The Era Of Cyborg Nanotechnology Has Begun

Update on the merger of human and machine

Nicholas West

Technology seems to be on a runaway course either to free humanity or to enslave us. On one end we see massive continued investment in replacing humans with robots, both economically and socially.

Parallel to this trend, we are seeing advancements in neuroscience being made from global projects like the BRAIN initiative in the U.S. and its counterpart in Europe, the Human Brain Project. These projects seek to decode the human brain and tailor it for "treatments," as well as to enable the realization of full brain-computer-interface technology. The pace of these developments has increased toward the dizzying, such as a "living" transistor that uses DNA merged with graphene, the advent of quantum computing and nanocomputing, the creation of avatars, DNA nanobots, and a range of neuro applications that are beginning to transform our fundamental relationship with the "real" world.

One respected scientific journal announced earlier this year that the era of cyborgs indeed has begun, as an array of medical applications are merging us with machines and computer systems. This is also happening in tandem with augmented reality applications that have entered the consumer space.

The latest press release states emphatically that we are "On the Frontiers of Cyborg Science." Once again, only the potential benefits are noted, but the funding for the research cited comes from the U.S. Department of Defense, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Air Force. As you read the full chronicle of the developments to date, how do you believe this science will be used? With funding sources such as these, can you imagine some negative consequences? Your thoughts are welcome in the comment section below.  

Quantum Computing Makes Huge Breakthrough

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Nanotech, Terra-Forming, Transhumanism, and You

Ann Gordon, RN, Contributor

Many things are being altered right before our eyes, mostly without our consent, or knowledge. These changes are coming from well-funded and classified experiments, accidents, and new science, often with creepy 'modern' agendas driving them. This sort of broad-scale change is unfolding in nearly every facet of our lives. But the signs and symptoms already indicate that our health may suffer as a result.

Let's start with food for example. The bio-availability of the nutrients in our food seems to be getting interrupted. Could it be the irradiation or modification of foods? Some believe that the reason for the obesity problems could actually be a lack of nutrition, a slow starvation, because the nutrition cannot get into the cells.

Weather modification is nothing new, and researchers claim that the residues from spraying create toxic effects on our health, plants, and animals. We seem to be ingesting experimental aerosolized air, tainted water (with fluoride, pharmaceuticals, etc.), faked food, and untested medicines. Asthma cases are soaring, as are mysterious flu-like symptoms. But that is only the tip of a very chilling future according to many thinkers.

Big Pharma wants nano-scavengers in its drugs

Rady Ananda
Activist Post

To clean up its drugs that are contaminated with genotoxic ingredients (which are also carcinogenic), Big Pharma may deploy lab-created, nanosized, polymer-based scavengers.

But is the cure any safer?

New research explains that:

A variety of chemical compounds, intermediates, and reagents are used during the process of synthesizing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Some of these chemicals, intermediates, and reagents, as well as byproducts of synthetic processes, can have toxic properties and be present as impurities at low levels in the API or final drug formulation…. 

The kinetics of acrolein scavenging in the presence of the API iodixanol and the scavenging capacity of resins were demonstrated in this paper.

They found a nanopolymer so efficient it cleans up 97.8% of acrolein without eating the active pharmaceutical components.

Yum … drugs with nanobots.

Microrobots Coming Soon for Human Bodies

Tiny robots self-assemble with a single command

Image UCSB.edu

Kristina Grifantini
Technology Review by MIT

Imagine a swarm of microrobots—tiny devices a few hair widths across—swimming through your blood vessels and repairing damage, or zipping around in computer chips as a security lock, or quickly knitting together heart tissue. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, Dartmouth College, and Duke University have shown how to use a single electrical signal to command a group of microrobots to self-assemble into  larger structures. The researchers hope to use this method to build biological tissues. But for microrobots to do anything like that, researchers must first figure out a good way to control them.

"When things are very small, they tend to stick together," says Jason Gorman, a robotics researcher in the Intelligent Systems Division at NIST who co-organizes an annual microrobotics competition that draws groups from around the world. "A lot of the locomotion methods that have been developed are focused on overcoming or leveraging this adhesion."

So far, most control methods have involved pushing and pulling the tiny machines with magnetic fields. This approach has enabled them to zoom around on the face of a dime, pushing tiny objects orswim through blood vessels. However, these systems generally require complex setups of coils to generate the electromagnetic field or specialized components, and getting the robots to carry out a task can be difficult.

