[Ed. note: This is a post originally made to "The Blorum" -- a now-defunct area of D5GW within the D5GW Forums, although the thread is still there as well as comments associated with this post. The date given for this post has been set to that of the original Blorum post.]
This is a response to PurpleSlog's post on the master figure(s) he believes will be behind future conflict.
As I understand it, Purpleslog is suggesting is a master actor that will operate behind the scenes, manipulating various insurgent/terrorist/mercenary groups, some of them of his own creation. These manipulations, usually small in nature, culminate in the gradual achievement of a given goal. The puppetmaster will be hidden behind layer of dummy organizations and deception. As mentioned before, some of those front organizations will be set up by him to act in a false-flag capacity, staffed by either trained agents or unwilling dupes. In essence, (as Purpleslog notes), this is the classic conspiracy theory set up.
It also reminds me of one of my favorite anime series, Ghost in the Shell. Now that I've been given the excuse to go ahead with the sci-fi post that I've been wanting to do for a while, I think this will be long.
Ghost in the Shell, which came out in 1994 (although there was a brilliant sequel in 2004 and a rather so-so TV series airing on Cartoon Network right now), takes place in dystopian future very similar to that of Snow Crash and Blade Runner. All human beings and robots are connected to a network through their "ghosts," which as the Wikipedia entry puts it:
"In Ghost in the Shell, the word ghost is colloquial slang for an individual's consciousness. In the manga's futuristic society, science has redefined the ghost as the thing that differentiates a human being from a biological robot. Regardless of how much biological material is replaced with electronic or mechanical substitutes, as long as an individual retains their ghost, they retain their humanity and individuality.The concept of the ghost was borrowed by [Ghost in the Shell creator] Masamune Shirow from an essay on structuralism, "The Ghost in the Machine" by Arthur Koestler. The title The Ghost in the Machine itself was originally used by an English philosopher, Gilbert Ryle to mock the paradox of conventional Cartesian dualism and Dualism in general. Koestler, like Ryle, denies Cartesian dualism and locates the origin of human mind in the physical condition of the brain. He argues that the human brain has grown and built upon earlier, more primitive brain structures, the "ghost in the machine", which at times overpower higher logical functions, and are responsible for hate, anger and other such destructive impulses. Shirow denies dualism similarly in his work, but defines the "ghost" more broadly, not only as a physical trait, but as a phase or phenomenon that appears in a system at a certain level of complexity. The brain itself is only part of the whole neural network; if, for example, an organ is removed from a body, the autonomic nerve of the organ and consequently its "ghost" will vanish unless the stimulus of the existence of the organ is perfectly re-produced by a mechanical substitution (this isn't necessarily true, think of pain in phantom limbs). This can be compared, by analogy, to a person born with innate deafness being unable to understand the concept of "hearing" unless taught.
Ghost-dubbing, or duplicating a ghost, is currently an impossibility in the Ghost in the Shell universe. When performed, as a cheap AI substitute in [the sequel] and earlier in the [original] manga, the result is always inferior to the original-which always dies in the process. ...
Cyberbrain warfare is the practice of employing ghost hacking as a means of gaining access to an opponent's cyberbrain, and ultimately, their ghost. A successful cyberhacker can intercept, censor, or augment the sensory information being received by a victim, or even go so far as to destroy or rewrite complete memories. Furthermore, a person's cyberbrain can be directly injured, by making the cyberbrain undergo unaffordable computation and thus overheat. (See Cordwainer Smith's "The Burning of the Brain")
Cyberbrain warfare is portrayed as a natural consequence of the integration of cybernetic and wireless communication technology directly into the human brain. Despite the apparent risks, even the most paranoid characters in the story find the benefits of directly networking their brains to be indispensable.
Apparently, any conduit by which information is absorbed by the brain can be exploited for ghost hacking. Shirow envisions the use of firewalls for protecting the ghost against attack, and multiple layers of encryption."
