They [The Tofflers] Set the Standard by Which All Subsequent Futurists Have Been Measured.” — Time Magazine
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Infowar and Disinformation: from the Pentagon to the Net
Infowar and Disinformation: From the Pentagon to the Net http://www.namebase.org/news11.html Infowar and Disinformation: From the Pentagon to the Net by Daniel Brandt From NameBase NewsLine, No. 11, October-December 1995 In 1967, a satire was published under the title "Report From Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace." This analysis soberly reflected, in think-tank style, on the importance to society of waging war. Leonard Lewin, who pretended that the secret report was leaked and did not claim authorship until five years later, argued forcefully that war provides a type of social and psychological glue, without which society cannot function. "Roughly speaking," Lewin writes, "the presumed power of the 'enemy' sufficient to warrant an individual sense of allegiance to a society must be proportionate to the size and complexity of the society. Today, of course, that power must be one of unprecedented magnitude and frightfulness."[1] Lewin's tongue-in-cheek premise is that before peace breaks out, it becomes urgent to find substitutes for war. They say that life imitates art. Almost 30 years later, Lewin's claim of authorship is lost amid the general enthusiasm over the manuscript. Dog-eared copies of "Report from Iron Mountain" are passed around by patriots and militia groups as if it were the secret plan from above.[2] This provides liberal critics of "conspiracism" a good chuckle or two. But it's not at all clear who will laugh last. As a predictor of the capacity of elites to manage public opinion, and to deal with stubborn fringe groups, populists can do worse than to study this 100-page volume. -
SPEECH by the PRESIDENT of the REPUBLIC of INDONESIA on GOVERNMENT LEADERS FORUM, MAY 9TH, 2008 Rabu, 28 Mei 2008
Sekretariat Negara Republik Indonesia SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA ON GOVERNMENT LEADERS FORUM, MAY 9TH, 2008 Rabu, 28 Mei 2008 SPEECH BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA ON GOVERNMENT LEADERS FORUM SHANGRI-LA HOTEL, JAKARTA MAY 9th, 2008 Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim, Assalaamu’alaikum warahmatullahi wabarakaatuh, Peace be upon us, Before I deliver my speech, I would like to make a little comment on what had been excelently presented by Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Craig Mundie. Alvin Toffler, the author of Future Shock of The Third Wave, and of Powershift, once said, there are three waves of civilizations. They, agricultural society, industrial society, and information society. And to be frank, we, Indonesia, have too these three types of society. In my speech, I may mention several situations and conditions that maybe very much incontrast with what we have seen on the screen, the health future vision. Eventhough, part of our society, specially on the information type society, may follow and may join this new technology and our task as a leader to accelerate the process in bringing our society for the better future. That’s my little comment on this, before I deliver my speech. Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Craig Mundie, Excellencies, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is a pleasure for me to join all of you at this closing plenary session of the Government Leaders Forum Asia 2008. Before anything else, I wish to thank Mr. Bill Gates, Mr. Craig Mundie, and Microsoft for bringing the Government Leaders Forum to Jakarta. The Government of Indonesia is privileged to partner with Microsoft in organizing this important forum. -
Globalized Digital Networks and Horizontal Information Processing
In Situ Issue 1 In Situ 2009 Article 10 5-2009 Globalization’s Effect on Human Information Processing: Globalized Digital Networks and Horizontal Information Processing Tony Wang University of Pennsylvania This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/insitu/vol1/iss1/10 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Globalization’s Effect on Human Information Processing: Globalized Digital Networks and Horizontal Information Processing This article is available in In Situ: https://repository.upenn.edu/insitu/vol1/iss1/10 Wang: Globalization’s Effect on Human Information Processing: Globalize Globalization’s Effect on Human Information Processing: Globalized Digital Networks and Horizontal Information Processing Tony Wang Introduction In July of 2008, Nicolas Carr of the Atlantic wrote an influential article entitled, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The predominant consideration of this ironically long article is the “deterioration” of human information processing caused by growth of information technology. The main culprit responsible for this downward trend is the Net, whose operating philosophy mandates the continual expansion of information accessibility, the reducibility of information to small bits, and the encouragement of constant consumption and generation of information. The epitome of this operating philosophy is Twitter, an extremely popular social networking website whose entire premise is based on users submitting updates about their life of no more than 140 characters (this sentence is longer than 140 characters). In true McLuhan style, Carr contends that the Net “remaps” our neural circuitry to emulate the very medium with which we access information. We are able to process more information in a shorter amount of time, but at the cost of being prevented from focusing on long pieces of prose for sustained periods of time: “Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy…. -
