2017: The Year of Technocracy (Confirmed!)
As you no doubt remember, dear reader, I kicked off 2017 with my customary look at the year ahead. This year’s prediction? “2017: The Year of Technocracy.” As I observed lo those many months ago:
“I find it more and more difficult to shake the conviction that technological developments will shape the narrative of 2017. If this does turn out to be so, it would hardly be the start of some new, never-before-seen trend. Yet even though it’s no longer novel to observe that the pace of technological change is accelerating, there are certain inflection points where those changes stop being so theoretical and start impacting our daily lives. I contend that we are living through one such inflection point right now and that it will manifest in all sorts of ways over the next year.”
So how did that prediction fare? Well, if this headline from the loyal propagandists at Bloomberg doesn’t tell the story, nothing does: “Why Some Nations Are Warming to Technocracy.”
Warming, indeed.
As I indicated at the start of the year, my point isn’t that there’s something new in the concept of rule by a technological/scientific/engineering “expert” class. Attentive viewers of Why Big Oil Conquered the World will recall that the idea has been kicking around under the name “technocracy” since Howard “Total Fraud” Scott and King “Peak Oil” Hubbert incorporated Technocracy Inc. in 1933, and it was kicking around under other names before then.
And it’s not that there’s some new trend in technology itself. Granted, the one thing that Kurzweil and the singularists are right about is that the rate of technological innovation is exponential, but I’m not saying 2017 marked some magic inflection point in that exponential trend.
My point is that the PR campaign for technocracy has now kicked into full swing, and we’re starting to see what a world of tech gadgets engineered and programmed by an elite technocratic class (at the behest of their billionaire backers) would really look like. And as scary as that prospect is, that’s not the worst part. The worst part is that the vast majority of the general public is going to clamor for such a world.
Read more about how the public is being conditioned to accept the Brave New World of the technocrats in this week’s subscriber editorial, and stay tuned for this month’s subscriber video where James introduces you to Kobe’s Luminarie festival.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLdCkKBpgak
http://www.euronews.com/2017/12/08/france-lyon-s-fete-des-lumieres-gets-underway
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v7tyz11vR4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VpEn94Y1lU
Bienvenue et bonne visite! A savourer avec un kebab et du vin chaud!
“rule by a technological/scientific/engineering “expert†class”
Hey that is me. I can also program AI.
Behold your future ruler!
https://i.imgur.com/xzjWzV1.gif
This site is starting to get vaguely unsettling…
Happy New Years James and everyone one the Corbett Community.
I keep saying there is nothing new here… All slave masters kept record on their slaves…. (usually using the House Slave)
For the first time in History… The slaves are VOLUNTEERING all the information on themselves and their loved ones, and actually pay for the privilege… This is a new paradigm. It will be very interesting to see what it will lead to.. Either brain zombie sheep, or a new revolution. Either way.. very bloody for our children and grandchildren.
Happy New Years VoiceOfArabi,
You do realize January 1st, New Year festivities is a Roman (calendar) construct right? Thought I’d point that out, since most of us live our entire lives by “their” societal norms and never really question it.
Any-who, I agree with your comment that we are living in a new technocracy paradigm. Here in Canada, we still have Net Neutrality, and I believe more and more Canadians are beginning to realize the actual meaning of the word “consent” and its many implications when it comes to “VOLUNTEERING all the digital information on ourselves”.
Also, Europe’s telecommunications regulator (EU) has published final guidelines on how the EU will implement net neutrality rules that were adopted last year, in what digital rights groups are hailing as a victory for the free and open Internet. — article date Aug 2017
Seems as though its only American lawmakers (politicians) and US corporations that are seeking to subvert the laws in order to keep exploiting their citizens even more.
That said, even though you live under a dictatorship (your words, not mine), it would appear as though you may have more freedoms than the average American.
Hello PeaceFroggs, I wish you a happy day whatever you celebrate. When i was a kid, we never celebrated (or knew about something called New Years), but as I grow older and interacted with many nations and cultures, i try my best to accommodate everyone on the hope they will also do the same for me and my people.
I understand your valid point about the Net neutrality issue, but I don’t think that’s what is broken here…
It is the people that are broken here. We have decided together (at least 90% of us) to start reporting everything we do, say, eat, think to “The Man”, who proved in the past to start wars and kill children for monetary and power gain.
