Rand report on the “Networks and Netwars”
Posted Jul 06, 2007
The Dark Side
Most people might hope for the emergence of a new form of organization to be led by "good guys" who do "the right thing" and grow stronger because of it. But history does not support this contention. The cutting edge in the early rise of a new form may be found equally among malcontents, ne'er-do-wells, and clever opportunists eager to take advantage of new ways to maneuver, exploit, and dominate. Many centuries ago, for example, the rise of hierarchical forms of organization, which displaced traditional, consultative, tribal forms, was initially attended, in parts of the world, by the appearance of ferocious chieftains bent on military conquest and of violent secret societies run according to rank -- long before the hierarchical form matured through the institutionalization of states, empires, and professional administrative and bureaucratic systems. In like manner, the early spread of the market form, only a few centuries ago, was accompanied by a spawn of usurers, pirates, smugglers, and monopolists, all seeking to elude state controls over their earnings and enterprises.
Why should this pattern not be repeated in an age of networks? There appears to be a subtle, dialectical interplay between the bright and dark sides in the rise of a new form of organization. The bright-side actors may be so deeply embedded in and constrained by a society's established forms of organization that many have difficulty becoming the early innovators and adopters of a new form. In contrast, nimble bad guys may have a freer, easier time acting as the cutting edge?and reacting to them may be what eventually spurs the good guys to innovate.
The spread of the network form and its technologies is clearly bringing some new risks and dangers. It can be used to generate threats to freedom and privacy. New methods for surveillance, monitoring, and tracking are being developed; and the uproars over the intelligence systems "Echelon," "Semantic Forests," and "Carnivore" manifest what will surely be enduring concerns. Critical national infrastructures for power, telecommunications, and transportation, as well as crucial commercial databases and information systems for finance and health, remain vulnerable to computer hackers and cyberterrorists.
Furthermore, a growing "digital divide" between information "haves" and "have-nots" portends a new set of social inequities. All this places new strains on the world's democracies. Even worse is the possibility that information-age dictatorships will arise in parts of the world, based on the skillful exploitation of the new technologies for purposes of political command and control.
DOWNLOAD THE DOCUMENT: RAND Report -- Networks and Netwars
Filed in:
5GW Project 2008
Grant Morrison’s Speech From the 2000 Disinfo Convention
Posted Jul 06, 2007
Seven years ago, a bald Scottish weirdo gave a very, very memorable speech at the Disinfo Convention. He addressed ritual magick, alien abduction, fifth dimensional space, the police, sigils, and about a dozen other topics which are probably of great interest to the Skilluminati Research Reader. Rather than transcribe the speech, we present it for download, in mp3 format, in it's entirety.
If you'd like to watch the speech, Google Video has it available here: 2000 Disinfo Speech
MP3 FORMAT:
1. Alien Abductions
2. Sigils and Magick
3. The Individual
4. The Police
5. Getting Rid of the Individual
6. Do We Want Change
Filed in:
Future Tech
SYME: The Heart of 1984
Posted Jul 06, 2007
'How is the Dictionary getting on?' said Winston, raising his voice to overcome the noise.
'Slowly,' said Syme. 'I'm on the adjectives. It's fascinating.'
He had brightened up immediately at the mention of Newspeak. He pushed his pannikin aside, took up his hunk of bread in one delicate hand and his cheese in the other, and leaned across the table so as to be able to speak without shouting.
'The Eleventh Edition is the definitive edition,' he said. 'We're getting the language into its final shape ? the shape it's going to have when nobody speaks anything else. When we've finished with it, people like you will have to learn it all over again. You think, I dare say, that our chief job is inventing new words. But not a bit of it! We're destroying words ? scores of them, hundreds of them, every day. We're cutting the language down to the bone. The Eleventh Edition won't contain a single word that will become obsolete before the year 2050.'
He bit hungrily into his bread and swallowed a couple of mouthfuls, then continued speaking, with a sort of pedant's passion. His thin dark face had become animated, his eyes had lost their mocking expression and grown almost dreamy.
'It's a beautiful thing, the destruction of words. Of course the great wastage is in the verbs and adjectives, but there are hundreds of nouns that can be got rid of as well. It isn't only the synonyms; there are also the antonyms. After all, what justification is there for a word which is simply the opposite of some other
word? A word contains it's opposite in itself. Take "good", for instance. If you
have a word like "good", what need is there for a word like "bad"? "Ungood"
will do just as well ? better, because it's an exact opposite, which the other
is not. Or again, if you want a stronger version of "good", what sense is there
in having a whole string of vague useless words like "excellent" and "splendid"
and all the rest of them? "Plusgood" covers the meaning, or " doubleplusgood"
if you want something stronger still. Of course we use those forms already. but
in the final version of Newspeak there'll be nothing else. In the end the whole
notion of goodness and badness will be covered by only six words ? in reality,
only one word. Don't you see the beauty of that, Winston? It was B.B.'s idea
originally, of course, he added as an afterthought.
A sort of vapid eagerness flitted across Winston's face at the mention of Big
Brother. Nevertheless Syme immediately detected a certain lack of enthusiasm.
'You haven't a real appreciation of Newspeak, Winston,' he said almost
sadly. 'Even when you write it you're still thinking in Oldspeak. I've read some
of those pieces that you write in The Times occasionally. They're good enough,
but they're translations. In your heart you'd prefer to stick to Oldspeak, with
all its vagueness and its useless shades of meaning. You don't grasp the beauty
of the destruction of words. Do you know that Newspeak is the only language
in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year?'
Winston did know that, of course. He smiled, sympathetically he hoped, not
trusting himself to speak. Syme bit off another fragment the dark-coloured
bread, chewed it briefly, and went on:
'Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of
thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because
there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever
be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly
defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in
the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be
continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and
the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's
no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of
self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for
that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect. Newspeak
is Ingsoc and Ingsoc is Newspeak,' he added with a sort of mystical satisfaction.
'Has it ever occurred to you, Winston, that by the year 2050, at the very latest,
not a single human being will be alive who could understand such a conversation
as we are having now?'
'Except-' began Winston doubtfully, and he stopped.
It had been on the tip of his tongue to say 'Except the proles,' but he
checked himself, not feeling fully certain that this remark was not in some way
unorthodox. Syme, however, had divined what he was about to say.
'The proles are not human beings,' he said carelessly. ' By 2050 earlier,
probably all real knowledge of Oldspeak will have disappeared. The whole
literature of the past will have been destroyed. Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton,
Byron ? they'll exist only in Newspeak versions, not merely changed into something
different, but actually changed into something contradictory of what they
used to be. Even the literature of the Party will change. Even the slogans will
change. How could you have a slogan like "freedom is slavery" when the concept
of freedom has been abolished? The whole climate of thought will be different.
In fact there will be no thought, as we understand it now. Orthodoxy means
not thinking ? not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness.
One of these days, thought Winston with sudden deep conviction, Syme will
be vaporized. He is too intelligent. He sees too clearly and speaks too plainly.
The Party does not like such people. One day he will disappear. It is written
in his face.
Filed in:
Social Control
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