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Welcome To The Matrix: Enslaved By Technology & The Internet Of Things
Submitted by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,
“There will come a time when it isn't ‘They’re spying on me through my phone’ anymore. Eventually, it will be ‘My phone is spying on me.’” ? Philip K. Dick
If ever Americans sell their birthright, it will be for the promise of expediency and comfort delivered by way of blazingly fast Internet, cell phone signals that never drop a call, thermostats that keep us at the perfect temperature without our having to raise a finger, and entertainment that can be simultaneously streamed to our TVs, tablets and cell phones.
Likewise, if ever we find ourselves in bondage, we will have only ourselves to blame for having forged the chains through our own lassitude, laziness and abject reliance on internet-connected gadgets and gizmos that render us wholly irrelevant.
Indeed, while most of us are consumed with our selfies and trying to keep up with what our so-called friends are posting on Facebook, the megacorporation Google has been busily partnering with the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, and other governmental agencies to develop a new “human” species, so to speak.
In other words, Google—a neural network that approximates a global brain—is fusing with the human mind in a phenomenon that is called “singularity,” and they’ve hired transhumanist scientist Ray Kurzweil to do just that. Google will know the answer to your question before you have asked it, Kurzweil said. “It will have read every email you will ever have written, every document, every idle thought you’ve ever tapped into a search-engine box. It will know you better than your intimate partner does. Better, perhaps, than even yourself.”
But here’s the catch: the NSA and all other government agencies will also know you better than yourself. As William Binney, one of the highest-level whistleblowers to ever emerge from the NSA said, “The ultimate goal of the NSA is total population control.”
Science fiction, thus, has become fact.
We’re fast approaching Philip K. Dick’s vision of the future as depicted in the film Minority Report. There, police agencies apprehend criminals before they can commit a crime, driverless cars populate the highways, and a person’s biometrics are constantly scanned and used to track their movements, target them for advertising, and keep them under perpetual surveillance.
Cue the dawning of the Age of the Internet of Things, in which internet-connected “things” will monitor your home, your health and your habits in order to keep your pantry stocked, your utilities regulated and your life under control and relatively worry-free.
The key word here, however, is control.
In the not-too-distant future, “just about every device you have — and even products like chairs, that you don’t normally expect to see technology in — will be connected and talking to each other.”
By 2018, it is estimated there will be 112 million wearable devices such as smartwatches, keeping users connected it real time to their phones, emails, text messages and the Internet. By 2020, there will be 152 million cars connected to the Internet and 100 million Internet-connected bulbs and lamps. By 2022, there will be 1.1 billion smart meters installed in homes, reporting real-time usage to utility companies and other interested parties.
This “connected” industry—estimated to add more than $14 trillion to the economy by 2020—is about to be the next big thing in terms of societal transformations, right up there with the Industrial Revolution, a watershed moment in technology and culture.
Between driverless cars that completely lacking a steering wheel, accelerator, or brake pedal, and smart pills embedded with computer chips, sensors, cameras and robots, we are poised to outpace the imaginations of science fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick and Isaac Asimov. By the way, there is no such thing as a driverless car. Someone or something will be driving, but it won’t be you.
The 2015 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas is a glittering showcase for such Internet-connected techno gadgets as smart light bulbs that discourage burglars by making your house look occupied, smart thermostats that regulate the temperature of your home based on your activities, and smart doorbells that let you see who is at your front door without leaving the comfort of your couch.
Nest, Google’s $3 billion acquisition, has been at the forefront of the “connected” industry, with such technologically savvy conveniences as a smart lock that tells your thermostat who is home, what temperatures they like, and when your home is unoccupied; a home phone service system that interacts with your connected devices to “learn when you come and go” and alert you if your kids don’t come home; and a sleep system that will monitor when you fall asleep, when you wake up, and keep the house noises and temperature in a sleep-conducive state.
The aim of these internet-connected devices, as Nest proclaims, is to make “your house a more thoughtful and conscious home.” For example, your car can signal ahead that you’re on your way home, while Hue lights can flash on and off to get your attention if Nest Protect senses something’s wrong. Your coffeemaker, relying on data from fitness and sleep sensors, will brew a stronger pot of coffee for you if you’ve had a restless night.
It’s not just our homes that are being reordered and reimagined in this connected age: it’s our workplaces, our health systems, our government and our very bodies that are being plugged into a matrix over which we have no real control.
Moreover, given the speed and trajectory at which these technologies are developing, it won’t be long before these devices are operating entirely independent of their human creators, which poses a whole new set of worries. As technology expert Nicholas Carr notes, “As soon as you allow robots, or software programs, to act freely in the world, they’re going to run up against ethically fraught situations and face hard choices that can’t be resolved through statistical models. That will be true of self-driving cars, self-flying drones, and battlefield robots, just as it’s already true, on a lesser scale, with automated vacuum cleaners and lawnmowers.”
For instance, just as the robotic vacuum, Roomba, “makes no distinction between a dust bunny and an insect,” weaponized drones—poised to take to the skies en masse this year—will be incapable of distinguishing between a fleeing criminal and someone merely jogging down a street. For that matter, how do you defend yourself against a robotic cop—such as the Atlas android being developed by the Pentagon—that has been programmed to respond to any perceived threat with violence?
Unfortunately, in our race to the future, we have failed to consider what such dependence on technology might mean for our humanity, not to mention our freedoms.
Ingestible or implantable chips are a good example of how unprepared we are, morally and otherwise, to navigate this uncharted terrain. Hailed as revolutionary for their ability to access, analyze and manipulate your body from the inside, these smart pills can remind you to take your medication, search for cancer, and even send an alert to your doctor warning of an impending heart attack.
Sure, the technology could save lives, but is that all we need to know? Have we done our due diligence in asking all the questions that need to be asked before unleashing such awesome technology on an unsuspecting populace?
For example, asks Washington Post reporter Ariana Eunjung Cha:
What kind of warnings should users receive about the risks of implanting chip technology inside a body, for instance? How will patients be assured that the technology won’t be used to compel them to take medications they don’t really want to take? Could law enforcement obtain data that would reveal which individuals abuse drugs or sell them on the black market? Could what started as a voluntary experiment be turned into a compulsory government identification program that could erode civil liberties?