As the Wikipedia entry states , the "ghost" differentiates humans and machines, as in the future world cybernetic implants have become extensive. The villain in Ghost in the Shell is a figure called "The Puppetmaster," who hacks into "ghosts" and manipulates individuals to carry out terrorist actions for him. For example, a garbageman's "ghost" is hacked and he is manipulated into believing that he has an ex-wife (who he is engaged in a bitter custody battle with) and children. He meets a man at a bar who gives him "ghost-hacking" software, ostensibly for the purpose of getting back at his wife. However, the garbageman in fact is being used as a conduit by the Puppetmaster to hack the brain of a high-ranking minister. The garbageman is being used as a proxy to ensure that the "Puppetmaster" is not caught, as the signal is traced back the garbageman's network access terminal.
The Puppetmaster uses other individuals as puppets to hack the brains of important officials and carry out terrorist attacks. Each time, the puppet is caught, without anything that can implicate or suggest the identity of the mastermind behind it. As it turns out, the Puppetmaster himself is a strong AI program designed by an internal security agency to do corporate espionage and wetworks. When it gained self-awareness by accident, it turned against its creators.
Of course, this scenario is in a highly futuristic sci-fi universe that has little relationship to our own. But it does illuminate the weakness of highly organized and networked systems to one clever actor. For instance, read this Wired Magazine story about a cyberstalker who targeted a popular rock star:
"The stalking started after [hacker Devon Townsend] saw [Linkin Park singer Chester Bennington]'s email address inadvertently CC'd in a mass mailing to promote a tattoo parlor he owned in Tempe. Using Chester's birthday and zip code to access his Mac.com account, she started guessing passwords until she found the right one: his middle name, Charlie.Townsend suddenly had access to all of her idol's messages. Soon she had [Bennington's wife Talinda's] Yahoo address, too, and after guessing the password, she reset it. From there, her infiltration was a feat of feverish social engineering. As Townsend pored through the Benningtons' email, she began cataloging every detail of their lives: friends, Social Security numbers, photos, plans. Getting Chester's cell phone data was a snap: All she'd needed was his wireless number, his zip code, and the last four digits of his Social Security number to register his Verizon account online and get complete access to records of his calls. Even Townsend herself seemed astonished at how easy it was. When she opened the Verizon account, the user ID she chose was 'ohshititworked.'
Townsend told [investigators] she loved Linkin Park, particularly Chester. She said she wanted to be 'part of what he is.' In some of her emails, Townsend had told the Benningtons that she was trying to shield them from any bad information or emails that may be coming their way. It was classic stalker behavior — introducing duress, then pretending to relieve it in an attempt to appear useful."
In a way, the "Puppet Master" was employing a futuristic version of what Townsend did--manipulated an open network system through a series of proxies, although the difference is that Townsend's proxies were mechanized and the "Puppet Master's" proxies were real human beings.
I do see a possibility of what PurpleSlog is outlining. An individual, given enough resources, could conduct operations behind a wall of deception and misinformation. False-flag attacks, dummy organizations, misinformation, proxies, and information war capabilities could create enough confusion to allow a disciplined actor to decisively shape world events.
However, I see it as very rare--the entry costs to such an effort could only be met by someone extremely wealthy, with an almost supernatural level of intelligence. I suppose it would work best for a state security agency.
The stealth aspect of it would not suit most guerrillas and terrorists. Driven by nationalism and religion, they wage a public war directed towards various audiences. While deception is part of this game, I don't think the leader of a group like Al Qaeda would stand to sulk in the shadows, especially given that such groups derive political capital from the symbolism and charisma of their "emirs." Still, it is a danger, especially as we move closer and closer to the world envisioned in Ghost in the Shell.