1 What Happened to the Third Wave Netizen?
What Happened to the Third Wave Netizen? Mark Lloyd Senior Fellow Center for American Progress The Center for American Progress is a nonpartisan research and educational institute dedicated to promoting a strong, just and free America that ensures opportunity for all. We believe that Americans are bound together by a common commitment to these values and we aspire to ensure that our national policies reflect these values. We work to find progressive and pragmatic solutions to significant domestic and international problems and develop policy proposals that foster a government that is "of the people, by the people, and for the people." October 18, 2007 "For the society, the impact will be good or bad depending mainly on the question: Will `to be on line' be a privilege or a right? If only a favored segment of the population gets a chance to enjoy the advantage of `intelligence amplification,' the network may exaggerate the discontinuity in the spectrum of intellectual opportunity." J. C. R. Licklider, and R. Taylor. (1968, April). 1 Long before the laughing baby or the dancing baby appeared on YouTube, long before YouTube was invented, the pioneers of what we now call the Internet were convinced that “intelligence amplification” could be a major contribution to democracy and civic engagement. They were convinced that computers and networked computers could be used to improve the ability of governments to serve citizens and that information and computer technology could improve the ability of citizens to participate, monitor and exert their will over what our elected officials do. 1 J. C. R. -
Information Warfare
Information Warfare Yael Yashar (ICT) 622062911/ ABSTRACT Computer Warfare? Terrorists take control of the NewYork Stock Exchange? Terrorism over the Internet? Computer viruses in the arsenal of Hizballah ? Sound implausible? Maybe. But such possibilities are currently being discussed by strategic analysts under the catch-all title, "Information Warfare". To date the defense establishment has yet to agree on the exact definition of the term “information warfare”. But on one thing everyone agrees, in the digital age, information, and its dissemination, has achieved the status of a vital strategic asset . * The views expressed in this publication are solely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT). 2 Infowar - Potential Weapons If the response of the American defense establishment is any indication, strategic analysts are taking the possibilities of infowar seriously. Special committees in every branch of the U.S. armed forces are studying its potential, both as a defensive and an offensive weapon. The NSA (National Security Agency) is reportedly studying a rather imaginative arsenal of “info weapons”. Among the possible offensive weapons are: Computer viruses, which could be fed into an enemy’s computers either remotely or by “mercenary” technicians; Logic bombs, another type of virus which can lie dormant for years, until, upon receiving a particular signal, it would wake up and begin attacking the host system; “Chipping”, a plan (originally proposed by the CIA, according to some sources) to slip booby-trapped computer chips into critical systems sold by foreign contractors to potentially hostile third parties (or recalcitrant allies?) Worms, whose purpose is to self-replicate ad infinitum, thus eating up a system’s resources. -
Futures Studies Jim Dator Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies Department of Political Science University of Hawaii at Manoa
Futures Studies Jim Dator Hawaii Research Center for Futures Studies Department of Political Science University of Hawaii at Manoa Published as "Futures Studies ," in William Sims Bainbridge, ed., Leadership in Science and Technology. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Reference Series, 2011, Vol. 1, Chapter Four, pp. 32-40. Who Are Futurists, and What Do They Do? It is a common cliché to assert that all humans are futurists. Without a doubt a distinct human capability is to dream, scheme, plan ahead, and then create the technologies necessary to strive for and perhaps attain the dream. But many other species do so as well. Humans are not unique in this except for the scope of their dreams and the power of their technologies. But if all humans are futurists, then humans are also chemists, physicists, historians, priests and everything else. Yet we still needed physicists and engineers to get to the Moon in spite of eons of dreams and stories about space flight, and it seems even the most fundamental and protestant among us still feel the need for some kind of priests to keep us out of hell, and so it probably is the case that futurists can be useful in helping us think more clearly about the causes and consequences of our dreams and fears about the futures. No one can accurately "predict" exactly what "the future" of anything of consequence will be, though there are many charlatans who say they can, and who are paid big bucks for their "predictions", almost all of which prove not only to be false, but dangerously so. -
Detroit Techno and Dystopian Digital Culture