Bruce Donald, a professor of computer science and biochemistry at Duke, took a different approach, developing a microrobot that responds to electrostatic potential and is powered with voltage through an electric-array surface. Now he and others have demonstrated that they are able to control a group of these microrobots to create large shapes. They do this by tweaking the design of each robot a little so that each one responds to portions of the voltage with a different action, resulting in complex behaviors by the swarm.

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Age of Transitions


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Untested nanoparticles showing up in thousands of consumer products

Nanotech Wikimedia Commons Image

Ethan A. Huff
Natural News

Since 2006, the use of nanoparticles in consumer products has skyrocketed by over 600 percent. Nanotechnologies, which involve the manipulation of elements and other matter on the atomic and molecular scale, are now used in over 1,300 commercial and consumer products. And that number is expected to jump nearly three-fold by 2020. But are these nanoparticles safe for humans and the environment, particularly when used in food-related applications?

According to data provided by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN), a group formed in 2005 for the purpose of "creat[ing] an active public and policy dialogue" on nanotechnology, nanoparticles are now used in everything from car batteries and appliances, to aluminum foil and non-stick cookware. The "Food and Beverage" section of PEN even includes various vitamin and mineral supplements that contain nanoparticles, as well as McDonald's hamburger boxes.

Many people believe that nanotechnology may be "the next industrial revolution," but is the technology really safe? Just like genetically-modified organisms (GMO), nanotechnology has never been proven to be safe for humans or for the environment. Deconstructing and reassembling molecular components and injecting these altered molecules back into our clothing, furniture, cars, and food is really more of a giant experiment in human health than it is a successful technological breakthrough.

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The Singularity Movement, Immortality, and Removing the Ghost in the Machine

Brandon Turbeville

Activist Post 

For those who may regard movies such as The Matrix and Ghost in the Shell as mere science fiction, picking up the latest issue of TIME just might shake up these assumptions a bit. Entitled 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal,  the cover illustration for the February 21 edition portrays a human with a shaved head plugged into the Internet – literally.  On the back of this person’s head is an embedded terminal plug for the purpose of connecting with the Internet; the same as Neo in The Matrix or any one of the “cyberized” characters in Ghost in the Shell.

Enter the “Singularity” movement. As defined by TIME, singularity means, “The moment when technological change becomes so rapid and profound, it represents a rupture in the fabric of human history.”  This definition will no doubt be an accurate one if Singularitarians (as they are deemed by TIME) have their way.

Although Lev Grossman’s article is mostly a regurgitatingly obnoxious form of worship of one of the more active frontmen for Transhumanism, Raymond Kurzweil, the article does reveal some extraordinary information. Namely, that there are very powerful and wealthy individuals whose goal it is to see the merging of man and machine, and the complete transformation of humanity into something much different than it currently is. 

Of course this, in and of itself, is not major news. What’s news is that they are becoming so open about it. Indeed, many researchers such as Alan Watt, Alex Jones, and David Icke (and many others) have been pointing this out for years. However, while they have been derided as crazy conspiracy theorists, it’s not likely that TIME will receive the same treatment. TIME has functioned as a mouthpiece for the eugenics elite for well over seventy years. Thus, it appears the magazine is once again assuming its role in the introduction of the “new man” to the old one. It is now time for the unwashed masses to accept brainchips, cyberization, and the biological reconstruction envisioned by the elite since at least as far back as the time of Plato.

The subject of TIME’s admiration this time around, Raymond Kurzweil, does not deny that humans, as we currently know ourselves, will cease to exist with the introduction of his Singularity technology. On the contrary, Grossman writes:

When that [the introduction of superintelligent computers] happens, humanity – our bodies, our minds, our civilization – will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He [Kurzweil]believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away.

Grossman continues:

Maybe we’ll merge with them to become superintelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life indefinitely. Maybe we’ll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. The one thing all these theories have in common is the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011. This transformation has a name: Singularity.

There is little doubt that a great many of those children raised on television, video games, and the Internet will embrace such technology with open arms as adults. Already, online communities, various apps, and social networking sites have begun to supplant the real world in the minds of many. It would not likely take much prodding to convince at least the first few pioneers to, as Grossman puts it, “take the iPhones out of our hands and put them into our skulls.”

With the recent introduction of Cloud technology, the creation of an ethereal Internet reality that operates and exists completely as a world of its own is not hard to imagine. Coupled with the introduction and increased promotion of various forms of brainchips, all that really might be necessary is an effective computer program and a willing population. The program no doubt already exists. Unfortunately, it seems only a matter before the population follows suit. 