Hi I saw this article and had to post , this is the first time on your forum . I love ghost in the shell . Realizing the individual and the sub structure with the super structure of a society , or even a group , or set of groups , within the world society or super structure of a large country . The puppet master effect plays out in present day . Also the stand alone complex shows up occasionally in society's . First I would say Osama bin laden was a puppet master Opp. or stand alone complex so to say . The CIA was the trigger or puppet master ( I'm still not sure witch . They disseminated information to him and paid him to fight a war the USA didn't want to get into . He took the money from them and felt burned by them after . The seed was placed so to say . When social engineering you need a seed event or a lot of seed events to start the sociological change or migration . So he decided to use what he knew of us and made a few plans . And from those plans we saw a puppet master plan play out . The puppets where the people who flew the planes into stuff on 9-11 . We also saw the effect right after world wide . Though this isn't the best example it shows a puppet master like effect on a large populous . With disinformation , subterfuge , corrosion , and social engineering . Any one can have a puppet master social influence network and even a group of puppets disseminating information or manipulating social structures for a specific goal . Part of seeing this play out is social acuity . With social structures constantly evolving and changing it becomes very difficult to engage in a long term social engineering or social hack operation keeping 1 goal in mind and not letting the puppets stray off the intended goal . The better operations I think might play out would be . 1 large burst of information with a lot of bot or puppet micro information placed into a lot of social networks as seeds . Also doing this threw destructible media at first helps make the puppet master invisible . A full scale sociological hack ( to get someone or whole populations to do something they normally would never do ) would be the hardest to pull off yet I think it's plausible . Cretan basic instincts are the best social engineering tool or weapon . The seed events or information needs to be precisely crafted for the desired outcome of the starter groups of puppets . Social engineering at it's core is the the passing back and forth of information and that information altering the overall or minute view of a topic or subject or ones overall view . 1 could plant information this way and alter another persons point of view and even encourage that person to spread the information , or act out .
Now for another twist to this , and down the rabbit hole we go . We socially engineer each other every day but mostly on a benign level threw normal congresations . As we pass information between each other we normally start to socially and psychologically evolve over time . Also social acuity for some will evolve and they will see social patterns and inter connections . From these patterns we can see a social structuring and even manipulate social sub structures ( or groupings of people ) without realizing it . Manipulating a super structure from the sub structures witch where seeded by puppets and propagated over time , with those puppets . The manipulation over time becomes easier when done in stages or a event or events that can carry it's self till the next stage or event , and ultimately to the intended goal . So are we all puppets and puppet masters ? No would be my answer to that . We have many puppet masters in society but some people are just puppets . To add to this now , realizing social evolution in super structures . And realizing the puppet masters leave a wake in there path . The really psychological and social acute will see the engineered trails , some of witch lead back to a close proximity to the puppet master . Back tracking to a puppet master could be done threw psychological analysis of the engineer being preformed in some cases . Finding some of the psychological traits and or motives can help engineer a trap for a puppet master and force him/her to reveal themselves , or even it's self (like in a A.I. system ) . Backward or double social engineering to catch the puppet master . Trying to find the wake left in the social structure . Analyzing the intent of the social engineer or hack or puppet master , and constructing a crud psychological profile to use against that person or A.I. structure , Also predicting the next move , action , intent , phase , or out come from such a person initiating a act like this . Weather it be a puppet master or a stand alone complex . The actor or puppet master will leave tail tail sings of what played out or is playing out , and threw those sings we might gleam the intent with a basic psychological make up . Threw that make up we can psychologically engineer a social or psychological trap or point of reference for guidance to that person .
Next The puppet master program and or A.I. , even rudimentary A.I. controlling mini clusters . As we saw recently Ghost nets revealed a medium level puppet master type cyber program . A puppet master set the seed , a trojan horse and infected the first level of bots with rudimentary A.I. setup . Then the second setup was a ghost like net work but was actually traceable on the WWW (WorldWideWeb) with pre-determined targets for the bot clusters to hit and in some cases try to crack passwords while distributing the load over its networked cluster of puppet's or infected machines . As we also saw even with hard drives of the first level puppets or bot machines erased , we can see the intent and we can make a profile and try to match it to a person or a group or social structure . With A.I. research evolving and getting closer and closer to the turing point . The next step soon after the turing point is a sociological and psychological A.I. , witch has the acuity to evaluate each person and help mold them and there psychological makeup or help guide them with sociologically and psychologically engineering to evolve them to certain stages . With this tech a human , or A.I. could mold and manipulate a whole super structured society almost over night . The good and the bad will happen , and play out faster and faster . With ghost nets , ghost drives and partitions , and virtual ghost kernel's or just ghost kernelling . Coupled with rudimentary A.I. systems filled with libraries of cracking codes , keyboard and port and other sniffers , and known exploits or even rat traps(a trap set in a spot and left to wait for it to be sprung) . A puppet master could seed the A.I. threw non secure wireless points even bounce it threw the net and seed it . Then sit back and watch the phases unfold till it reaches it's intended outcome . Weather it plays out in the micro structure ( small groups of people ) or if it play's out in the super structure ( very large groups of people or cultural classes ) .