Let me put it another way. If you were shocked by Edward Snowden’s revelations about how NSA agents have used surveillance to spy on Americans’ phone calls, emails and text messages, can you imagine what unscrupulous government agents could do with access to your internet-connected car, home and medications? Imagine what a SWAT team could do with the ability to access, monitor and control your internet-connected home—locking you in, turning off the lights, activating alarms, etc.
Thus far, the public response to concerns about government surveillance has amounted to a collective shrug. After all, who cares if the government can track your whereabouts on your GPS-enabled device so long as it helps you find the fastest route from Point A to Point B? Who cares if the NSA is listening in on your phone calls and downloading your emails so long as you can get your phone calls and emails on the go and get lightning fast Internet on the fly? Who cares if the government can monitor your activities in your home by tapping into your internet-connected devices—thermostat, water, lights—so long as you can control those things with the flick of a finger, whether you’re across the house or across the country?
As for those still reeling from a year of police shootings of unarmed citizens, SWAT team raids, and community uprisings, the menace of government surveillance can’t begin to compare to bullet-riddled bodies, devastated survivors and traumatized children. However, both approaches are just as lethal to our freedoms if left unchecked.
Control is the key here. As I make clear in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, total control over every aspect of our lives, right down to our inner thoughts, is the objective of any totalitarian regime.
George Orwell understood this. His masterpiece, 1984, portrays a global society of total control in which people are not allowed to have thoughts that in any way disagree with the corporate state. There is no personal freedom, and advanced technology has become the driving force behind a surveillance-driven society. Snitches and cameras are everywhere. And people are subject to the Thought Police, who deal with anyone guilty of thought crimes. The government, or “Party,” is headed by Big Brother, who appears on posters everywhere with the words: “Big Brother is watching you.”
Make no mistake: the Internet of Things is just Big Brother in a more appealing disguise.
Even so, I’m not suggesting we all become Luddites. However, we need to be aware of how quickly a helpful device that makes our lives easier can become a harmful weapon that enslaves us.
This was the underlying lesson of The Matrix, the Wachowski brothers’ futuristic thriller about human beings enslaved by autonomous technological beings that call the shots. As Morpheus, one of the characters in The Matrix, explains:
The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work… when you go to church… when you pay your taxes. It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
“What truth?” asks Neo.
Morpheus leans in closer to Neo: “That you are a slave, Neo. Like everyone else you were born into bondage. Born into a prison that you cannot smell or taste or touch. A prison for your mind.”
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LIBERATION
ENSLAVEMENT
I prefer the Internet over smoke signals or a battery powered tube radio.
If you like your MATRIX.... You can keep your MATRIX
Says the guy posting messages on the MATRIX. Hypocryte.
Help!
Help!
Jane stop this crazy thing!
Jane!
Help!
Jane!
NSA knows you better than you know yourself. From your postings on ZH :)
Then it's so easy to f*ck up the NSA.
The human ant colony beckons and most people embrace it.
Nature doesn't tolerate competition to its programming.
"will be incapable of distinguishing between a fleeing criminal and someone merely jogging down a street"
This is objectively wrong. Neural nets can now reliably identify not only objects in a photograph, but what they are doing (for example, a girl playing with a dog is labelled as such without human intervention--the machine can tell they are playing and not fighting).
Also, concern about government control is extremely overblown here. Far more likely government will find itself obsolete thanks to the Singularity. Central panning fails because the planners are never more intelligent than those being planned for (combined IQ in the thousands vs combined IQ in the tens of trillions). A strong AI could conceivably be more intelligent than every human being on the planet combined. If properly motivated (via hard-coded value functions designed to maximize the satisfaction of human values), the machine will make decisions for everyone and gently guide them to them. To the person on the street, things will just start working out for them. They will bump into the right people at the right time. They'll hit all green lights on the way to work when they are in a hurry. They will meet their (literal) soulmate. Good things JUST HAPPEN.
That assumes the AI has the right value function and doesn't murder all mankind attempting to maximize some alien value, like collecting paperclips (ending with Earth's Hubble volume tiled with paperclips).
Thank fuck there are some thinkers on here who can go a little beyond "the shiney".
Another connoisseur of block chain technology ?
Crazy technician, cannot think beyond his CHAINS!!!
https://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/an-older-piece-pertinent/
I hope this internet of things involves a sex robot
The "internet of things" & bitcoin will lead to abject enslavement as your every movement will be detected, cataloged and analyzed.
But if you do not know how to drive your car or make coffee, you probably should be enslaved.
I have no intention of participating in the "internet of things" and I can't be made to do so.
I don't see a single thing in the "internet of things" that will lead to a higher standard of living or more enjoyment of life. Compare it to the automobile, the airplane or even the Walkman.
It is strictly a means of control which is all this government has been interested in since 9/11.
... "Make no mistake: the Internet of Things is just Big Brother in a more appealing disguise."
... while we try to make no mistake, the Internet of Things will stay around with all its pros and cons and as the US government has shown us, it would be a safe assumption that whatever the government and the lamestream media feed us is a lie. We'll just have to separate the chaff from the wheat.
... and while we argue the sane, brutal and salient points of this Matrix, we must remember that there are heroes out there who worked for the NSA, the DoJ and at some other branches of the government, media and alternative media who had chosen to break the rules in order to show the world that not all US citizens would agree to what their leaders had done to destroy their freedom via NSA/WH dragnet surveillance ... these heroes like Edward Snowden, Thomas Drake, Edward Loomis, J. Kirk Wiebe, William Binney, Diane Roark, Thomas Tamm, Jack Goldsmith, James Risen, Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewen MacAskill and countless others had given up their peaceful lives and some suffered financial ruin to bring darkness to light. And while we talked about "freedom of the press", let's not forget the NYTimes sat on the NSA dragnet surveillance story for several months (at the behest of the WH) until they heard that James Risen and his upcoming book would beat them to the punch to "blow" the news on the massive and illegal dragnet surveillance of US citizens.
