited here. Some investigators have even speculated that the Egyptian pyramids were formed by some type of accoustics.

See Stone Age Soundtracks as a good introduction on this topic and which discusses sections on Infrasound - below the hearing ability of the human ear, but one can feel it - brainwave states, the resonation of body parts, and music and mysticism.

Is it rare that such subjects get a mention in more orthodox books. Yet I have recently been reading Future War which deals with the military use of non-lethal weapons. Here the author - retired colonel John B. Alexander - discusses accepted military findings on accoustics based on recorded instances:

'Ancient Tibetan applications of sound for levitation of heavy objects have been documented in recent years. A famed Swiss aircraft designer, Henry Kjellson, observed and recorded heavy stones, each about 1.5 meter cube, being lifted to a position 400 meters above them by monks using musical instruments... other stories have suggested that a similar proceedure may have been used to move stones at the pyramids in Egypt'

The book also goes on to note Russian and US military research into infrasound accoustic weapons.

The future is less about what is perceivable and more about what affects the human body-mind beyond the senses.

How can a person block unwanted external environmental impacts?

Do not accept Fear. Produce no Fear. Retain your own strength & energy.

Ponerology

At present being part of the project of humanity requires living under a set of constraints, control structures, and containments. Some of these are physical - both overt and covert - whilst others are beyond perceptual means. Power is a form of control that feeds upon itself in order to maintain its leverage. There are various theories that deal with the who the 'World Management Team' are, and I will not further elaborate this here.

What is interesting is the notion that pathological evil in humans is a dis-ease that affects many individuals. The nature of evil for political reasons has been named as Ponerology. In this essay Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes Andrew M. Lobaczewski's ideas are given commentary and additional quoted material by Laura Knight-Jadczyk, and is worth reading. A quote:

"Current day statistics tell us that there are more psychologically sick people than healthy ones. If you take a sampling of individuals in any given field, you are likely to find that a significant number of them display pathological symptoms to one extent or another. Politics is no exception, and by its very nature, would tend to attract more of the pathological “dominator types” than other fields. That is only logical, and we began to realize that it was not only logical, it was horrifyingly accurate; horrifying because pathology among people in power can have disastrous effects on all of the people under the control of such pathological individuals."

A Twisted Simulacrum of Reality

I have just returned from listening to acclaimed journalist and Middle East specialist Robert Fisk give a talk at Lancaster University. And to hear from the horse's mouth what is actually happening beyond our media only reinforces how conditioned we are by our institutions of lies. We are lied to from birth - by our society, our state institutions - especially the media and education - and endlessly through the tubes we willingly place in our minds to be fed utter deceit.

The energies are changing however - and the onus is increasingly upon the individual to claim their own inheritance. An inheritance that belongs to each one of us: the sleeper must awaken..

Tom at Montalk states the situation correctly when he says:

'There is far more to this world than taught in our schools, shown in the media, or proclaimed by the church and state. Most of mankind lives in a hypnotic trance, taking to be reality what is instead a twisted simulacrum of reality, a collective dream in which values are inverted, lies are taken as truth, and tyranny is accepted as security. They enjoy their ignorance and cling tightly to the misery that gives them identity.

Fortunately, some are born with spiritual immune systems that sooner or later give rejection to the illusory worldview grafted upon them from birth through social conditioning. They begin sensing that something is amiss, and start looking for answers. Inner knowledge and anomalous outer experiences show them a side of reality others are oblivious to, and so begins their journey of awakening. Each step of the journey is made by following the heart instead of following the crowd and by choosing knowledge over ignorance.

Knowledge is the key to unlocking our potential. It gives us the self-determination, responsibility, and power necessary to cast off the chains of covert oppression. Knowledge is therefore the greatest protector, for it also gives us foresight to impeccably handle the challenges of life and, most importantly, to sidestep the traps on the path to awakening. The more you know of higher truths and apply what you know, the more you begin operating under higher laws that transcend the limitations of the lower.'

The opportunity is for us.

Colonising Space

Are we there yet? Only a few months ago world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said that the survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth. Hawkin told a news conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years...

Well, there are those who believe that there are already humans occupying the moon and mars, care of military black-operations... so it seems the smokescreens are already out and the Counter-Intelligence Programs are well and truly up and running...

‘Many utopian themes, arising in fantasy, find their way to reality’ - Frederick Polak

Decades ago science writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote about a space elevator - now a company called the Liftport Group has published preliminary plans [PDF] to design and build the first space elevator.


The Presidential Directive on National Space Policy says that the United States will:

* [P]reserve its rights, capabilities, and freedom of action in space; dissuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so; take those actions necessary to protect its space capabilities; respond to interference; and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests; oppose the development of new legal regimes or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

* Proposed arms control agreements or restrictions must not impair the rights of the United States to conduct research, development, testing, and operations or other activities in space for U.S. national interests.