So, it is not the internet… It is not the FSB or CIA or FBI or MI5… They have always existed and will always exist. What is new is, majority of us are working very hard and for free to deliver information on all of us to the worst “slave master” in history. i don’t have a social account or interaction, yet all my details and pics are on social media already… do you understand what i mean. (in fact, even my late father is on social media)
Yeah I understand what you mean. Example: “The Man†creates Twitter, then uses Twitter to collect and spread info, in order to then foment violent protests in the hopes it turns into revolution, with the hopes people will overthrow the targeted government that isn’t friendly to “The Manâ€. And if the targeted “regime” decides to shut down social media during the protests, then “The Man†will accuse the “regime” of being tyrants that don’t allow their people the freedom of speech or the right of assembly. It happened in Syria and Libya, and now it appears Iran is in the cross-hairs.
My point is, humanity is at a point now (about 10 years into the Social media experiment) and is finally wising up to the fact that there are some organizations out there that will use this vast wealth of information for their own nefarious destructive means instead of for good.
As far as having our details and pics on social media, I don’t believe this is the problem, since all this information was already available to Big Brother via the Department of Motor Vehicle, family doctors or other Secret Intelligence Government Agencies.
The real danger here are double edge swords “real time communication” websites like Twitter and Facebook, which provide on one hand freedom of speech, meanwhile on the other hand also gives the opportunity for hostile governments/organizations/individuals the opportunity to exploit social grievances in order to foster hatred and dissent.
Whereas Net Neutrality gives the individual the choice of whether or not they wish to consent to sharing their data information with 3rd party organizations.
Here’s a website, that differentiates between 1st, 2nd and 3rd Party Data, and how it can be used.
After all that, I guess in short, I mostly agree with you VoiceOfArabi, however, it’s up to each individual country and their governments to develop sophisticated counter intelligence tactics in order to covertly counter any hostile government meddling without being labeled “slave masters” by their very own population, since (as you correctly say): “the majority of us are working very hard and for free to deliver information on all of us”.
Hello PeaceFroggs,
This must be a new year miracle, as i find myself agreeing with you also… Especially when you say….
“Example: “The Man†creates Twitter, then uses Twitter to collect and spread info, in order to then foment violent protests in the hopes it turns into revolution, with the hopes people will overthrow the targeted government that isn’t friendly to “The Manâ€.”
I bet that, the same thing will happen in Russia around April / May 2018… This is my prediction 🙂
All the best PeaceFroggs.
VoiceOfArabi says:
…It is the people that are broken… …What is new is, the majority of us are working very hard… to deliver information on all of us to the worst “slave master†in history….
James
Are you so sure that Amazon has not lied about their sales of the Echo?
What a publicity stunt to get mass acceptance.
If they show high numbers, the brainless will think
“Oh, so many people got this. It must be cool. I will get one too.”
Happy New Year everyone!
You don’t have 30$ ?
To expensive?
No problem, you can get Alexa for Free!!
instruction video, most probably available for other devices too.
Alexa AI on Raspberry Pi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baec1CbV6A0
You can get most of the software tools without paying, just register as a developer (promise things like not doing business…).
They badly need developers.
You can watch sexually aroused milf Krysta Svore (microsoft) selling new quantum software tools to developers.
Quantum Computing – Top 3 Microsoft Breakthroughs with Krysta Svore
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p2_moQZJWo
But very interesting, she forgot to mention RSA encryption will be broken with quantum supremacy.
On the other occasion RSA case was almost the first topic.
Quantum Computing: Revolutionizing computation through quantum mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWqs6S259Z4
Conclusion: Krysta was afraid to mention RSA case to developers because zombies might realize (eureka!!!): government will see my dick.
Luddite!
Who cares what they see about the merely HUMAN me? Trans-humanistically, I shall achieve break-through quantum dick supremacy and Krysta, or someone or something that looks a whole lot like her, will love me long time…
Do not fear the fewcher
Turn her on and smooch her!
Get the quantum kick
And you won’t NEED your dick!
(Don’t worry, if you do
We’ll keep it safe for you)
Well, let’s go a bit further.
It’s not just that RSA will be broken with the advent of quantum computers. ALL the public-key cryptography used today will be broken.
Excellent lecture:
Protecting against Tomorrow’s Adversaries – Post-Quantum Cryptography
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaDenwQU6EY
What does this mean?
Pretty much everything that is supposed to be secure, private, hidden on the internet today, will lose this feature.
Bitcoin also, because it uses ECDSA for authentication. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t want to use a currency that doesn’t enable me to close and hide my wallet, today and the day after tomorrow. Probably (yes, probably) there will be a solution but it will be hard to provide backward compatibility.