... if you have Netflix, there is a show that you might find interesting (depending on which camp you pitched your tent) ... here is the transcript of that documentary >>> http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/government-elections-politics/united-states-of-secrets/transcript-61/
... surely, as Aristotle had said, "Evil brings men together" ...
Yes.
Crypto opened my eyes to a world without government, not through violence but through simple obsolescence.
Advancing technology is fast becoming like the Juggernaut of X-Men fame. IE nothing can stop it. We can only hope to direct it such that it fulfills the values of humans, rather than the psychopaths who currently rule us, or some mistake of programming sending it off on a wild tangent that kills us all.
Your hope is in vain.....
Not many of us are tuned into the right dial on the 'radio channel.'
.
On a positive note - all/any of us are capable of tuning in to that dial. On a negative note - the vast majority aren't/won't.
.
The truth is somewhere in the middle...its just that its mixed in with lies, omissions, smoke and mirrors, etc.
You're preaching to a bunch of illiterates here. It seems they have been blinded by their shiny-shiny and think that bitcoin is a threat to their bet.
I'm certain that none of the vocal anti-crypto crowd here can comprehend the concept of decentralization, how bitcoin works, how the system reaches consensus, etc.
They think everything is worthless what is digital and cannot understand how digital information or a system can be unique and valuable.
Pinhead.
See, a response like this gives away instantly that you are a retard or a troll.
Clearly you are new here, pinhead.
Believing encryption algorithms will save you is just plain stupid, as stupid as those who don't know or care what encryption is.
using them will only mark you as a "person of interest" to which alternative methods will be applied.
crazytechnician = pinhead
Precisely. Blockchain technologies will render Google and the nsa irrelevant. The Internet of things will be decentralized and distributed globally. Maidsafe is already working on a decentralized Internet. Markets will still exist to transfer value but the controllers will be shuffled to the fringes of these decentralized networks so humanity can live in peace and prosperity once and for all.
Yeah. And bitcoin is completely anonymous and safe from outside interference.
OOPS!!!!!
It will be fun the day it happens. What is it? The day when everyone is utterly reliant on AI and either AI decides to turn itself off, we get a massive solar flare, or someone starts sprinkling EMPS around like so many snowflakes. Bad things will happen. Good luck with living through that.
Which government?
Are you really that stupid to believe, if the financial collapse comes and unemployment multiplies and the multicultural paradise explodes and the just in time lines collapse, that the government will not change, too?
And because you mentioned how clever the software is already: that shows that you believe they use it for the benefit for the people.
Now, if that was the case, can you please answer one simple question? Why are the borders kept open, police stations are closed, criminals are not incarcerated but cameras are placed everywhere?
If it was about fighting crime, why are the sources of crime not liquidated, but protected?
The answer is that none of those things affect those in control, and in fact make it easier for them to remain in control.
The very rich are not actually affected by the chaos around them as they have assets available to them that mitigate the threats...
An important way that chaos *increases* their control is that the little people or even what was once the upper middle class are forced to defend themselves from the "chaos" (often not really chaos as it is actually directed by TPTB), and they have less energy and resources left with which to fight against those that already have the power...
'All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace'
I don't have time to explain why there is NO WAY this will ever work, but Adam Curtis can at least give you a place to start.
http://vimeo.com/27393748
I am moving into a fucking cave with a tin foil door!
A step below most on here who already live in a cave with an implanted tin foil hat. Waiting for armageddon so they have a 7 day window to spend their shiney (if they manage to ever recover their silver from some random lake that is) and also use up all their saved up lead ammo to shoot everyone ..
Its nice to see some talented and creative trolling now and again. We've been rather insulted by the discount trolls they've been sending lately. Its nice to see that the NSA realizes that controlling the conversation here is worth spending enough fiat to hire decent trolls.
Welcome.
When you realize you are on the wrong team and switch sides, or when you realize they will kill you when they are done with you, feel free to come occupy the cave next door but bring your own tinfoil and supplies..,
im not scared. my tinfoil hat will protect me...
If you like your tired cliche, you know what you can do with it.
Therefore it works.
Our enslavement wouldn't be so perfect, if you wouldn't love it.
And it will become much, much better!
Everything becomes easier and easier. From day to day. And you don't recognize how you are becoming completely dependent on the system.
One day, they could invite you to discuss one of your postings on the net. Nothing really spectacular, but your daughter maybe is working in an agency and so they screened her relationships and so you popped up as "politically endangered by extremism". They also saw, that you read real books, which is already suspicious and that you have ordered books like Fahrenheit 911 and 1984, Platon's State, and original literature from political thinkers like Hitler or Marx from Amazon. So they invite you to a nice dialogue. In this dialogue they seek your cooperation to protect your freedoms and show you what could happen, if someone breaks into your WLAN, withdraws all money from your bank and savings accounts, or the consequences if your IP adress was accidentially put on a blacklist, or you were put on a no-flight list. Or how inconventient it could be, if you can't pay your mortages only for a few weeks: to lose the home because of such "technical issues" is not fun. And with no bank account how impossible it is to find a job again. Then they wish you a nice day.
The worst enemies of freedom are the lucky slaves. (Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach)
Books? Savings???
WTF???
Seriously bro, I follow you with the Bitcoin stuff and all but here I must tell Fuck You !
I just want to point out that a lot of the new gadgets/apps/etc. seem to be made just for the sake of making new gadgets - they don't actually improve anything and in many cases are annoying or inconvenient.
Great, all we need is 3D glasses to watch this freak show the Fed is trying to spoon into us.
Snowden.... Keep busting them baby.
some folks were Matrixed
"The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it" -Morpheus
Re "Google will know the answer to your question before you have asked it, Kurzweil said." :
And it still won't be able to answer any of my questions.
And it will still give me hundreds of links to irrelevant crap to wade through.
Sometimes I get lucky. Often times I think, "WTF???"
If you haven't found the "edge" of Google (no links, few links, or only links in foreign languages) then you aren't asking the right questions.