Hooked on an Affect: Detroit Techno and Dystopian Digital Culture Feature Article Richard Pope Ryerson University Abstract Detroit techno is typically historicized as having grown out of the late 1970s and early 1980s middle-class, consumerist, and aspirational high school social party scene, giving the impression that Detroit techno artists created forward-thinking music as a means to acquire subcultural capital and (re)produce their identities. In this essay, this position is nuanced for a more complex understanding of techno’s relation to the quotidian phenomenological encounter with the dystopian setting of Detroit. Concomitantly, predominant theorizations of affect within the humanities, which emphasize the utopian, hopeful dimensions of affect’s inherent productivity, are supplemented for an understanding of productive energy revolving around affects of dystopia and on a certain hopelessness which scholars, in the years ahead, will increasingly have to negotiate. Keywords: techno, Detroit, dystopia, affect, aesthetic, desire, subculture Richard Pope is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Ryerson University. His recent work examines the dystopian horizon of contemporary capitalism and popular culture. He has published previously in Camera Obscura, Space and Culture, Film-Philosophy, and Cinema Journal (forthcoming). Dancecult: Journal of Electronic Dance Music Culture 2 (1): 24–44 ISSN 1947-5403 ©2011 Dancecult http://dj.dancecult.net DOI 10.12801/1947-5403.2011.02.01.02 Pope | Hooked on an Affect 25 Without sounding too new-agey or metaphysical, I think that Detroit, the actual “location of Detroit, is the instigator behind everything. —Jason Huvaere (in Sicko 2010: 92) It’s the emptiness in the city that puts the wholeness in the music. -
Cybertarian Flexibility—When Prosumers Join the Cognitariat, All That Is Scholarship Melts Into Air
2 Cybertarian Flexibility—When Prosumers Join the Cognitariat, All That Is Scholarship Melts into Air Toby Miller The prevailing media credo, in domains that matter both a lot (popular, capitalist, and state discourse and action) and a little (communication, cultural, and media studies), is upheaval. The litany goes something like this: Corporate power is chal- lenged. State authority is compromised. Avant-garde art and politics are centered. The young are masters, not victims. Technologies represent freedom, not domina- tion. Revolutions are fomented by Twitter, not theory; by memes, not memos; by Facebook, not Foucault; by phone, not protest. Political participation is just a click away. Tweets are the new streets and online friends the new vanguard, as 140ism displaces Maoism. Cadres are created and destroyed via BlackBerry. Teens tease technocrats. Hackers undermine hierarchy. Leakers dowse the fire of spies and illuminate the shady world of diplomats. The endless iterations offered by digital reproduction and the immediate exchanges promised by the Internet have turned the world on its head. We are advised that the media in particular are being transformed. Tradition is rent asun- der. Newspapers are metaphorically tossed aside. What was once their fate in a literal sense (when we dispensed with print in poubelles) is now a figure of speech that refers to their financial decline. Journalists are recycled as public relations people, and readers become the new journalists. Cinema is irrelevant, TV is on the way out, gaming is the future, telephony is timeless, and the entire panoply of scholarship on the political economy of ownership and control is of archaeological interest at best. -
The Third Wave Governance: Revisit Alvin Toffler
THE THIRD WAVE GOVERNANCE: REVISIT ALVIN TOFFLER Prof. Akihiko Morita* Alvin Toffler, a prominent futurist, vividly depicts how democracy in the Third Wave civilization should look in his masterpiece, Third Wave.1 Published in 1980, the work highlights minority power, semi-direct democracy and decision division as the three main pillars of governance. By reflecting on Toffler’s crystal clear perspective of the age of digital technology, I examine and present the necessary conditions for a very plausible good governance system focused on the Asia Pacific region, where we are facing urgent needs to develop the post San Francisco system. The San Francisco System, created in the midst of the Korean War with emerging Communist China characterized as a bilateral-networks-based asymmetrical framework with US dominance, is a typical nation-state-based governance system of the Second Wave civilization. However, contemporary Asia Pacific, after half a century of relative stability under U.S.A. domination, is undergoing a fundamental transformation with horizontal and vertical power shifts, as highlighted by Paddy Ashdown in his TED talk in 2012.2 The San Francisco System, designed at the last stage of the Second Wave Civilization, does not match the digitalizing Asia Pacific and we need a new regional governance system. For this end, first, I present my proposition that the new governance system needs the more dynamic, collaborative and creative approach for addressing diversity of regulations, equality between stakeholders and inclusiveness of data regulation. Second, I reexamine the concept of state sovereignty following Jacques Maritain who refuted the very concept in 1951. -
