Deus Ex Duis

Based on the recommendations of some trusted folks, I started watching Person of Interest.  If you are not familiar with the show (now finished), it was created by Jonathan Nolan and J.J. Abrams, and involves competing AI systems trying to take over the world.  I'm up to season 4 of 5 now, in marathon sessions.

Actually, I kind of enjoy not having to wait five years for this story to unfold.

From a technical standpoint, it is a well-done show.  The production values are very high.  The characters are interesting and multi-dimensional.  The writing is exceptional, with interlocking story arcs over 1, 5, 10, and 30 episodes, plus a single arc over the entire five-year run.  Due to a limited number of story lines, there are a number of likenesses to Batman, Charlie's Angels, Serpico, and a handful of other shows, but essentially that makes this show interesting, since the "flavor" changes over time.  I like that the opening titles evolve to reflect the story line, and the graphics are very good.

One thing occurred to me, though.  I started to wonder how much of the "surveillance" culture is complete bullshit.  How much of it was manufactured through the media in order to make us believe we are all being watched by some cold AI creation?

The reason I bring this up is because I've been doing a lot of reading on the human brain.  It is enlightening to see how much of its function is a complete mystery, even now.  One of the major mysteries is how the brain forms and stores memories.

See, we can map down to individual cells how the brain adjusts to new memories.  The brain's structure modifies to allow new channels to form, based on the type of information being stored.  For instance, when we learn new languages, certain areas of the brain change in response to the new skill.

However, The changes are not memories being stored, they are processing and physical function changes.  For instance, to form new sounds for the second language, the voice, tongue and jaw must learn new ways of moving, and those movements are stored in the form of re-arranged brain cells.  What this doesn't tell us, though, is where the information is being stored.

In other words, the brain controls motor and autonomous functions in the body.  It can be modified to learn new movements and to channel information into the network for those movements.  But, those networks do not contain the information.  So where is it?

This process is referred to as "non-local consciousness."  Memories and information are not stored within our physical bodies.  Our bodies change to perform new functions based on information, but the information is not coming from within the body.

This falls under a very old argument.  Aristotle said that all things are physical and that some physical process can be found to explain everything, also known as "materialism."  Plato, on the other hand, postulated that there was an intangible aspect to the Universe that did not reside in physical things.  This is generally referred to as the "metaphysical" weltanschaaung.  Together, they form the Aristotelian and the Platonic schools of philosophy, and humanity has been arguing these two views in one form or another ever since.

For centuries, the Aristotelians have been winning the battle, up until the Higgs boson.  As you can imagine, a lot was riding on the CERN and that little shard of reality.  If mass could be imparted by a physical thing, then pretty much the entire Universe was Aristotelian.  If, however, it didn't exist, then there was a very likely chance that the Universe was Platonic.  Three thousand years of bickering went into that search.

It seems, now, that the Higgs boson doesn't exist and that some part of the Universe is non-local and non-tangible, and is even responsible for imparting physicality on all we sense.

So what does all this have to do with Person of Interest and AI, you ask.  Glad you did.

If our thoughts, memories and emotions are being channeled by our brains from some metaphysical realm, then the possibility of actually creating "living" machines may be impossible.  You can tinker with the lights and wires for all eternity, but all you will ever have is a faster calculator with more bells and whistles.  It may emulate human movements and responses, and may even alter its code to adjust to changing variables, but it will never be alive and self-aware.

It would, however, suit certain interest to have the world think that such a creature could exist.  If some group could convince the world that it had created such a machine, and that we should all surrender to its superior wisdom and ability, then this group would have ultimate power without the machine.  And who would ever really know?

We would all think that we were being monitored all the time.  A few lucky busts here and there would reinforce the illusion that some superior machine was watching everything and no one would ever question it out of fear of punishment.  It would be a completely bloodless takeover, achieving centuries of effort to achieve with little success.

Sold as safety and security, it would be nothing more than a man behind a curtain, a mirage, a phantasm.

Shows like Person of Interest or Westworld condition us to think that such things are possible.  The constant barrage of media stories make us think that AI is just around the corner and that thinking machines will be among us within the decade.

I, for one, am beginning to think it is all a ruse.  Working on the assumption that memory, emotion and inspiration are functions of wires and sparks, these people have been on a fool's errand for decades, pouring billions of dollars into an effort that is doomed to fail, because it does not contemplate non-locality, nor can we engineer such a thing - at least not yet.  It is beyond numbers and exceeds our current engineering capabilities, because we are barking up the wrong philosophical tree.  The pot of gold at the end of our current rainbow is empty.