Re "But here’s the catch: the NSA and all other government agencies will also know you better than yourself." :
But they'll still leave you to rot when you could be making great gains elsewhere. All their knowledge will be used for oppression only.
Re the internet of things:
You'll have super-duper high speed broad band spying on you, but your personal part of the net will still only work at sub-56k speeds. If not for ZH, I probably would have ditched the net by now.
Waited all my life for the invention of 64-bit computers and now they're finally here, I can barely use them for what they're good for. These days I tell people that if they don't know much or care much about computers then DON'T get one. They're too much hassle.
I like having pictures and music on my phone but even my phone is at the point where I'd be better off with one that does nothing but make calls.
On the one hand we get all this fancy shit, on the other hand it is barely usable.
+100
I say the same. Used to love the machines. Learned Basic, APL, C, and other languages and had a blast. Then came the IT gestapos with their security. Passwords, Passphrases and those damn little words you have to type in or the little math exercises to prove your human.
Soon all your choices with how you wanted your computer setup just disappeared. All the gadgets are like that. First they gave you the choice of having this or that now they just load it without asking. Yahoo keeps asking me for my cellphone number... I don't have one,,, but that isn't one of the choices. Soon I suspect they will cancel my email account if I don't run out and get a cell phone.
The internet was supposed to be an information highway. It has become a billboard selling this and that. Real information is almost non existent at this point. Googles search engine pretty much sucks. You have to page forward 4-5 pages to get anything real as all the advertisers that pay the most get the first couple of pages.
At work the machines tell you what to do and how long you have to get it done. What happened to the idea that machines were supposed to assist with your life and work, not control it.
No, these machines pretty much suck. If they were to disappear I would not miss them for long.
The problem is the people, not the machines. Too many people want machines that will control them. Therefore, machines are turning into that. Everyone goes gaga over stupid iPhone or Android shit that they can stare into all day, idiot boxes that they can watch their junk entertainment on, gadgets to make their food for them, etc. They spend all their free time on Facebook and they're too lazy to read a book so they "google" everything. Because companies and governments want to profit off these idiots, that's the direction the technology moves in.
Our problem is being on the outskirts. It's more difficult to survive when you are vastly outnumbered. Taken to the extreme, you'd have to survive on your own, whereas the common people can greatly leverage each other and all the institutions they've built to make their lives more efficient.
While dropping out and becoming a luddite may sound appealing, it's problematic. Namely, the world will continue to evolve without you such that you'll grow weaker and weaker relative to it. Some day some drone may fly over and won't think twice of eliminating you or a family member. You wouldn't even be able to put up the remotest fight against it. You'd be as defenseless as a primitive tribe against gunpowder, except that you'd have knowingly chose that. Isn't that a sad thought?
Personally, I'd rather embrace technology than run away from it. If you know a lot about technology you can defend yourself to some degree against it. You can even use it to fight for your values it if that's your passion -- hacking/online terrorism can only be expected to grow as technology pervades our lives.
There's at least one good thing to be said for the internet at this point, if nothing else: it's a great place for people who are on the outskirts to learn from and interact with people from around the world, surpassing their physical and cultural limitations. It may not always be this way if the government manages to heavily control it, but it's still relatively free at this stage.
Like all other developments in mankind, it's a double-edged sword: it's better and more efficient, which means that it further concentrates power, which means that it's more dangerous. We can expect that the world will be a more happy, sad, diverse, and evil place because of technology, which is a beautiful thing in my eyes. At every stage, from the dark age, to the industrial age, some people have been weary and wished mankind to settle down, live happily ever after, and, consequently, become a sheep-like and uninteresting animal. But we have continued to grow and evolve in defiance of that and show no sign of slowing down.
chill out mad luddite max...you still need to get up and go to work...pay bills..... find a mate...entertain yourself...fight.... fuck.... eat ....and procreate..... not to mention create something new ....it will be OK in the future...really
Psst, sonny, I'll let you in on a little secret: people did all of that before the internet and they were happy.
But you know what? We got personal computers and the internet and productivity skyrocketed but our take home pay went down anyway.
Now you chew on that, sonny.
You Ass-ume to much chump...... I dont need much to be happy....... and I adapt and overcome...... unlike you boy
Do you know how to read, sonny?
Illiterates don't adapt well to the modern world.
Sonny.
More of these, please.
Hey notice how you can pay for things using the Apple watch?
Ever notice this passage in the bible?
"And he causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead,"
Notice how people will willingly wear these things on their wrist, right next to their hand?
Notice in the DIsney parks the "fast pass" people now wear a bracelet?
The Luciferian Oligarchs are pretty clever.
I know this sounds out there, but the people ruling us apply technology to push their Luciferian religion on us.
I wish I wan't right about this.... Sigh.
I suppose you religious nuts will say next that Apple is Adams fucking Apple , All religion is total B/S , weak minded fools please grow out of this shit.
Wouldn't it be a shocker, a couple of seconds before you kicked the bucket on your death bed, a message came into your brain that maybe they may have been right :)
Yeah, maybe ... But maybe another message came into your brain a couple of seconds before death telling you it was all B/S and you just spend your whole life beleiveing that shit as well.
Maybe you are right.
The only thing I know based on personal experience and observing people I know and their lives, there is more to this life than meets the eye.
Every once in a blue moon something happens beyond coincidence or explanation, at least an obvious one.
Life itself has yet to be explained by anyone. When I say life, I mean all of it.
It is beyond the scope of our capacity to understand it may be too simple, but countless generations of people, some with great minds, haven't come to an answer yet except for possibly a spiritual one.
Even Big Bang had to start somewhere, then there is a possibility there never was a start or nor will be an end to the universe. No one can say for sure.
Yeah but crazytechnician said so. He's an expert at nothingness.
G-ds existence cannot be proven, so religion is a matter of faith.
G-ds existence cannot be dis-proven, so atheism is a matter of faith.
Death is real, Ray Kurzweil.
Actually the Apple logo is supposed to be the apple Adam and Eve ate from the tree of life in the bible to cause the fall of man. Notice the bite out of it.