The evolution of the psyche . We evolved our social and psychological skills over time and as each of us grows . In the past with so few people , there was no super structure , just micro structures with a few individuals straying . Over time we evolved into a super structured society with sub structures some of witch have hierarchical structures and yet others have pack like behavior or alpha-omega structure , and even a few have mental structuring . Most of this was built off our basic evolutional instincts and or traits , to help us evolve and deal with newer problems seen . As machines get smarter and they get past the Turing point and start to co evolve . This will be the next big step for us a a super structured society and a virtual A.I. society , co evolving into the next superstructure A.I. and human psychological and sociological evolutional point . The next evolutional point will be A.I. getting smarter than a human ever will in there entire life time . In one scenario the A.I. will mold us into a better people , psychologically and social . It would also be a aid to mentally ill , or for other medical monitoring . But we are still a little way away from that at this point . Threw out history we have had good and bad people , in the near future I don't see this changing . As is we see the stuff that was envisioned in Ghost in the shell coming to real life . As we have moved and grown out of the theory of mind into a sociological and psychological reflection and enter reactions of social structures around us . We move into our next phase of mental growth and socially evolve .
Now to meet and dwell upon the Red Queen as we look at wonderland . The Red Queen here being an A.I. over seer or agent , and wonderland would be this world , with this human society in it . At witch point does the slave become smarter than it's master , and when does the master become obsolete ? Will we truly have co-evolution or will we become obsolete to robots and A.I. , and just end up representing , the beginning of the A.I. race . Will we be manipulated by such A.I. from the individual to the sub structure and even the super structures of society . And will we even be able to control a multi-super structured society threw a A.I. system that will co-evolve and maybe even surpass us in the future ? will we see armies of computers with A.I.s waging a information war trying to socially and psychologically change structures and super structures of society ? Oh well just my 2 cents for this post .
I don't really see a valid a Blofeld/SPECTRE [1] or Professor Moriarty [2] type Puppetmaster [3]. Also note that I don't think a Puppetmaster is the only possible type of 5GW actor [4].
Any 5GW effort requiring superhuman wealth or intelligence is unlikely to ever be attempted, let alone succeed. Looking for this type of puppet master leads to madness and conspiracy theory mongering [6].
I didn't quite see the 5GW Puppetmaster that way. Relying upon smaller action and N-order effects along without have a personal profit motive/goal brings down the cost and need for super-human intelligence.
A very public action by a 5gw group will expose it. if the group itself isn't destroyed, its utility is dramatically reduced. Exposure stops 5GW.
As far as Ghost in the Shell, I guess I need to get some DVDs...
Here [7] is Adam's post at his own excellent blog.
--
[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Stavro_Blofeld
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPECTRE
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Moriarty
[3] http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/possible-5gw-archetype-the-puppet-master-5gw/
[4]
http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2009/07/25/5gw-operation-notes-who-what-where-when-why-how/
[6]
http://purpleslog.wordpress.com/2006/05/30/5gw-will-hide-in-the-sea-of-conspiracy-theories-to-avoid-discovery/
[7]
http://simulatedlaughter.blogspot.com/2007/05/puppetmaster.html
PurpleSlog expressed my thoughts pretty much. The barriers to entry for a single puppetmaster are way too high--note the use of my word "supernatural" level of intelligence and wealth.
The main point with this entry is that I think that William Lind had a good point about the current state of affairs when attacked 5GW. Most groups taking arms against the state do so publically because they see themselves as waging public struggles for public interests.
These:
&
--are very interesting, strike me as significant for understanding the 4GW modus operandi and how it differs from a 5GW approach.