It is interesting to note a report by Richard Norton-Taylor entitled Revolution, flashmobs, and brain chips. A grim vision of the future, published in the Guardian in 2007. In this article, Norton-Taylor relays the findings of a 90-page report released by a British Ministry of Defence team tasked with future “strategic context” that the British military might face in the future. This is, at least, is the cover story for the report.

Regardless of the reason for the report, Norton-Taylor writes:

By 2035, an implantable “information chip” could be wired directly to the brain. A growing pervasiveness of information communications technology will enable states, terrorists or criminals, to mobilize “flashmobs,” challenging security forces to match this potential agility coupled with an ability to concentrate forces quickly in a small area. 

Yet, if the idea of merging with the Internet is not frightening enough, consider the distinct possibility that maybe, just maybe, this technology is not meant to merely make your life easier and advance scientific discovery. Consider also that it might be more than a voluntary distraction on the level of television and video games. At least not in the long run.

As researcher and radio show host Alan Watt remarks:

It has many purposes but one of them was never to free the people, it would be used as an incredible tool of data-collection and using, like television and repetition of different topics, or the same topics or phrases again, it would be used to condition the public into their opinions, until, really, they’d be addicted to it, they could never do without it. That’s the intent, because you will go cashless eventually and it will be used as a form of social approval and disapproval, if they cut you off from the net: you won’t be able to do your banking, get money to pay your rent etc. Bertrand Russell talked about this sort of technique to be used in the future and it’s coming now. ‘Cloud’ will come in and that will take over and be THE one for the planet and everyone will rush into it thinking ‘my God I don’t have to worry about spy ware or viruses or upgrades, it’s all done for me, out there somewhere in the big “cloud.” And the Cloud, eventually, will be censoring your emails and actually popping up windows to tell you “are you sure you want to use this word, this politically incorrect word in this email?” Then it might give you a little list of fines or punishments etc. etc. This is all planned folks, that’s how you do it. Source

There is no doubt that this technology has been planned for quite a long time. Indeed, the Singularity movement has some very interesting backers. The Singularity University, a three-year-old institution that offers inter-disciplinary courses for both executives and graduate students, is hosted by NASA , a notorious front for secretive projects conducted by the government and the military-industrial complex. Not only that, but Google, which is yet another corporate front for intelligence agencies, was a founding sponsor of the University as well. 

Besides the Singularity University, there is also the Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence co-founded by Raymond Kurzweil, which is located in San Francisco and hosts the Singularity Summit every year. The Institute also counts among one of its “advisers” Peter Thiel, a former CEO of Paypal as well as an early investor in Facebook, a corporation whose links to the CIA are almost as plentiful as Google. 

Even Bill Gates, another notorious elitist with intelligence ties, (plus a member of the lucky genes club ) has publicly praised Kurzweil as being “the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence.” 

Gates’ admiration and support of Kurzweil and his projects is quite significant. And it should also raise serious questions as to why individuals such as Bill Gates would champion technologies that extend life when he, of all people, is so concerned with "overpopulation." Would life extension technology not itself contribute to a larger population? Gates’ support makes absolutely no sense unless one understands that this technology has not been invented to extend life, at least not for the vast majority of people.

Such connections between the Singularity movement and the military-industrial complex/intelligence agencies, etc. should immediately raise concerns among the general public. Odds are, however, that they won’t. 

But cashless societies and government spying are only the tip of the iceberg when one discusses the Singularity movement. The real reason for the introduction of brainchips and the merging of man with machine has more to do with eugenics than anything else. 

Grossman writes as much in his article for TIME when he refers to the sessions of the Singularity Summit. Here, he mentions that these sessions “also cover the galloping progress of, among other fields, genetics and nanotechnology.” But this should come as no surprise. 

It is inevitable that “Brain-Machine Interfaces” ultimately lead back to both the Transhumanist and Eugenics movements. Putting aside the moral issues of these movements and even, for a moment, the question of whether or not choice is involved on the part of the public, the fact is that there is no desire to truly “improve” humanity. The ultimate goal of eugenicists is to create a population just smart enough to do the jobs they are assigned, but dumb enough not to question the authorities that force them to do these jobs. 

The goal of the eugenicist is summed up quite well by Frederick T. Gates in The Country School of Tomorrow,where he writes:

In our dream, we have limitless resources, and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our moulding hand. The present educational conventions fade from our minds; and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or of science. We are not to raise up from among them authors, orators, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians. Nor will we cherish even the humbler ambition to raise up from them lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we now have ample supply.