Also the first Apple computer sold for $666.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_I
We're ruled by people who believe they're the children of Lucifer, and those who side with them get chosen to succeed.
Wish it weren't true, but truth is truth, and those people in power will use technology to force their will upon us.
Unless we all wake up their gonna win.
fuck.off.
Have I stated any untrue facts?
BTW welcome to Zero Hedge.
:-)
My belief in the bible is as strong as your beleif in the koran. All religion is mind control B/S.
Apple was named after the apple that dropped on Isaac Newton's head. At least according to Steve Jobs.
Maybe CrazyTechnician can explain why the apple dropped down instead of propelling upwards into outer space.
Would be a lot easier to not believe the Bible if so many people weren't hell-bent on making it's prophecies come true. Note, they don't just let it happen. Even so-called non-believers go out of their way to make it happen.
In any other point in time, the mark of the beast would be an unenforceable tattoo. But now we have implants, EFTPOS and RFID technologies, the time will come when NO ONE WILL BE ABLE TO BUY AND SELL WITHOUT IT. Clear as day and yet you still deny. Now go back to Revelations and look at the creatures in the sky. Well, actually, in some respects drone technology is already far worse than what the Bible mentioned but I expect it will become worse again, in line with what is written. Air-borne cattle prods???
Even the atheists cry out that the joos rule the world through usury but the idea was spelt out in the Bible as far back as Deuteronomy. Sure, for a long time the Bible was suppressed or not many people could afford to buy a copy but the printing press has been around for a few hundred years now. Maybe the gentiles really do prefer to be cattle. You say it is all BS and then you make it happen and then you still deny. Who would willingly slit their own throat while saying they want to live?
If you know your bible you must know they actually do win.......
"they" being God and those who put faith in Him.
fucks sake are you lot from the bible belt or what ? Religion is B/S , all of it. Muppets.
Prove it.
History shows it pretty clearly that it's all bullshit. It's just another human construct to enslave the plebs.
I guess people like you are only afraid of reality, in the sense that you need to cling to delusions to avoid breaking down under the pressure of knowing that your life is meaningless, insignificant, there won't be any afterlife and you're not more than an animal. It's hard to accept for some that life is without purpose outside of survival.
The thought of an omnipotent being and the promise of a new start after you lose the final battle against entropy comforts the simple mind.
Organized religion has been a way of organizing people into groups/ societies/ civilizations.
Like it or not, organized religion does a good job of it.
So when people attack your g-d, they are attacking your group/ society/ civilization, which you need to survive and prosper.
"Free riders" take note.
Just don't confuse organized religion, including science, with the ability to answer to the great mysteries of existence.
The Bible does not say that eating of the tree of life was responsible for the fall. It was eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. That was the one tree God instructed Adam to avoid. Genesis 2:17.
Hey Crazytechnician...explain this then: Youtube overview of "The Harbinger"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GyZZmhE66k
ahmen
CT, I defend your right to your belief. WTF RU to label anyone weak minded.
Perhaps one day you'll have an epiphany...
If you're lucky.
But most people wear watches on their left hand.
Also, Revalations already happened. It was an allegory about the Roman Empire, with "the Beast" being Nero, whose name transliterates to 666 in Hebrew. Even had a 1000(+) year kingdom of God. And that kinda sucked.
You haven't a clue what the kingdom of God is.
A literal kingdom, the Papal States, ruled by the self proclaimed voice of God on Earth, which ruled "the world" for a thousand years.
Oh, you don't like that your vision of glory and death for everyone already happened and was disappointing as fuck, so you try to change it after the fact? Might I suggest you change religions to 7th day advantist then?
Has this got anything to do with, "Before this generations dies, all this will come to pass"? Genuinely interested.
God's Kingdom is ruled by God Himself, not a "self proclaimed voice of God."
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. -John 18:36
But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. -Galatians 1:8-9
There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you [yourselves] thrust out. -Luke 13:28-29
Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. -1 Corinthians 6:10
Revelation 11:15 - And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become [the kingdoms] of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
1 Corinthians 15:50 - Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Revelation 22:5 - And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.
Revelation 21:3 - And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God [is] with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, [and be] their God.
Revelation 20:6 - Blessed and holy [is] he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.
2 Peter 3:13 - Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Galatians 5:21 - Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
1 Corinthians Chapter 6:9-11 - Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Mark 10:25 - It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.
Matthew 5:20 - For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
There are many other Scriptures which prove you wrong, but these should suffice.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82OpDZ9tAho
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6imW3y_VGXI
https://themereonlegacy.wordpress.com/2015/01/02/linking-reason-and-purp...
So sorry, quoting scripture is hardly considered empirical proof. My question is if God does indeed desire our worship (and I'm not convinced of that by a long shot) why is it so deadly boring? Besides, its a boys club.
No-one's got the balls to really call God's bluff. Except this guy:
http://listverse.com/2014/01/16/10-astonishing-desert-survival-tales/
(Number 5 on the list)
http://www.1srg.org/Missions/Mission-Bogucki.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/428505.stm
When I was 15 many moons ago, before the Internet, before CNC machines, I wrote that even God will evolve through technology. I called it the inevitable plasticalization process. I recogonized how technology grows from one generation to the next at ever increasing rates; all completely independent of human evolution. Like humans that grew up out of matter to speak with one another technology is growing out of humans into something new, at least on earth. As we approach the singularity expect lots of UFO visits because this thing that is us and more than us is about to present some consequences to the universe, at least this universe. Thus spake Q99X2.
There is no doubt that over the last 150 years or so, technology has allowed the population of earth to expand from 1 billion to 7 billion. The catch is that we are now on a technology roller coaster and must continue to create new, productive technology.
Technology is important. Attempts to suppress productive technology should be questioned.
Technology is not G-d. It is merely a tool.
UFOs? Singularities? Must be part of your religion.
We'll be naked, again. And then someone will eat from the Tree of Life.
Correct , I love getting naked and eating the Tree of Life. The missis loves it too.
Yeah right. A government employee is going to get off their dead ass...