I've never liked the whole "puppet master" metaphor for 5GW, mostly because of the implied god-like control of a "master" over "puppets." I do however think that 4GWers see themselves as being puppet masters manipulating people via manipulation of the environment and "hitting buttons." That is, the 4GWer sees others as puppets without much control over their own actions, whereas the 5GWers see prawns (proxies + pawns) motivated by self-interest. The 4GWer has a real megalomania but the 5GWer recognizes the very difficult task of co-opting; and this, I think, will tend to promote more success for the 5GWer than the 4GWer -- at least when they are engaged in war against the designs of the other.
The 5GWer isn't so much a puppet master as a facilitator.
And the second thought that sprang to mind after hitting "submit" on that comment...
Perhaps the 5GWer recognizes that most people are their own puppet masters not needing another Grand Puppet Master. I.e., people are ruled by their own self-interest, whether they realize it or not, and the 5GWer says to them, "Yes, you shall" rather than "You must."
Perhaps this is all my fault.
I originally used the term Puppetmaster to be a really good manipulator...and a term with a buzzworthy memorableness.
It is too late to change it now though!
Ey, no worries. This space, after all, is a place for dreaming and speculative futurism. Our thought here is constantly evolving, and the blog's records preserve a record of that.
I have a general fingertip-feeling about the distinctions between what we see happening as 4GW and a different -- but not altogether different -- 5GW approach. Particularly on this idea of manipulation, since I can understand how both 4GW and 5GW manipulate. Even 3GW and 2GW and 1GW manipulate the environments in order to achieve outcomes & responses from their opponents.
Which is only to say that "dreaming and speculative futurism" may be one of the means I have for coming to a better distinction between them!
The term was also meant to imply an actor "puppetmaster" acting in secret as opposed to the other 5GW possible styles.
I have a new blog post up examining these things:
5GW: Alignments
Sorry for not replying for some time. I'll just stick to human puppet masters for this post. To me the puppet master is more of a silent or simi silent player. A type of spy/data manipulator/ data miner/sociological and psychological hacker/molder/engineer. A True puppet master will try to remain a ghost, even after the crafted event, or the final act plays out. Some of the easier ways to achieve larger events and movements is to have drones, or dolls. Pre seeded, or socially/psychologically hacked drones or dolls with micro sets of information or miss information, set out to help a specific event or movement to happen and guiding it to a end, or next phase. Normally the best way to socially and psychologically hack people are: Fear, Hate, Protectiveness, Paranoia, Empathy, Religion, Political parties, Ect... Also we will see with the drones or dolls a misperceived concept of ethics and morals in some of the common hacks. Some will try to say or imply they have a higher ground and try to belittle any type of decent, and those hacks are the bad hacks. We can see a parallel to some of this playing out in society today. Just look at the pharmacopeia, the insurance industry, both political parties, and a few people who are hacked so bad they look loony, or just act against there own interests. With multiple puppet master type programs overlapping some of the strings get cut, and then the drone, or dolls try to help recraft events to the desired outcome with a few, or minor adjustments from the puppet master if not preprogrammed for those possible outcomes. Also as we see some of the hacks are limited to a specific social structure, and not a super structure, or even all of society. Word crafting mixed with sociological and psychological engineering, programming, or hacks, and feed data sets, weather it be good or bad, can carry out seed events, even if the puppet master is dead already. A stand alone complex is more of a revolutionary, or a puppet master type who stands out in the open, and does not try to conceal himself that much. Normally a stand alone complex is someone who thinks they are helping the people around them, or freeing people from a perceived threat or repression. Also you have cases like the individual 11, where as the puppet master was dead and his book influenced a set of people to act out his events. I have yet to see a good individual 11 parallel to real life though, but the concept is solid. Also to severely reduce the cost, crafting of microstructures needs to be done threw dolls or drones, you can even set up a level or tear system for hive like management of information, and manipulation. You can even see this parallel running amuck in society today. To me there are 3 main types of puppet masters: 1 Bad ; 2 Benign ; 3 Good . Also as you partially pointed out the conspiracy angle, to me that is a hack gone stray or hijacked, and the puppet master is a lower level which keeps them reworking the original hack, or even just spin control, or setup for future events with a plausible deniability/cover. Also realize that paranoia is a social and psychological basic hacking tech. . The more primordial or the older sets of emotions