You can always read the document yourself.

So the future might not only involve attempts at developing/creating superintelligence but also concerted efforts to push colonisation programs beyond terra firma.

Yet have people-in-power totally forgotten the creative impulses in homo sapiens sapiens that are on the rise... acceleratingly so?

Galactic Travel

Virgin Galactic's new Spaceship 2 interior. Test flights begin next year, and passenger flights soon after that.

Virgin Galactic gives an overview of the type of training needed for the flight - includes 3 days of pre-flight training....

I guess those with the cash may have the opportunity for experiencing orbit... hopefully those who return will have a heightened awareness of our breathing, living planet...

Hail to Space...

Science Smorgesboard

Here is a brief mention of some of the latest science tidbits to pass my attention...

NewScienceTech discusses throwing satellites into space via huge superconducting magnets in Huge 'launch ring' to fling satellites into orbit:

'An enormous ring of superconducting magnets similar to a particle accelerator could fling satellites into space, or perhaps weapons around the world, suggest the findings of a new study funded by the US air force.'

yet - 'The US air force's interest stems from the ring's potential to launch small, 10-kilogram satellites into orbit, though the team says it has not been told what kind of satellites these are...This is because of its potential for use as a weapon, launching missiles that could reach anywhere in the world. "The ring then becomes one of the most important targets on the planet,"'

Also - The Irish Times writes in '2051 space oddity: TV station aims at an alien audience' that 'Eurotrash goes intergalactic tonight when two naked television presenters host the first programme conceived for aliens and broadcast to a star located in the Big Dipper, 45 light years away. The TV show has been conceived as an idiot's guide to humankind, or close encounters of the nude kind. The hosts will explain how the human body is created - thus justifying their own nakedness - and will tell about the main elements of daily human life.

Cosmic Connexion will talk to sociologists, scientists and space experts, as well as explain to viewers - on earth and in space - about previous attempts to contact other life forms such as the gold and aluminium disc placed on board the Pioneer 10 probe launched in 1972 and last contacted in 2003.' Oddly curious yet dubious!

Finally - 'PC World's 100 Fearless Forecasts' which looks at plenty of exciting technology advances that may be upon us fairly soon...

Ah - science... oddly lost without a dose of the Spirit...

A future networked society

The future of the world is the future of the collective: autonomy is decreasing in a covert sense. The perceived existence of the 'individual' will remain yet the identity, position, and knowledge of the individual will be wrapped in a meshwork of interconnectivity and interdependencies.

At present there are many voices calling to be granted access to the priviledged networks of communication and information. In the future the question will be reversed: it will not be can we get on the Net but rather can we get off the Net...

The plans are in place - future networked 'smart' infrastructures are designed to enmesh nations and civilians into networks of efficiency... see this EU paper (pdf) called the Trans-European Transport Network that outlines the infrastructures of future movements. And these movements will be tracked by the Galileo satellite consortium of 30 satellites to track all movements within this mesh: t he report states:

'More and more often, it will become necessary to ascertain one's precise position in space and time in a reliable manner. In a few years time this will be possible with the GALILEO satellite radio navigation system, an initiative launched by the European Union and the European Space Agency. This worldwide system will ensure complementarity with the current GPS system.

Satellite radio navigation is an advanced technology. It is based on the emission from satellites of signals indicating the time extremely precisely. This enables any individual to determine his or her position or the location of any moving or stationary object (e.g. a vehicle, a ship, or a herd of cattle, etc.) to within one metre thanks to a small cheap individual receiver.'

The 'part' will become enmeshed in the 'whole' towards a global collectivised society - the only question is whether this is a desired future or a controlled one...?

Something happening...

Either something is happening, or I am simply dumb...dumb, dumb..

Creepy Experiments...

A recent discussion on brain experiments - 'Creepy Experiment Exposes Paranoia and Sense of Alien Control' - tells how a woman had doctors to probe her brain in order to find out where her seizures came from... yet this probiing led the woman to experience the 'illusion' of being shadowed by an eerie presence...:

'When the patient sat and embraced her knees with her arms, she noted the "man" was now also sitting and clasping her in his arms, which she described as unpleasant. When asked to read a card in her right hand, she noted the shadow tried to interfere, saying, "he wants to take the card" and "he doesn't want me to read."

Researchers said today that what they learned from this woman, who is not named in their scientific paper, could help shed light on psychiatric effects, such as feelings of alien control, paranoia and persecution.'

Is this a product of brain activation or the unexpected consequence of activating certain latent sensory capacities?

See also - 'Mind Control by Parasites' - which lovingly reminds us that 'Half of the world's human population is infected with Toxoplasma, parasites in the body—and the brain. Remember that.'