The other day I’ve heard bitcoin geek tackle the problem and arguing NSA and the ilk use sophisticated weapons only when there is a dire need, so most probably they won’t use it for Bitcoin. Although there is some truth here, the guy underestimated the importance of block-chain currencies. And of course, attack would be done by “some hackers” using “zero-day exploit”.
How real the threat is?
According to Forbes ‘a long way off’
https://www.forbes.com/sites/amycastor/2017/08/25/why-quantum-computings-threat-to-bitcoin-and-blockchain-is-a-long-way-off/2/#716bf60d29a9
According to this source very near future (its sources available in video description)
Quantum Computing 2017 Update
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYESkqXVWa0
It may even be impossible to build a quantum computer of a useful size (50 qbits and more)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYx04e35Xso
This is the aspect of quantum computers I see as having the largest capacity to shift the digital world paradigm in earth shattering convulsive action.
The “dire need” notion is very much akin to the “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear” claptrap. All coming from same insane minds, if you ask me. The very possibility encryption would be rendered useless is leaps ahead of the current “backdoor access in rigged software” reality.
Are there any concrete technical solutions you are referring to?
When I said dire need (for them) I meant intelligence agencies always try to hide “methods&…” (I forgot the phrase), so most probably they won’t use new/best tools for things of low importance.
Not all cryptography would be rendered useless, just today’s public-key cryptography, but that is bad enough. Hashing algorithms (SHA) are considered to be secure. But as always in cryptography, until proven differently.
There are solutions proposed, many of them lattice based algorithms.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lattice_(group)
Pretty high math I’m not familiar with…. but:
1. Cryptographers have very different security estimates about it
2. Lattices they are using must have some special structure, properties. As far as I know, cryptography usually prefers random.
Maybe that is the case just with New Hope.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6V1N64eEuc
3. Here is a statement from wikipedia article: ‘… in materials science and solid-state physics, a lattice is a synonym for the “frame work” of a crystalline structure….’.
Before mentioned Krysta said that quantum computers (more then 100qbits) could be used for solving material science problems (lattice?!).
But there is more…
I recommend you excellent lecture ‘Protecting against Tomorrow’s….’ , link above.
“When I said dire need (for them) I meant intelligence agencies always try to hide “methods&…†(I forgot the phrase), so most probably they won’t use new/best tools for things of low importance.”
This may not be popular, but, in a war of flesh-eating giants, to out-fight or out-armor them is much harder than to live insignificant, so small, so low beneath, or so high above them, that we no longer rate their effort.
Just ask the mammals of the Mesozoic.
And another lowlife strategy: I have worked in various databases for years. Their powers are amazing. So are the illusions people live in because they do not understand the degree of corruption in their data.
Nota bene: Lots of false data = resistance.
I agree with the first strategy.
The second one is not lowlife, not today, not even in near future I think.
There is not enough resistance today to submit lots of false data, so false data can be filtered out as noise. On the other hand if small number of people submit lots of false data they could find a pattern and track them down.
I think false data strategy is suitable for final stages of Agorism.
In France it’s the Google Home that’s being shoved down everyone’s throat perhaps because the Amazon Echo isn’t available yet in French?
Ads for the Google Home are plastered all over the city and if you spend more than 300 euros at the FNAC, DARTY or BOULANGER (the major electrical retailing companies with the FNAC owning Darty)
you receive a FREE mini-Google Home…
Two of my students informed me that they’d be acquiring these devices even at the hefty price of 149 euros a pop (with the minis at 59 euros).
It’s a “Must-have” for the sleek, hip and modern French household… keeping up with the Martins…
Communication dilemma…
Often, whenever appropriate during a conversation with some “normie”, I try to segue the conversation into Technocracy. The conversation is pretty easy to steer, because most folks are all “hooked up to the Technocracy IV (intravenous) infusion”.
But I still haven’t quite mastered how to explain things simply, credibly and with enough impact to the average “normie”.
Often, I tell folks to watch some of the “Corbett Report” videos.
What I really need is a relatively short video which impacts the average layman normie on this topic.
…perhaps in the tone of Corbett’s 5 Unbelievably Stupid Ideas Governments Actually Tried
Sometimes, I mention China’s sesame “Good Citizen Score”. People bite hard on that one, and occasionally talk about a comparative movie/TV show they saw, but then they say: “…oh yea, China…I wouldn’t doubt it….”
I try to point out that Americans are voluntarily and eagerly doing it.
Making obvious obvious is a problem in itself. Like painting a white wall white. The problem is, people have been brainwashed into thinking white is black, so when you paint it white it’s still black to them.
Trying to show junkie there is something wrong with a drug?
Yes, here, we are all good persistent farmers planting seeds on dry non-fertile soil.