Real AI cannot exist in a closed and physical Universe, simply because it doesn't work that way.  I suspect the wizards have discovered their error and are panicking.  Knowing that they cannot make the real thing, they are reduced to conditioning us through good production values, decent acting and some nice computer graphics.  If we believe it is possible, then we will believe it is probable, and will surrender to the phantom of the opera.

One Dot Does Not A Picture Make

Well, the meme has been thoroughly planted in the mass mind now.

Ridley Scott, always on the cutting edge of yesterday's news, has delivered Prometheus to a waiting world.  Freed from the constraints of slim actors in rubber suits, he has re-imagined his 33-year-old flick Alien.  While he was at it, he sprinkled it liberally with themes that truly are on the cutting edge of research and thought.  Too bad that, like a cat, he immediately turns around and buries them under a standard (now-a-days) 'bug hunt' movie.

The effect is kind of like Rand Paul endorsing Mitt Romney.

I know it worked, because my wife, who's a die-hard - whatever they call that weird American religion with Christian trappings.  Shortly after leaving the cinema, she piped up with, "I'm confused.  They said another being created Man, and not God?"

"Well, yes, babe.  If you read the ancient texts and study the original languages, you find that's pretty much what they say," I replied laconically.

End of that conversation.  But the seed was planted, which I'm pretty sure was the whole intent of the film.

I wanted to explain how in Genesis, where we read (in English) that "the spirit of God moved upon the waters," the word 'spirit' is derived from the original Hebrew ruach, which itself is a combination of two Mesopotamian words, ru and a.  Together, they mean 'a thing which creates wind as it passes.'  The Vatican's official Latin Vulgate dictionary translates ruach as res incognito volens, which in English means, more or less, UFO.  Don't take my word for it, Mauro Biglino is much smarter about these things than I am.  I just learned this stuff sitting in my Bible classes at the monastery.  I wanted to explain all this, but baby steps...

Regardless of all the scholarship behind the assertion that humans are a product of genetic engineering by another species, planting that concept in the mass mind in a way that is entertaining, thus slipping past people's normal bullshit barriers, is no small task.

It involves getting people to engage what's commonly called 'willing suspension of disbelief.'  It's something we all do when we watch a play or movie or TeeVee show.  It allows us to drop our barrier of unreality and empathize with characters who are otherwise completely unreal.  Once that barrier has been lowered, we are susceptible to just about any idea the Controllers want to slip in to our minds.  (NB-in this case, a Controller can be anyone from the writer to the gaffer's best boy)

That Ridley is conscious of what he is doing is evidenced by the ham-fisted use of overlapping symbols to make his point.  That he was successful in making the point is evidenced by the fact that my wife, who is not terribly sophisticated in the ways of semiotics, got the message.  In fact, it was the only message that she brought up in the aftermath.

About this time 33 years ago, I sat in my roommate's Saab 900 Turbo at a drive-in in Santa Fe, New Mexico with two other running mates.  We were all hopped up on various perception-altering substances and staring wide-eyed at Ridley's original conception.  Alien truly was just a 'bug-hunt' movie, albeit the likes of which no one had ever experienced up until 1979.  With Prometheus, Ridley expands the scope a bit to include events that reach back into distant time, and brings us up to within a generation of the events in the former film.

That Ridley is aware of the semiotic whirlpool raging around our daily lives is without question.  Even a cursory look at Blade Runner tells us that.  I mean, come on...the only time the sun is seen in the whole film is while at the top of Tyrell Corp's peakless pyramid-shaped building, and the only animals in evidence in the whole film are a snake and an owl (though turtle and spider are mentioned).  He knows the pieces.

What Promethieus appears to show is that he has assembled the pieces into the same conclusions that quite a few folks are coming to, who bother to plumb the depths of existence.  The real question is, is he trying to educate us, or is he just a shill for the Controllers trying to scare us away?  That he would slip such profound ideas into the envelope of fear and trembling leads me to believe he is the latter.  We are apparently not allowed to ask such questions because, "Here thar be monsters."

On the other hand, Dorothy trotting into the sunset with her dog Toto in tow (just have to watch it) let's us know we aren't in Kansas anymore.  Perhaps he is warning us that to tread on such topics is to be bitten, so beware.

Obviously, the film will require a good bit more analysis on my part.  That the film has meat to chew on is a credit to Ridley's work, which is why I chose to spend my entertainment dollar on his effort, rather than Men In Black 3.