The Emerging Mind of the Cosmos

Several years ago James Gardner published his first book 'Biocosm' which I mentioned here and which postulated 'that the cosmos possesses a utility function (i.e., some value or outcome that is being maximized) and that the specific utility function of our cosmos is propagation of baby universes exhibiting the same life-friendly physical qualities as their parent-universe, a sort of cosmic reproductive organ'

In his new book 'The Intelligent Universe: AI, ET, and the Emerging Mind of the Cosmos' (not yet published) Gardner envisions a final state of the cosmos in which a highly evolved form of group intelligence--a cosmic community--marshals the assets of matter and energy bequeathed by the Big Bang and engineers a cosmic renewal: the birth of a new baby universe endowed with the same life-giving propensity that our cosmos enjoys:


"The purpose of this book is to tell an extraordinary story. You will meet a senior NASA official whose passion is investigating the probable impact on religion of the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence; a computer scientist who is coaxing software to undergo a special kind of Darwinian evolution, thus becoming ever more adept and financially valuable over time; and a technology prophet who, in my view, is the true contemporary heir to Darwin's intellectual legacy.

"You will also meet a fascinating cast of non-human players likely to have leading roles on tomorrow's cosmic stage. They include:

• Super-smart machines capable of out-thinking humans without breaking a sweat;
• Speedy and cost-efficient interstellar probes consisting of elaborate software algorithms capable of "living" in the innards of alien computers they may encounter on far-off planets; and
• Intelligent extraterrestrials, which SETI researchers have not yet discovered but whose probable existence is strongly predicted by my Biocosm hypothesis.

"The Intelligent Universe, then, is a kind of projected travelogue--an imagined future history--of the cosmic journey that lies ahead. The foundation for that projection--the defining leitmotif of that imagined future--is a vision of the deep linkage between three ostensibly separate phenomena: the appearance of life, the emergence of intelligence, and the seemingly mindless physical evolution of the cosmos. In discussing these topics, the book will not only provide news dispatches from the frontiers of cosmological science but also offer musings about the philosophical implications of emerging scientific insights for our self-image as a species."

Yet it's all down to how one defines 'Intelligence' - and in whose terms: the danger is anthropomorphic approaches to this understanding...

The Lifeboat Foundation

Now I feel this deserves a mention - The Lifeboat Foundation:

According to their statement - 'The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to ensuring that humanity safely adopts increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI as we move towards a technological singularity.

Lifeboat Foundation is pursuing a variety of options, including helping to accelerate the development of technologies to defend humanity, including new methods to combat viruses (such as RNA interference and new vaccine methods), effective nanotechnological defensive strategies, and even self-sustaining space colonies in case the other defensive strategies fail.'

Also, the list of Lifeboat Foundation Scientific Advisory Board members today totaled 200 with the addition of multidisciplinary scientist/author Howard Bloom, who is bringing together space scientists to explore beaming solar power from space and setting up a colony off-planet in case humanity is extinguished due to warfare.

The Board's members, grouped in 23 sub-boards, include inventor/futurist Ray Kurzweil; Alex Wolszczan, discoverer of the first planets ever found outside our solar system; Ian Foster, "father of grid computing," Frank Wilczek, winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics; Sir Clive W.J. Granger, winner of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Economics; and Wole Soyinka, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Literature.

The Board's research programs, designed to deal with future existential risks, now total 21. The newest: LifePreserver (radical life-extending and life-enhancing technologies), PersonalityPreserver (such as uploading), SeedPreserver (storing seeds in a safe location), BioPreserver (preserving animal life and diversity on the planet), ClimateShield (protecting against harmful climate changes), EnergyPreserver (such as solar power from space), InfoPreserver (preserving civlization's information), and NeuroethicsShield (prevent abuse from neuropharmaceuticals, neurodevices, and neurodiagnostics).

What a community of thinkers! Lets hope such a vision comes married with humanity & spirit...

Connections & Reflections

I've been impressed with a site called Montalk.net that deals with diverse subjects in an intelligent and clear manner: it covers such topics as Earth energies, Gurdjieffian subjects, Stages of Conscious Awakening, Realm Dynamics, and much more...

There are some fascinating essays - such as 'Food for the Moon' and 'The Art of Hyper Dimensional War'

...as well as some thoughtful reflections:

'The best sources of truth help you realize what you’ve known all along.'

'The Universe never lets you down—in the long run.'

'Ordinary relationships involve two parts comprising a greater whole. Exceptional relationships require two wholes playing a greater part.'

'Spiritual fulfillment is about fulfilling the spirit of others.'

'Your conscious mind can only focus on one thing at a time; to focus on everything, perceive that everything is one.'

Everything needs to connect now... and its up to us...