Maybe I have appropriate video (6:33). I think it might work best after normie is informed about China’s Matrix and after he had time to reflect on it, probably in supportive environment (You).
Heal your brain with video games | Jane McGonigal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zyNcov087U
There is rhyme from Living colour song Type that somehow encapsulates nowadays situation:
“Everything is possible, but nothing is Real”
(Library of Babel)
lyrics–>>https://www.letras.mus.br/living-colour/222706/
TY mik!!! beautiful! love it! a little more tease from this streetwise de-dialectical gem:
“…Everything that goes around
Comes around
Hypothetical
Theoretical
Circumstantial evidence
Irrelevance
Don’t think twice
Just roll the dice
Pay the price
Snake eyes
…
Corporate religion
Televangahypnotism
Suffer till you die
For the sweet-bye-and-bye
Science and technology, the new mythology
Look deep inside
Empty”
https://www.letras.mus.br/living-colour/222706/
Now having cashed in a 12k portion of bitcoin stash @ +$18k as I private jet across Puget Sound this chilly morning, peering down on the San Juan Islands below, Victoria just to the north, I read this rather annoying piece decrying technocracy on my $4k MBP between bites of Shiitake and saffron omelet with melba toast and Damson plum preserves whilst sipping organic Kenyan coffee at 18k feet served by a lovely private attendant, ..wondering what all this fuss is really about concerning technocratic existence?
Seriously, James, am I not entitled to enjoy my post-celebratory morning flight free of this plebeian whining? Isn’t there something more interesting that you could be doing on your vast array of electronic journalist gadgetry?
Now, where is James Patreon address, ..thought I had it somewhere..
Oh, ..look! A moose!
Happy New Year to one and all! (as if, *sigh*)
Nice writing! I enjoyed the James Bond R&R style painting.
James Corbett says:
My New Year’s resolution is to remain steadfast in my commitment to occasionally post jokes to Twitter in the face of overwhelming evidence that people do not understand jokes on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/corbettreport/status/947658333095305216
They seem to not understand them anywhere!
From Corbett Report’s Twitter Feed…
A mindboggling read. Incredible article.
Everything Amazon’s Alexa learned to do in 2017
https://venturebeat.com/2017/12/29/everything-amazons-alexa-learned-to-do-in-2017/
Twitter link
https://twitter.com/corbettreport/status/947408787182305281
I would like to see a YouTube video which encapsulates the article and Technocracy impact of this one piece of technology. There is so much invasiveness that it becomes overwhelming to digest.
Mind boggling is an understatement. As if the western style modern life didn’t feature enough laziness inducing contraptions, now everything points toward defining the cool fat guy who never needs to get up from the couch, simply ordering Alexa around by voice command. Then, sure enough, Alexa is going to firstly make recommendations and then decisions of its own, tailored for the user of course. You can just see where this is going, can’t you? By 2020 we’re bound to get the mind reader Alexa module, why speak when you don’t have to?
A warning from 1946…
Dimension X – A Logic Named Joe by Murray Leinster
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8A72wIUiVc
What an amazing quote from Etienne de la Boetie. Thanks for sharing such a gem, James.
I’m just starting to fully integrate the dynamic here: Everyone’s got their Amazon Echo/Google Home: everyone’s using them for more or less “practical” purposes ranging from programming daily life to impromptu lude insults towards family and flatmates…laughing at the shortcomings, waiting impatiently for the updates…(according to testimony from satisfied owners I’ve spoken to)
So, next time these folks buy an appliance, an electric toothbrush, a coffee machine, give free reign to your imagination: it’ll be Connected in order to continue the fun and maximize ROI on their Home/Echo…
My city’s nearly entirely equipped now with Smart meters.
IoT is here and is closing in and thickening the web as I type…
When I think that just a couple-few years ago I hadn’t even heard of Smart cities – Songdo style – and they seemed to be in the near future.
No. It’s right now. Ambiant intelligence. Total connectedness. People behaving as a single collective entity. Sharepoint. Sharing Worlds. Sharing is Caring. Privacy is Theft. Secrets are Lies…
Yup. Hashed and Graphed from above… Hashed, Graphed and Connected into Byzantine Fault Tolerance, a single IT entity, billions of full nodes pulsing in unison…
let me add some Black to the picture.
Agenda 20**
Basic income
The mouse utopia experiment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgGLFozNM2o
I feel particularly concerned with all the time I spend spinning that hamster wheel!
-Sustainable technocracy through implementation of Agenda** – check
-basic universal income perhaps in the form of rewards points – check
Fascinating mouse utopia link that I thank you warmly for posting!