To return to the original thesis, though...the meme has been planted now.  It remains to be seen what fruit it bears.  Perhaps a few folks will rediscover the character Prometheus and his relationship to Mankind.  Perhaps they will make the connection to other characters like Enki and Loki.  Maybe that will lead them to discover the true identity of Enyeh-aser-enyeh, and that would lead to some interesting revelations.

Or maybe they'll be frightened off by the prospect of being bitten by whatever monsters dwell at the depths of Man's collective being.

One thing is for sure, given Ridley Scott's filmography and abilities.  Prometheus is more than just an entertainment.  That part is only the glazing on the cake.  The real substance will be found withing the layers buried at the heart of this film.  Ridley may not be as adept as, say, Kubrick, but he is no slouch in the semiotic department.  Trim away the fat and the gristle, and there's meat on this bone.  Only time will tell whether it's corn-fed Iowa, or dressed-up horse meat.

Post Scriptum - Georgia at The Chronicle Project was compelled to write in an point out that their work has brought many of these themes and ideas into the open.  If you are not familiar with The Chronicle Project, and you are interested in what the original Hebrew texts behind the Bible really say, then I highly recommend spending some time clicking through their site.  Warning: here thar be monsters.

Birth Of A Nation

Not to take anything away from one of the first feature films ever made (D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation), but the whole 'birther/certer' issue is a ruse.

For those just waking up from a coma, Obama's birthplace has been an issue since before the election in 2008.  A great number of people have questioned whether he fulfills the stipulation in Article 2 of the US Constitution, to be a 'natural born citizen.'  There have been numerous lawsuits and attempts to force Obama to release his actual birth certificate, which he has spent millions of dollars to prevent.

Millions of dollars in legal fees to prevent the release of a $20 legal form, which all US Presidents have provided as a matter of course.

Obama's 'adversary,' one John McCain even had to go through Congressional hearings because he was born in Panama.  The Congress cleared him, since both his parents were US citizens, and he was born in a US hospital in what was then US territory.

"Natural born citizen," as it appears in the US Constitution, has a specific meaning.  The term was taken from a concept of international law that predated the Constitution by a few decades.  According to the Federalist Papers and the Congressional Record, the term was to have the meaning that a person had two parents with citizenship, and that the person was to have been born on a nation's territory.

Since Hawaii, Obama's purported birthplace, had been made a State a few years before his birth, there doesn't seem to be an issue there.  But where a lot of folks get derailed is the fact that his purported father was a British subject, being a citizen of British East Africa (Kenya wasn't around then, except maybe in local parlance).

In addition, Obama lost any claim to citizenship when he was adopted by an Indonesian man, becoming Barry Soetoro and taking Indonesian citizenship.  So, regardless of what citizenship he had at birth, he lost it when his mother married an Indonesian and moved to this country.

Furthermore, the purported birth certificate released the other day has a number of problems with it.  Folks have pointed out that it lists his father's race as African.  In 1961, the common term was Negro.  It lists the hospital by a name that didn't come into use until the late 70s.  It appears to have been manipulated in some form of graphic software.  The certificate number is higher than two twins who were born in the same hospital the day after Obama.  It doesn't resemble any certificates that were issued at the time (they are, like mine, black with white text...I was born two weeks before Obama).  And finally, it lists his father as being a citizen of Kenya, which didn't exist at the time.

That Obama is an illegitimate president is without question.  He failed to take the Oath of Office using the exact words proscribed in the Constitution, he has done almost nothing Constitutional, he has been seated on UN councils illegally, and he has prosecuted wars without the approval of Congress.  In other words, he is acting far outside the powers granted to his office, and is thus illegitimate.

What's really going on here?  Congress could impeach him if it acted according to law and the Constitution that empowers it.  The Supreme Court could have heard any of a number of challenges to his legitimacy.  But none of the Fools on the Hill have done their job.  So why, all of a sudden, is he releasing his birth certificate? He was secure in his position of disdain for the law, since no one was able to effectively challenge him.

Easy.  Donal Trump.

You see, the PTB/W have this thing where they steer voters to choose their darlings.  Not that any of the choices have the interests of the American people at heart, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, but they have one boy who is their favorite.  In this case, it's Obama.

Now with the current economic and social situation in the States, it's easy to see that Obama should be picking his retirement home about now.  However, the PTB/W like him.  He does what he's told and does it with flare and aplomb.  So, in order to coral the masses and make them 'choose' their man, they have to muddy the waters around him, thus making their boy the only logical choice.