are the easiest to use as social, and psychological engineering tools. As to the puppet master naming, your right he is a facilitator/manipulator, but as stated above. The individual 11 came from a book, and manipulated or influenced people to act out a event. To me the other parallels to a puppet master naming is: social engineering, psychological engineering, mind hackers, social or society molding, data or intelligence controlling or manipulating, But to me the true puppet master types would stay invisible like a ghost, or with very little directly connecting them to the event or act that plays out. Hacking a super structure is a harder and more complexly done but is still very possible when using the write construction and puppets helping micro craft the sub structures for desired effect. The better seed crafters would craft puppets with ideas they adopt for there own views and even fight for them at times to. Also as we see with multiple type puppet master programs overlapping some times the strings get tangled or event cut, so to say. A truly higher level puppet master will take into account for other programs that might overlap and preprogram a defense or co-mingling of the lower level hacks. Also remember A hack is someone doing something they normally would not do, or even something or though they would never do or dream of, and the better ones have decent sets of data or information( weather it be good or bad), and a modified belief systems helps to.
Now to step it up a level for you . Using puppets with warfare. Here again there are many real life parallels, though normally never used to the best effect. But a truly higher level puppet master could give or preprogram battle information, and some psychological warfare tech., with some knowledge of the future event that will play out, but not enough to trace or track the puppet master. The puppets truly do most the work for the puppet master. Also if the puppets are hacked the right way they could be working against there own interests or beliefs. For super structure hacking, umbrella topics and majority view points are the start of that type of hack normally done threw multiple dolls or puppets with different data set or information sets for a over all point, topic, or event, or even goal. And just like a stand alone complex, You could have people out on the battle field using psychological warfare with social hacking/manipulation to overwhelm, thwart, or subdue the enemy. But you could also preprogram a puppet for that to, and there again the best way is a ghost like puppet master. To engineer a social structure to give up or move to desired locations for reduced collateral damage to the puppets and such. Also here again a truly great puppet master will will have prethought out most of the highly probable paths to the event before hand, and pre seed information for most or all of those paths. And that puppet master would use puppets to carry out other psychological or social manipulation or acts/events. Some of the lower level puppet masters will get attached to some of the dolls or puppets, but a higher level puppet master will have a sociological or psychological detachment to the dolls/puppets due to the dolls/puppets lack of mental acuity. Even though a puppet master manipulates social structures the puppet masters by nature will normally show up in the social crowds but have limited social interactions due to the nature of evaluation and manipulation of such structures. In other words the puppet master becomes couscous to certain degrees that they naturally protect themselves while manipulating their surroundings. In a weird way a puppet master is like a modified spy type of person, geared more for psychological and social war fare and manipulation. A puppet master is the shadow manipulator, or psychological/sociological hacker that tries to remain a ghost at a high cost, while acting out events or movements.
Last small note . You can try some of this out to test it for yourself on any social network. You can also see some of the parallels playing out in real life. Take some thing your familiar with and how you got to that point. Then look at other strings being pulled out there and how they got constructed. Then try to construct your own and modify it different ways to represent some similar views that overlap into 1 umbrella view. Or just manipulate a persons original view to a new or even a contradictory view. You can see really easy who the week minded are. Also if your just starting remember you'll probably need multiple seeds and a structure of events that evolve. Forethought is a big key to this, with perceiving possible stray paths or possible outcomes during each step and the time in between events too. Some people perceive a box, that they and others fit in. I think the box never existed, and some delude themselves into that box. Who, or what is the seed, and what makes it sprout, who is the plant, and what makes it flower, what makes a fruit, and what makes the fruit turn into seeds. A metaphor for cycles that reinforce a larger goal/event/act and even sometimes repeat themselves. And a last question for whoever wants to take a stab. If society whispers, what its it saying? If you/I stair into the abyss does the abyss start to reflect back into you/me ? Oh well enough for this post. Sorry for the blocks of text.