Does anybody realize how much data is moving around? What would you look for? People sending "f**k" messages to other people?
How many "warriors" are available? Remember, we are sending the same few "warriors" to Afghanistan over and over again.
It don't work like that. First they find stuff to steal, then they declare the owner is a terrorist, then they plant the evidence (if they really have to). And if you have any stuff then you must be a terrrrst becoz if you obeyed all the rules then there is no way you could afford to buy any stuff. All the true "owners of stuff" are up to their eyeballs in debt so if you have no debt then you must be a terrrrrst!
See how it works?
We are already enslaved by the NSA that spies on you relentlessly (99 billion pieces of intelligence collected every month), the Department of Homeland Security that violates your privacy and exists only to frighten you into submission, a militarized police that can liberate you from your cash quite legally, politicians who do not give a whit about your welfare or opinion (93% want GMO foods labeled in US but that will never happen), corporations who rule this country (many pay no taxes), the 0.1% who now have more wealth than the bottom 90% (and a lower tax rate than you), and a Military Industrial Complex that is busy profiting from eternal wars (The Nobel Prize Winner has bombed seven Muslim countries and destabilized Ukraine and engaged in a full spectrum war against Russia and demented "mass-murderer" Putin).
If you think you are not a slave, you are not thinking
If you beleive you are a slave then I suppose you must be.
I beleive I am a free thinking individual human being , no slave or servant to anybody , so I suppose I am.
Glad to know that you are immune to NSA spying, DHS bullying, Police and that you freely choose to eat GMO foods and drink fluoridated water, are not affected by the Patriot Act and NDAA, approve of no taxes for GE, approve the Fed running the US economy, and that you approve of Obama's wars and killings with your tax dollars.
Your freedom is so spacious, free man. Can you sing "land of the free?"
The best slaves are those who believe they are free
absolutely none of the above apply to me.
but good luck with your future negativity / trolling.
Have you ever purchased food in America?
Yes.
Does your mom know you are on her computer?
Since when is reality "negativity"?
JO,
I met a Ukraine born, Georgia raised bride at the barber college 2 days ago. She was a hoot & DDG. Right off the bat she told me she wasn't a mail order bride. LOL. Her father is a colonel. I asked her what she thought of Putin and she replied she liked him. We went on to discuss Noodleman and she stated, behind every war you will find Au Jus. Then she said, I'm covered. I'm married to one.
Technology is without a doubt becoming the "baby-sitter" of the population.
The danger is that the desire to monitor everyone will result in half the population monitoring the other half of the population and then we will be worse off than the general population was in East Germany.
The next big thing I foreseee is governments trawling past video footage, downlaod usage etc in search of "crimes" whether it be for illegal downloads or speeding etc. for the purpose of extracting more revenue by way of fines etc.
For me the solution is simple.
Turn it off
If it was off you would not be reading this shit would you.
You are correct, however Zero Hedge does not rule my life. I enjoy the comments so I read it
When I have other things to do, I turn it off and do them.
There are people who are lost without their phone. Me I often leave without it. Whoever wants to get ahold of me will have to wait till I get back.
I have lived for many decades without all of this. If need be I can continue to do so. How many are addicted?
Tighten up your tinfoil hats bitchez..
"The 20 Freescale employees, among 239 people on flight MH370, were mostly engineers and other experts working to make the company's chip facilities in Tianjin, China, and Kuala Lumpur more efficient, said Mitch Haws, vice president, global communications and investor relations."
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/09/us-malaysia-airlines-freescale...
"Freescale Intros Tiny ARM-Based MCU for Internet of Things"
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2453987,00.asp
Saw this a while ago and thought it interesting. Internet of Things is still hopefully a personal choice for the future. Creepy stuff.
Until your fridge , or your light bulb texts you in the middle of the night telling you it needs a diaper change or to close the door. The IoT will be enabled by BITCOIN btchez.....
What an excellent reason to not get involved with that fraud called bitcoin.
The sensors and the feedback.. lots of that already going on with cars, phones, searches, social media, etc.. lots of data being aggregated. This automatically equates to lots of learning. It's definitely fascinating froma data analytics standpoint. Not seriously considering AI taking over just yet.
Hey listen if you can't beat em then you better join em.
every convenience, development and innovation enslaves
us to the degree we forget a prior solution.
....
Geez, this might really bother people who are predisposed towards paranoid schizophrenia.
As for the rest of us....meh.
Few more years and one will be considered insane thinking he's not being watched.
These days there actually are security cameras inside loony bins. How do you explain that to the paranoid schizophrenics now?
"I know they're watching me! The camera is right bloody there!"
Speaking of the matrix....The Saudi Connection? Congressmen Demand to Declassify Secret 9/11 Report
http://us.sputniknews.com/us/20150108/1013438376.html
The 28 pages primarily relate to who financed 9/11 and they point a very strong finger at Saudi Arabia as being the principal financier,” said Graham.
An available segment of the 9/11 Commission revealed that “contacts in the United States helped hijackers find housing, open bank accounts, obtain drivers licenses, locate flight schools, and facilitate transactions.”
Will it spell out who the Dancing Mossads are?
The banksters need to repay us.
I hear that K-Tel has a Dancing Mossads dance along video coming out.
I want to know where the GOLD went.
Will be fun when the Internet goes down...millions of zombies that have no way of doing anything. Having no access to your iThingy will be the least of your problems.
Wouldn't that be such a great thing to happen. Just think , millions of neighbours , friends , relatives , all talking to each other face to face with one another in perfect harmony and grace , and magical unicorns flying down and giving everybody rainbow coloured presents.
"Welcome To The Matrix: Enslaved By Technology & The Internet Of Things"
Whether it is a fist, boot, gun, or technology, the problem is always with the oppressor, not the with the oppressed.
If all stopped using cell phones and the Internet tomorrow, they would still be kicking in doors with their "standard issue," and robbing, tazing, caging, and killing people--the Zionist debt must be serviced, or else.
Additionally, the more they rely on technology to monitor and track us, the more vulnerable they are, as technology can be disconnected and/or GIGOed (Garbage-In-Garbage-Out).