Also, as a London School of Economics evolution proponent Oliver Curry stated, “The human race will one day split into two separate species, an attractive, intelligent ruling elite and an underclass of dim-witted, ugly goblin-like creatures.”

It is high time that those who watch the developments such as “Brain-Machine Interfacing,” “Singularity Movements,” and “Cloud Technology” with open mouths and excitement realize that this technology is not meant to enhance their quality of life or increase their fun, it is meant to control and distort them. 

As the RAND Corporation itself wrote in its 2001 report, The Global Technology Revolution: Bio/Nano/Materials Trends and Their Synergies with Information Technology by 2015:

The results could astonishing. Effects may include significant improvements in human quality of life and life span . . .  continued globalization, reshuffling of wealth, cultural amalgamation or invasion with potential for increased tension and conflict, shifts in power from nation states to non-governmental organizations and individuals . . . and the possibility of human eugenics and cloning. [emphasis added]

If one were to fast forward to the future in which the Singularity movement has been successful, one might be a bit surprised as to what it would look like. Indeed, one might be surprised to see exactly how accurate the name “Singularity” actually is. Under the guise of life extension, entertainment, and even open Transhumanism, the world that exists in the future will scarcely resemble the one in which we currently live. The future -- the world of the Singularity -- would find a human population vastly reduced, hooked up to a central mainframe computer with no free will, no individuality, and absolutely no freedom. In the end, humanity will be reduced to the state of a mere machine with no ghost inside it. 

Brandon Turbeville is an author out of Mullins, South Carolina. He has a Bachelor’s Degree from Francis Marion University where he earned the Pee Dee Electric Scholar’s Award as an undergraduate. He has had numerous articles published dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, and civil liberties. He also the author of Codex Alimentarius - The End of Health Freedom  

Related Article by Brandon Turbeville:

Viruses and the "Flying Vaccine" Solution 

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How Close Are We to a Nano-based Surveillance State?

Source

Michael Edwards
Activist Post

In the span of just three years, we have seen drone surveillance become openly operational on American soil.

In 2007, Texas reporters first filmed a predator drone test being conducted by the local police department in tandem with Homeland Security.  And in 2009, it was revealed that an operation was underway to use predator drones inland over major cities, far from "border control" functions.  This year it has been announced that not only will drone operations fly over the Mexican border, but the United States and Canada are partnering to cover 900 miles of the northern border as well.

Now that the precedent has been set to employ drones over non-combat areas, the military is further revealing the technology of miniaturization that they currently have at their disposal.  As drone expert, P.W. Singer said, "At this point, it doesn't really matter if you are against the technology, because it's coming."  According to Singer, "The miniaturization of drones is where it really gets interesting.  You can use these things anywhere, put them anyplace, and the target will never even know they're being watched."

So what exactly is on the horizon?

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) funds military tech development through the private sector with defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Honeywell.  It was Honeywell that introduced the T-Hawk micro drone -- now purchased by Miami-Dade county for use in the metro area -- which weighs all of 16 pounds and can fly in any direction.  However, this is not so "micro" compared to the latest spy drone to be revealed: the Nano Hummingbird, produced by AeroVironment. The video below illustrates the capabilities of this 19g vehicle:



This mimicking of nature heralds a range of science fiction nightmare scenarios, but the name of this vehicle, "nano", is what should spark a red alert.  Because, in fact, DARPA and their contractors are working on true nano surveillance that will have biological components . . . and applications.

Here are some surveillance and detection concepts already in operation, or under development (keeping in mind that what is revealed in the public domain is often quite far behind the reality):

• A group of smaller surveillance drones called NAV (nano air vehicles) or MAV (micro air vehicles) already have been commissioned:  mapleseed drones; sparrow drones by 2015, dragonfly drones to fly in swarms by 2030, and eventually a housefly drone.  And if the reconstruction of nature doesn't pan out, nature itself can be hijacked using electrical impulses to create cyborg surveillance insects being studied at major universities.
• Nano sensors for use in agriculture that measure crops and environmental conditions.
• Bomb-sniffing plants using rewired DNA to detect explosives and biological agents.
• "Smart Dust" motes that wirelessly transmit data on temperature, light, and movement (this can also be used in currency to track cash).
• Nano-based RFID barcodes that can be embedded into any material for tracking of all products . . . and people.
• Devices to detect molecules, enzymes, proteins and genetic markers -- opening up the door for race-specific bioweapons, as mentioned in the Project For a New American Century's policy paper Rebuilding America's Defenses.