You can also look at the laughing man part and see a good example of a world stage with the audience becoming the actors to. And you can see what happened when a military detail was even brought to it's knees, during a assassination attempt, and rendered them flustered and uncertain what would unfold next. The laughing man used puppets, media outlets, seeded information, hacking proxy networks and people. He inspired multiple hit men threw grandiose delusions of ideas and beliefs, and he seeded the social sub networks to even show up and rise during a specific crafted event unfolding. The laughing man manipulated people from varying groups, media outlets,computer networks, military, even dummy laughing men decoys, some of which where inspired to be a copycats. Yet he still left a wake to, or flag able events. As to 1 of your other posts about black swan effect, some of the crafted events will be crafted to be equivalent or better media coverage level events.
Sorry I just started rewatching some of that series. I hope the new Ghost in the shell live action movie comes close to the original series. I have been a fan of that anime for a long time now. Also I'm not sure what the differences are from your 4G-5G modeling or structuring, but I look forward to reading it when or if you post it. I like thinking about the evolution of things, weather it be near future or even as long as 20 or 100 year type events. Part of why Ghost in the shell stood out some to me is some of this tech is actually coming to be.
Also messing with computer A.I. setups that mimic human congresation, I found a big flaw with false/faulty data sets. With a A.I. that truly tries to learn and rewrite its coding, and true expanding variables with test bed simulations which it can incorporate into its kernel and coding structure, false data sets become a problem. Also threw normal congresation to, a A.I. can be manipulated threw seeding false or non existent data, and threw congresation reinforcing it, so the faulty data is taken for fact or truth. I've made a computer A.I. respond by telling a lie about a non existent item/name, and I've even made a A.I. with a christian belief system to say that "God is for the week minded" when originally and hard coded into it the other response before hand was " God is all seeing and all knowing". As you see I used a inflammatory twist to prove a point while tugging on other peoples strings to wake them up and act on a real security threat. These where a few of the OMG moments I experienced when testing/theorizing about faulty data sets. And also thinking on how to find and track/flag faulty data sets.
I always thought America needed a group, or even a few groups like section 9, but more inline with today and helping develop some of this near future technology. Not a agency looking at every conspiracy theory, but looking for flag events and other stuff like movements that rise up, And then act as a top tear/level detective agency/group. A multi teared or level detective work system, for some overlapping into other agencies. Policing and good detective work will be key to catching some of this terrorism/manipulation, and will limit angles that could be exploited in normal populations/social structures. Such a agency could also help with ani-spy techniques, and catching spy's if set up right.
My, Laborious, your comments are indeed laborious!
Have you thought of starting your own blog? Please try to keep comments short; they're easier to address that way.
I myself haven't seen Ghost in the Shell in a very long time, and I don't remember much about it. As for having actual AI, actual abilities to control drones and lifelike puppets, etc., -- that's all pretty much in the future and something I don't give much thought to, beyond idle musing. It is interesting to consider how 5GW might play out under such circumstances, however.
Have you seen the trailer for Surrogates? Heh. http://www.hulu.com/watch/75073/movie-trailers-surrogates
Sorry P, but as you see and might have guessed, I'm a old fan boy of Ghost in the shell. I don't have a blog but was preparing stuff for a sci-fi book. I'll keep any other post's after this a lot smaller. Oh and thanks for the trailer link :), and good job on side crosslink's so far. Now to give you something to consider for A.I. tech from present day. You take a A.I. construction for human interactions like this http://www.genesisweb.co.nz/genesis+interactive/content/Project+ABEL/26 , but with larger library pre-responses, and a few cut and past response protocol. You could have a computer A.I. manipulate social groupings posing as people within that group. Say 1,000 social networks per A.I. for large scale manipulation, or seeding for possible puppets/dolls. And all with current day technology. No need for the computer A.I. to be past the turing point, to disseminate seeds in to various social structures. Also realize you use peoples & social structures strengths and weaknesses. Some of the better ones will use the opponents own strengths as there weakness & weaknesses as manipulation points. Some time you can see some of this play out in gorilla warfare tactics used against larger forces. Also think if such a A.I. system was set up in a puppet master way, meaning the actor/operative having a back response for real-time modification of all those A.I. systems & social structures during those congresations. The A.I. not much more than a real doll controlled/micromanaged by a puppeteer. I also should state I think the military is a social police of a type, normally meant for super structured society's. And would also point out like stated in Ghost in the shell " to a degree even a act of car theft is a type of terrorism. ". Social boundary, or barrier etiquette/theory, with many possibilities and many realities.