In a nutshell: Imagine a soldier in the field. He needs a logistics train of fuel, ammo and food. Break that train, and his fighting capacity only becomes diminished over time. Imagine that the GPS system is taken out. His capacity to fight is immediately diminished, depending on his reliance on that particular system at that particular time.
And when those soldiers, potentially cut off from their command due to a breakdown in communications or logistics, begin to encounter EXTREME resistance from local guerilla and/or militia action, what happens then?
Drone warfare will rule the battlefield. Hellfire doesn't require a "painted" target.
The MIC will eventually be brought to bear against the Amerikan people.
With respect, but why not spend time thinking of scenarios that will work, instead of ones you think won't?
The key is to learn and know their systems, and then find the vulnerabilities in those systems. Drone warfare is, and relies upon, many systems, some of which, especially technological, are highly vulnerable.
The banksters need to repay us.
"Where there's a way, with enough thought and effort, there is a way."
"The internet of things", better knowns as "the wet dream of politicians".
The internet of things is a great power. For good & evil.
There's really no good that can come out of it. "Okay guys, let's kill the biosphere while pretending that we're all connected and shit." Fuckwads.
(this is coming from an electronics designer)
For any internet-active device that doesn't use a cell connection, you can easily shut down the worst behaviors with a fairly simple firewall, and not only that, have it alert you to when something misbehaves.
One could set up a firewall, for example to permit a device to only access the ZH server and nothing else. I've done this, it works. Having done it, never, ever trust a smartphone (Apple or Android), the phones really are spying on you. The day I did a tcpdump on my android phone's network connection is the same day I switched back to a dumb phone.
Yeah, a smartphone is little more than an information parasite.
I use one, but don't DARE do anything with it that I wouldn't allow the world to know about. That's pretty much how I've always approached internet/email usage as well.
I have tried doing a tcpdump targeting my smartphone. If I did, I'd probably end up back on a "dumb phone" too. lol
Who made the infrastructure? Who owns the computers? Where do we plug in? Firewall? really?
"I cannot tell a lie, nsagooglebigbrother, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut the power grid down with my little hatchet."
-a future George Washington-
We are in desperate need of a Solar Flare of the worst kind.
I'd LOVE to see what all of the idiots out there would do if they're thrown back to the mid 1800s within a day. lol
I know I'd get along just damn fine. Though it WOULD suck in many ways! lol
When it gets dark, it'll be twice as intense. Live horror movie, every night!
I'm staring to think WW3 might not be such a bad thing.
"BIG Brother is watching you", but he was not watching me when I destroyed his matrix outright. One only needs to reverse engineer
the matrix to figure out how to destroy it. The human brain is much more powerful at analysis than the makers of the matrix had assumed.
:|
The so-called "internet of things" is a lot of overblown hooey, at least for the home. I have yet to see one of these things that I would find useful enough to buy. I certainly don't want door locks that can be hacked, my old-fashioned programmable thermostat works just fine, and the biggest amount of work with any coffeemaker is the chore of cleaning it. Now, maybe if these yahoos comes up with an automated coffeemaker that completely cleans itself in addition to everything else, it would be worth it. That would require full-fledged robotics, though.
The problem is at some point there will be no way to opt out. (or nearly impossible to do for most) The only things made will be made in accordance with the new technological standards set forth by TPTB. It will be literally possible to deny anyone, at any time, any good or service from food to healthcare in real time......
But, aren't you looking forward to your home-technology seat warmer robot to warm your couch seat so that when you get dropped off in your driverless car and take the driveway belt up to your door, your personal mover (PM) picks you up and drops you off on the couch, upon which point your TV will turn on and the chip inside your brain tells the teevee which channel to watch?
The internet will not be a one way street. Time to hone those hacking skills.
yep..i work as a data miner
the big deal about 'big data' is that storage space is cheap.
the algorithms arent anything new, they just work alot better with more data. more..better data.
One day they'll invent a carriage that doesn't require a horse. Then you'll all be fucked! Can you imagine life without needing to take care of a horse? Unpossible!
Try as they might, they still haven't managed to get all of us to stop using whips.
Came for the fembots, leaving disappointed...
what's irrelevant is human chatter of all sorts. the real promise for the IoT is it's capacity for distributing data from shared instrumentation. less gadgets and gizmos than tools for location-based, transparent, peer-to-peer data for relevant analysis.
when the connection is direct, it means the end of corporate intermediaries.
Yes, psyclone, most interesting comment. The intermediaries know they've lost control but we're still struggling with the psychopaths that just can't let go. We're living destabilization and we are now in a race against time. Do we stabilize and move forward or do we crash and burn??? I would say the relevant preliminary analysis is already with us...
Put another way, humanity is going through an ugly divorce. We are divorcing our Neolithic past. He said/she said is irrelevant! The problem is we use a court room to battle it out where he said/she said is encouraged due to the intermediaries. Too often the insanity of that results in the murder (literally) of the children. The IoT is the equivalent of getting it sorted out over coffee in a coffee shop.
"all in a sharp step, as one together, all in all we race, as one, this time" I'm Running/Big Generator/YES/1987
'Era Of Shattered Illusions' by Brandon Smith as narrated by Snordster W. http://bit.ly/1Av8VuN
Text found on alt-market.com http://bit.ly/1BNnqtx
Something happened in France, and the MSM is in a tizzy. Must be time for Hate Week.
Its just the French
Suppose you're crazy then. Psalm 14: A fool says in his heart "there is no God".
There is no God.
'
'
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Big govy is just itchin' to get them there driverless cars on the roads.
Think of the potential!
You go and only go, where and when they want you to.
They can shut you down, send you automagically home, or off to the ovens.
It's a 20 year cycle, at most. That's what it will take to replace most of the vehicles with automonous driverless cars.
I'd fight back, but how?