However, it certainly feeds into the “overpopulation” hype and I’m not at all convinced it can generally be applied to humans…
but very interesting insight nonetheless that humans can learn and take warning from… I’ll be pondering the implications…
Anyhow, thanks again for the link and until next time during some hamster-wheel respite…!
Universal basic income (UBI) in form of reward points, why not. But they also think about giving money.
WSJ is pimping it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJYLSrjFUxk
another one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7hidqABq4Yc
I find VPRO documentaries excellent to get insight into enemy’s mind.
Looks like printing money is not a problem in our day and age. It has been given to the banksters, but it could be redirected to the people. But isn’t UBI somehow like free food in Calhoun’s experiment?
Regarding Agenda20**, first hand story
My grandparents house is few kilometers away from Triglav national park, Slovenia. It’s forbidden there to collect wood (for heating) that is brought down by snow avalanche every winter(they do it anyway). But nearby, new exclusive resort has been built (new buildings in old fashion style, new road carved out) so kakistocracy and their house-negroes can enjoy in nature. Today just few young people are living there.
Our environment increasingly looks like Calhoun’s entrapment. What we are left with is our mind that is also under attack as you concluded.
Another insanity for my first hand story
A roof has been renewed there. Zinc coated metal sheets became standard there during last decades. National park authorities demanded roof to be painted because it was too shiny.
Painting very steep roof is a problem in itself. Zinc coated surface is another problem, because paints hardly adhere to it. Special (read expensive) paint is needed.
And now this, brought to our attention by Truthstream Media… behold: ‘Asgardia’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_UeESh60_A
Aaron combs through the fine print in this ‘space nation’s’ constitution. Check out the bankers’ clause. Truly, I spent the first 5 minutes watching in disbelief. But. This. Is. Real. Folks.
https://asgardia.space/en/inauguration
So, who wants in? 🙂
PS)Check out the national anthem… let’s see… trite off-planet poetry… Vogons anyone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lXas5Ix65U
Okay, it’s just getting a little too weird, surely this is an elaborate hoax?
The first Head of Nation (an Engineer, Technocracy 101) was born on September 9!
https://asgardia.space/en/page/media
Okay, okay, it’s a 1 in 365 chance but still. Weird. It’s just weird.
Gotta get off the internet and into fresh air and sunlight… sliding down the rabbit-hole this hard is burning my butt!
oops… strike that latest comment, all good here… 9/9 not 9/11. Yeah, time to get off the internet for sure!
Okay, getting a little obsessed…
Here’s Caitlin Johnstone (https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/bezos-bows-to-pressure-on-15-hr-keep-pressuring-him-keep-pressuring-them-all-70540bfb7efb)
He [Bezos] wants a trillion humans working in space colonies while perhaps a lucky billion (0.1 percent) of them get to inhabit our beautiful blue planet, and you can be damn certain that he has no intention for his heirs to be among the 99.9 percent.
That’s it. That’s his whole vision. That’s the best possible future we can hope for if we leave control of our species in the hands of the plutocratic class.
I’d add the word ‘technocratic’ to CJ’s ‘plutocratic’.
Here’s the video link she gives in support of her statement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQHZjBVfDhg
So, let’s see, starts off by giving some kind of weird explanation about energy efficiency, and the energy expended by humans (aka “animals”)… I’ve not fact-checked this but where does he get these stats from? Then he says:
Take the alternative scenario, where you move out into the solar system. The solar system could easily support a trillion humans, and if we had a trillion humans we would have a thousand Einsteins and a thousand Mozarts and unlimited, for all practical purposes, resources from solar power and so on…
…I believe in that timeframe [a few hundred years] we’ll move all heavy industry off of Earth. And Earth will be zoned residential and light industry. And it will basically be very beautiful planet.
…this is the civilization I’m talking about (you know) getting comfortable living and working in space. Having millions of people… and finally trillions of people in space
Basically from my ‘reading’ of this, it’s Bezos’ Agenda 2221! And fellow plebeians, here’s the BIG give-away revealing his own agenda, go to 4:02 of the video:
We have sent robotic probes to every planet in this solar system now, and believe me, this planet is the best one!
So, the world Bezos is setting up for his descendants: a privileged few on Earth and the rest of the mob ‘out there’. Somewhere. Getting ‘used’ to living in space.
Maybe that’s the purpose of making acceptable the idea of utopian space colonies like Asgardia? Reminds me of the trick played on specific ‘undesirable’ parts of the Golgafrinchin population (Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy).
Thanks, but no thanks!