HEALTH and STRESS Your Source for Science-Based Stress Management Information VOLUME 28 ISSUE 4 October 2016
The American Institute of Stress HEALTH AND STRESS Your source for science-based stress management information VOLUME 28 ISSUE 4 October 2016 THE LEGACY OF FUTURE SHOCK October 2016 AIS Health and Stress www.stress.org The mission of AIS is to improve the health of the com- munity and the world by setting the standard of excel- lence of stress management in education, research, clini- cal care and the workplace. Diverse and inclusive, The American Institute of Stress educates medical practitio- ners, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts research; and provides information, training and techniques to prevent human illness related to stress. AIS provides a diverse and inclusive environment that fosters intellectual discovery, creates and transmits inno- vative knowledge, improves human health, and provides leadership to the world on stress related topics. Your source for science-based stress management information HEALTH AND STRESS We value opinions of our readers. Please feel free to contact us with any comments, suggestions or inquiries. Email: [email protected] Editor In Chief: Associate Editors: Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP Helen M. Kearney, PhD Donna Telyczka, B.A. Health and Stress Creative Director: Krissa Brewer $20 per issue or $120 annual subscription rate. Health and Stress is a quarterly magazine published in January, April, July and October, designed exclusively for AIS Members. However, it appeals to all those interested in the myriad and complex interrelationships between health and stress because technical jargon is avoided and it is easy to understand. Health and Stress is archived online at stress.org. Past issues can be purchased in the AIS Marketplace. -
Think Piece 11 the Information Age Is Dead
Think Piece 11 The Information Age is Dead. Long Live the Imagination Age. Prepared by Leanne Silver October 2009 SUMMARY ‘If you can imagine it, you can achieve it; if you can dream it; you can become it.’ (William Arthur Ward.) These words were said decades ago but now more than ever they have particular significance. Ideas and imagination will be the driving force over the next phases of human development. While we have all been told that we live in the Information Age, many commentators believe it is already over. What is the next Age and how will we live and thrive in it? This Think Piece takes a look at some of these ideas and their implications for New Zealand. Background Daniel Pink, in A Whole New Mind, describes this new Over time the human race has passed through several emphasis on ideas, inventiveness and meaning as the rise of distinct Ages. The first significant Age was the Agricultural right-brain thinking. He states that the Information Age has Age, which gave rise to an agrarian society and lasted about been powered by left-brain thinking – linear processes, logic, 10,000 years. The Industrial Age heralded another break- efficiency, and analysis have been vaunted without taking through and lasted approximately 200 years. Then came the into account many of the things that make us complete Information Age with the development of computers. It has human beings – ethics, empathy, narrative, creativity, and been around for about 20–40 years depending on where you intuition to name but a few. -
Boundaries in Cyberpunk Fiction: William Gibson's Neuromancer Trilogy, Bruce Sterling's Schismatrix, and Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash
BOUNDARIES IN CYBERPUNK FICTION: WILLIAM GIBSON'S NEUROMANCER TRILOGY, BRUCE STERLING'S SCHISMATRIX, AND NEAL STEPHENSON'S SNOW CRASH by Michelle Toerien Thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at the University of Stellenbosch Supervisor: Mr. R. Goodman March 2000 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za Declaration: I, the undersigned, hereby declare that the work contained in this thesis is my own original work and that I have not previously in its entirety, or in any part, submitted it at any university for a degree. Signature: Date: Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za ABSTRACT Cyberpunk literature explores the effects that developments in technology will have on the lives of individuals in the future. Technology is seen as having the potential to be of benefit to society, but it is also seen as a dangerous tool that can be used to severely limit humanity's freedom. Most of the characters in the texts I examine wish to perpetuate the boundaries that contain them in a desperate search for stability. Only a few individuals manage to move beyond the boundaries created by multinational corporations that use technology, drugs or religion for their own benefit. This thesis will provide a definition of cyberpunk and explore its development from science fiction and postmodern writing. The influence of postmodern thinking on cyberpunk literature can be seen in its move from stability to fluidity, and in its insistence on the impossibility of creating fixed boundaries. Cyberpunk does not see the future of humanity as stable, and argues that it will be necessary for humanity to move beyond the boundaries that contain it.