•?•
V-V
"how do you defend yourself against a robotic cop"
Easy, one needs a good HV device, half a megavolt probably will be enough, and of course, self build, as these devices are not being sold at the Home Depot, J&R or even Radio Shark. Build a niiiiiiiiiiice electric arc, "touch" the robocop and watch how all these chip based devices/machines crumble under the mighty HV pulse. The problem with all electronics (aka "smart things") that they do not like, or plainly are being fried, when the the Nature's true power, the HV is present in the vicinity around it and the devices are not protected (extremely well), or said in another way, Grounded.
Try water
5V regulator with 7V max rail rating and 3kV Human Body Model ESD rating... fried!
@Uranus: LOL!
"how do you defend yourself against a robotic cop"
Tell him your his father
This is right on the money and what I beat over people's heads all the time. I think now it's starting to sink in a bit as we are just saturated wtih all of the wearables. I get people writing to me asking "how do you stay outside the radar" and yeah it's in full gear now. It's the damn data selling driving a lot of this too, share the scores on the folks where we collected their data. Here you go, Argus who buys all our credit card transaction data, scores us and then sells our scores and data to someone else. I'm all over this and chat with the World Privacy Forum who's one of the few groups out there that looks at this like I do. I used to write code and so the way this goes, the developers write the back end first to make sure they can scrape and get the data and then the deception front end comes along and sure it's done to supposedly be a win-win. Believe me, the efforts of the back end come first as that's money. Look at this link below as not only is Argus selling our credit card transactions to the banks and insurers, our own Consumer Protection Financial Bureau is doing it too.... I hate that guy,Cordray who runs it, he's just another nutty lawyer. Be aware that this bureau is under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, who's the big bank regulator.see a connection. I swear either Citi or JPMorgan had to recommend this guy, after all it has to be rigged too.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/08/argus-analytics-produces-share-of.html
So this is spot on here as all I have to do is think like a jerk that writes code, visualize some of the data mechanics and I'm spot on. I started all of this when the Occupy movement began as I saw it then but you know how it goes, you have to wait until it really gets bad. At CES show, yeah I agree and and what is really going on is the unspoken and quite movement of the consumers headed for the exits. It's too much.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-quiet-and-unspoken-consumer.html
These are all Attacks of the Killer Algorithms as I call it. I try to warn everyone that I can. You should see what kind of data that rolls out for sale everytime you fill a prescription out of the pharmacy benefit managers, you would be shocked, as its 'a lot. The biggest insurers in the US, United Healthcare even if you are not insured by them has tons of information about you as they have armies of subsidiary companies that do other things, like cheap Chinese hearing aids, they own a custodial bank, they invest in low income housing (the future right of having to live in one of those with Nest and all the other spying software and devices supplied). They want rent checks too...I'll stop there for now but they are like the banks are to the White House, they are so embedded with HHS it's not funny and have mentored so many of the HHS/CMS models it's not funny. I have former CMS folks that have taken what I thought and either confirmed or added more, so watch out for those guys too as United functions just a bank anymore.
Here's what I have been pushing for 3 years, need a law if we can get our digital illits in Congress to pass this to help the FTC as they do actually want something along this line to index and license all who sell data. Think of it, could you imagine stock brokers self regulating...well that's what you have here with data and the control and it's the wild west that allows all of this to grow. Link below, and furthermore, guess who funds all of this, the Venture Capitalists for a lot of it and health insurers all have their VB subsidiaries now and have for a few years.
http://www.youcaring.com/other/help-preserve-our-privacy-/258776
Banks and companies don't like the Killer Algorithms videos for obvious reasons but they are slinking around there every day out of curiosity more than anything. I get the government agencies over there too, had Social Security all over it the other day and I do get members of Congress on there and I am happy to say that one of them is Elizabeth Warren's office. I don't like to toot my horn but thought it was maybe a little something positive to see a tiny bit of light here, although the other force is pretty damn strong so pass the word along and bookmark and watch the videos. Two of them on Gold I found here and give credit as well. It's just one place where you see stuff at the layman level from very smart folks, smarter than me.
http://www.ducknet.net/attack-of-the-killer-algorithms/
The other day the Wall Street Journal talked about an app that records your state of mind and hell Aetna is on their third one as they closed up two of them that they stated could make you feel better if you were depressed. Come on, another person might make you feel better but walking around and interacting with just another app is not going to do it, as much as they claim. Apps are not all bad for recording reminders and things like that but with money involved in selling the data they collect, watch out for the fiction on the front end where they get you hooked. I used to write cell phone apps in the early days so a little background there and they were simple then compared to what's out there now by all means.
Wall Street Journal article was good but a little behind as I wrote a year ago that in addition to the app, all the insurance call centers say "this call may be recorded"..it's bunk as millions of algorithms are turned loose to analyze your current state on the phone..and they do not tell you this is being done. It's the same technology as the Wall Street article appl I followed this from when the technology was created in Israel a few years ago and the big sell on it was that via your voice on the phone said it could tell with a 70% accuracy rate if you had prostate cancer, and again you can't make this up but first thing in my mind...70% is pretty high number and how many false positives from female voices would appear...and with that, how accurate is the 70% claim? They works the numbers to snow you. I thought it would really be funny to see how many woman with this software had prostate cancer. Yeah I'm a pain but when you used to write some of this stuff I feel I am obligated to speak up and wish more would on the Algo duping that goes on. There's a good video at the post, #2 with Christopher Steiner asking a very good question, when does an algorithm cross the line from being a utility to being a menace? This was not directed at high frequency trading directly but it sure fits in there too:)
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/this-call-may-be-recorded-for-qua...
Again you can search my blog for more if you like but again I try tell folks what's good as it's not all bad and what's a flat out sham. I had a sales manager many years ago gave me some words of wisdom and it still works today "just throw numbers at them and you'll get your sale"..it's so true but today fake numbers are getting to be so bad and people are getting code hosed right and left. This article is spot on with only leaving out the big money that's made at the spy games too.
Intriguing stuff. They build a very sophisticated tracking system in the background, unseen, but very pervasive as well. I'd bet money, that they have teams of behavioral PhDs, who apply formulas and help build predictive Lagos, just to predict your future needs, based on a known set of parameters and inputs.
The use of the Debit card, as you state in your blog only helps them. I will start using cash as well...