121Contact

Nuclearism and the Ecoworld Mindset

June 4, 2014 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

The 19^th century worship of technology (as the cure for technological problems), has spawned Nuclearism (‘the only solution to the problem of nuclear weapons is more, and more powerful, nuclear weapons’). This traps the world in a looping web of unrealistic thinking and a dangerously deluded sense of security. It also continues to increase the chances of Armageddon. Nuclearism generates a global genocidal mentality most importantly characterized by the taboo status of any solution other than Nuclearism.

I spoke to a group of Pakistani journalists and asked about their views on the possibility of nuclear war between Pakistan and India. They all assured me that there was no danger since ‘there was no first strike intent on either side, therefore neither side would ever use their weapons. When asked why they then needed the weapons, their response was chilling. They all agreed that they needed nuclear weapons “in case the other side used their weapons.” The illogical circle had closed.

Escalating technology makes each weapon more powerful. Increasing complexity makes the interlaced ‘defense system’ of nuclear technology more prone to failure. The inevitable proliferation of weaponry makes the world less stable. Too frightening to picture, we can barely talk about the nuclear threat without quickly terminating the conversation in an upsetting and confused series of logical dead-ends. Soon, what we cannot talk about becomes what we cannot even think about, and the trap of Nuclearism snaps shut! The unexamined solution becomes normalized, rarely to be questioned.

What is to be done? Don not despair. There is a glimmer of hope on a far distant horizon.

It takes a village. That village would be enormous and hard to actualize. A village mentality the size of the Earth will be needed, where a sufficient number of citizens embrace a compassionate world view. It has already begun, this transformation of mindset. Scientific, medical, social, and political movements that embrace the idea of one world, interconnected, and filled with people caring about one another beyond considerations of race, religion, and nationality have already been formed, and are slowly steering this world to ore peaceful tomorrows. Concerns about the health of the planet are becoming more widespread.

This smells a lot like transformative conversion to a new ‘ecoworld’ ideology. Is that what it will take to save the world?

 

AreYouTalkin'taMe? Saudi style.

Our ally Saudi Arabia has banned Viber and Skype. Al-Akhbar reports they had previously complained that  Islamist militants were taking advantage of social media to foment unrest. Some see these bans as further restictions on free speech by an increasingly nervous government. Saudi Arabia is being criticized by human rights activists for its tight restrictions on free speech.

Steal This Drone: Is Obama too late?

May 25, 2013, by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

President Obama reassures us that drone strikes will be less common because of legal and moral concerns. They may become obsolete before he gets a chance to modify the program.

In White Sands, New Mexico, 2012: University of Austin’s Professor Todd Humphreys and his students put on a demonstration for the Department of Homeland Security. There was a suspicion that Iran had, the previous year, downed a U.S. drone by jamming its signals. The experiment was successful. Humphrey’s team not only jammed the signals to the drone, they were able to take control of the unmanned vehicle. The process, called spoofing, took only $1000 worth of equipment. They repeatedly overtook navigational signals going to the GPS-guided vehicle.

One year later, only 2 days ago, a message on the Ansar al-Mujahideen forum suggested that jihadists use the simpler method of jamming the signal.  

"The idea is very simple and could be applied with great success, Allah willing, and this is due to the remoteness of the main source of the signal - the satellite - and its relative weakness. All we need to implement this attack is a jamming device for the "GPS" frequencies, which makes the plane lose control and forces it to land, like what happened in North Korea when it forced an American drone to land through jamming".(SITE)

Cyberoam reported that a recent hack attack “seems to have stolen data from several companies regarding all aspects of unmanned vehicles (drones) from research to design to manufacturing of the vehicles and their various subsystems.” We haven’t heard of anyone publishing detailed plans yet, but a featured article in al-Qaeda’s Inspire Magazine can’t be far off.

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Spoofing: The process of deception by which an unauthorized person causes a transmission or message to appear to come from an authorized user in order to gain privileged access to computer or network resources. IP spoofing, an integral element of many types of network attacks, involves creating TCP/IP packets that use false addresses, perhaps stolen from others.

Commotion Wireless: uncontrolled free speech
May 20, 2013 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

 Imagine an internet of your own. A city-wide web of individuals not connected to the www. The distributed architecture means that Government agencies would have a hard time detecting its existence, much less shutting it down.

   In the name of providing “democratic activists around the globe [need] a secure and reliable platform to ensure their communications cannot be controlled or cut off by authoritarian regimes.” The local web will:

• Prevent hostile governments from surveilling, disrupting, or shutting down communications.
• Enhance security among democratic activists by enabling direct peer-to-peer communications.
• Implement open source and open tech solutions that facilitate continued adaptation, enhancement, and implementation of these technologies by democratic activists and programmers around the globe.

The Open Technology Institute, of the New America Foundation, is working on it now. They named it Commotion Wireless.

Who will be the first adopters? Remember Kevin Mitnick? Remember the early child pornography rings? If history predicts, then joining the “democratic activists” will be pornographers and criminals. Each technological advance holds potential—for whatever good and evil lies within us. ‘Commotion’ is probably an apt name for this next step in the evolution of communications.