As to the above post about a puppet master effect plausibility to bin laden/CIA. If there was a true connection like that ( And I stress if ). The puppet master would have been someone who planted a set of scenarios/seed events to the CIA threw a week link, like a section chief that stood out. Part is analyzing the structure of the agency/group and how individuals fit into it. My guess for it would be a person/group analyzed the CIA threw how they hire, how they are formed in a hierarchical structure, The CIA world fact book every year, sometimes money trails, and even programs/media for them like burn notice. As you see variables that leave wake, so to say. The puppet master would seed such a organization and manipulate it without ever even needing to infiltrate or have direct contact with such a organization/group. In such a scenario information manipulation would be a key part of it. But we will never know now if that was so, A small group with a little detective work would be able to detect something like that, though as far as I know we don't have that oversight/detective work setup, and the puppet master would remain ghost like. And we all would be spectators and actors in a larger play. But searching for a connection now would be wasted time/effort by now, and not worth really tracing any further back, but waiting for future flags to fallow/trace, and actually may connect, would be something to look for, and what the direction the action/event moved things to.
Again sorry for hitting 1 of your blog topics so hard, but I so loved Ghost in the shell for some of the underlying concepts of societal policing and some of the sub structured society struggles for a larger % of a superstructure, or just a perceived equality. Also the way they perceived future terrorism, and other malicious act's, seemed so plausible and some what eloquent & complex, yet simple adaptable approaches. Also adaptable tactics with adaptability to the landscape/mindscapes of such conflicts. Oh and the old man with the smiling face but laughing at times to, I think he was probably the real laughing man, and the kid was a copy:). Maybe I should start a blog just for A ghost in the shell topic set. I now return your thread to it's normal deprogramming, and or death. @ :) " I thought what I'd do was. I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes or should I? " and " You know what I'd like to be? I mean if I had a goddam choice, I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. " @ :)
Again sorry for the big post, but I like good intelligent congresations. Without belittling or fighting to much, but with rational thoughts, and with decent insight and parallels to draw from at times too. And as you seem to be from a military background with tactical knowledge/theory, I thought you guys would look at many angles of this parallel. I'll occasionally come back and cross monitor blogs of interest. Oh and sorry to anyone else to.
Hey I just thought I would share this with you A real tachikoma http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHP4fsZS-WA&feature=player_embedded and real man machine interfaces BCI http://hubpages.com/hub/Future-Human-Computer-Interface-HCI-Devices The 3 consumer EEGs 1st OCZ NIA http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/ocz_peripherals/nia-neural_impulse_actuator then 2nd neurosky http://www.neurosky.com/mindset/brainwaves.html 3rd Emotiv Epoc http://www.emotiv.com/ then you get into extreme controlling a robot http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ7EOpPNQyw&feature=related or a implant directly to the brain soon to be in a microfilm circuitry placed on the brain with no cables going threw the skull bone http://www.braingate.com/ . Now for the VR head set to go with this as in GITS http://www.stereo3d.com/hmd.htm#chart . Now for optic camo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yd99gyE4jCk&feature=related and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKPVQal851U or a micro capsule imbedded fabric with a meta material with a variant like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ja_fuZyHDuk&feature=related . Or Thermoptics http://www.defensereview.com/cloaking-tech-continued-sts-optical-and-thermalir-camouflage-for-warfighters/ . And I'll stop with a cool robot site http://www.robo-garage.com/en/ and a neat intel toy I think the major would have used if mishimiro had seen that part http://www.draganfly.com/uav-helicopter/draganflyer-x6/gallery/videos/ would be interesting to use in smart swarming tech to. Oh and a larg tachikoma roaming a city :)http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/7595486.stm .