There are countless ways that we are already tracked in our daily lives, which has acclimatized us to the next steps underway.  We know that the military has a desire to track large groups of people in real time.  The Gorgon Stare program is currently undergoing some operational difficulties, but the political will is there to continuously expand surveillance of large populations abroad in order to keep us safe at home in the never-ending War on Terror.  Combine miniaturized surveillance capabilities with DARPA's Mind's Eye program of "smart camera" artificial intelligence that can "think" and make visual reporting decisions independently, and things become exponentially creepier.

The Speed of Nanotech Development
Nanotech has been receiving official federal funding for only the past 10 years when it was raised to the status of a federal initiative in 2001, which sparked massive investment in the private sector.  By 2003, the newly opened Department of Homeland Security showed immediate interest in SensorNet, a program spearheaded by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and their strategic partners to research ways to fully integrate nano and micro sensors into one overall Internet-like matrix of real-time detection and surveillance.  The Department of Defense allocated $3 million to the initiative for the first year, with a projected budget into the billions being allocated over the long term for "detection systems."

Strategically mounted sensors and a communications

network are the heart of SensorNet.

Source

By 2006, Oak Ridge announced that they planned to turn Fort Bragg military base into a prototype for America's future cities.  According to Department of Energy researcher, Bryan Gorman, "Any sensor can talk to any application.  Just like with the Internet or with telephone systems, it doesn't matter what kind of computer or telephone you have, where you are or what application you're running. The system just works."  There is even a proprietary social network that has been designed to provide online access and collaboration.

SensorNet has since morphed into an even more comprehensive system "to integrate safety and security measures . . . into the transportation system," which includes concerns surrounding transportation and commerce in the "political, economic, or environmental" arenas.  It is here that the full scope of surveillance integration can be seen as a management strategy that merges legislation, federal inspection systems, international standards, security threat assessments, and the latest in nanotechnology.  Just one example is their discussion of "highway sorting" systems and screening, which begins on page 15 in the previous link; it must be read to be believed.  As an aside:  the Senior Research Scientist and Senior Program Manager who co-authored the paper linked above is Robert K. Abercrombie, Ph.D. who has a decided interest in cybersecurity.  To see where the transportation component of the surveillance grid is heading over the near term, the ITS Strategic Research Plan 2010-2014 is a good indication.

The Promise of Total Integration 
February 4, 2011 brought the release of the National Nanotechnology Initiative 2011 Strategic Plan.  This 60-page must-read document lays out a projected future "to understand and control matter" for the management of every facet of human life within the surveillance matrix of environment, health and safety.  Here is the short-list of the 25 participating Federal agencies and samples of their stated applications:

• Department of Defense (persistent surveillance)
• Intelligence Community (unmanned aircraft)
• Department of Energy (solving energy and climate change challenges)
• Department of Homeland Security (low-cost sensor platforms)
• Department of Justice (applicable to criminal justice needs)
• Department of Transportation (modifying or coordinating travel behavior)
• Environmental Protection Agency (environmental sensing, transformational capabilities)
• Food and Drug Administration (biological systems and effects on human health)
• National Institute of Food and Agriculture (global food security)
• National Institutes of Health (precise control to achieve predictable outcomes)
• Department of the Treasury (improved governance, implementing economic sanctions)
• National Science Foundation (education and societal dimensions)

The promise of integrating technology in a way that will benefit human knowledge and society already has been re-directed toward military applications for decades.  It has manifested in the out-of-control military-industrial complex that has engaged America abroad in costly wars and destabilization campaigns.  However, the fallout from this misappropriation of technology is beginning to take its toll on America in the form of militarized police and the monitoring of everyday Americans.

How much longer before the full spectrum of military sci-tech, including what we cannot even see, is unleashed upon an American people willing to accept total control to be safe?  Has it happened already?  Or, more importantly, how long before Americans come to the realization that when the construction of this surveillance prison has been completed -- when the door is locked, and the key thrown away -- it ultimately will have been our own money that was used to build it.

Additional sources for this article:
Little Brother is Watching You: The future of surveillance is small, very small
On Race-Targetable Biological Weaponry
It's a Bird, It's a Spy, It's Both  
The plan for smaller, faster, deadlier UAVs 

RELATED ARTICLES:
DNA "Genetic Patdown" Introduced to Airports by DHS 
Is Military Spending Saving or Enslaving?
Police and Military Working Together to Oppress Americans

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