Along comes Donald Trump.  The man is useless, as far as statesmen go.  But, he is very visible and has good name recognition.  On top of that, Ron Paul, whose followers created the Tea Party, and who are gaining political strength, is making a third run, and could have a good chance at the seat, which would be a PTB/W disaster.  So, they put up The Don.  And to buy him some credibility, he is told to hammer the 'birther' issue.  Lo and behold!  Obama releases the certificate!

Wow!  The Don really has some stroke!  He could do what hundreds of others could not do using the system.  He could scare Obama into releasing the certificate!  The Don is great and powerful!  Instant legitimacy.  See how that works?

Now, what will likely happen is that The Don will start to collect a large following, then some scandal will break later on, on cue of course.  His followers, cut loose and dangling will grab on to whatever 'front runner' the media have selected for the masses, and the vote will split giving Obama a clear lead, as well as disillusioning voters who were looking to the Republicrats as an alternative.

The masses, who love the idea of backing a winner, will thus flock back to the Obama camp.  By then, the media will have whipped up the 'Obama mystique' again, presenting him with halos and showing swooning females crying in the audience.  Obama wins a second term and no one remembers that he wasn't a legitimate president to begin with.

It's all really elementary mass mind control.  It's akin to the way TV preachers hypnotize their minions.  The music and lights operate at a certain rhythm, with emotional triggers being pulled and released in a certain pattern.  People are built up to an emotional peak, and then released so that they feel as if they've had some sort of mystical experience.  It's so obvious and so easy to do, as long as folks don't catch on to what you are doing to them.  They have to maintain 'willing suspension of disbelief.'

Really, media consumption classes should be mandatory in all schools.  Learning the tricks and methods of media manipulation should be basic information, like adding and subtracting numbers. We now live in a virtual flood of media, yet almost no one knows how or why it works.  The media have an incredible amount of power, as long as you don't look behind the curtain or think about whose pulling the strings.

I have many non-media friends who won't watch movies with me any more.  They say I have completely ruined the experience for them.  Now, when they watch movies, all they think about is where the camera is, whether the dialog was looped, and how much of the frame is 'live' and how much is computer generated.  They also look at the visual language.  What is the camera angle saying?  What is the composition saying?  What are the other things included in the frame saying?

It's all symbols, and all of it is manipulating you all day, every day.

It's like I keep saying...turn OFF the TV now.  Do NOT consume mass media.  You are probably not savvy enough to know when you are being manipulated.  Then, pull out some books about media and mass comm theory.  Do enough reading first, then flip it back on.  Bet you will never watch it the same again.

The whole charade around the birth certificate is Grand Theater.  It's an opera in real life.  The symbols and events are being staged and carefully managed to steer your mind exactly the way THEY want it to go.  If you really stop watching TV right now, within a week you will notice a distinct change in the way you think and perceive the world.  After a couple of months, you won't be able to watch much at all.  You'll see how insipid and crass is all is.  And if you do enough reading on media theory in the meantime, you'll be able to pull the curtain away and see the wizard for what he is.  I know.  I worked in media all my life and won awards for manipulating people's minds and emotions.

Yeah, Obama is illegitimately on the throne.  Yeah, the whole damn thing is a circus.  Yeah, Donald Trump is a spoiler to split the opposition.

The best way to fight back is not participate.  It's all a lie.  If they can't get enough people to vote, they no longer have any claim to power.  All of this is to whip up a frenzy over the next two years so that it climaxes with you in the voting booth.  Take away their climax and you can REALLY change the world.

The Way Things Work

You probably read the headlines: Obama's trip costs US$200 million a day, 6 aircraft, 34 warships, taking over entire hotels, army of Secret Service guarding.

You probably think that's all for Obama, that the whole thing is a show of regality for the President.

You'd be wrong.

See, here's how it works: Obama, or really any face in the Oval Chair, is just a shill. Think of him as the top sales person for corporate and banking interests. The individual is nothing more than the marketing guy for a small consortium of business and banking interests. The shill's job is to both draw and divert attention.

Obama is the curtain behind which stands the Wizard of Oz.

Take, for instance, the 6 aircraft. OK, all six land in Mumbai. One carries the Presidential Entourage, one carries press and lackies, two are carrying the Captains of Industry (aka the Wizard of Oz), and two are carrying an army of lawyers, bankers and paper-pushers. When they took over Mumbai, they rented an entire hotel, ground to roof. In each room was a representative of this group or that company. Indians with money were shuffled in and hard-sold down in the hotel bar. Once they were ready to negotiate, they were hustled upstairs to the appropriate room, where the sale took place. The contracts were signed and deals consumated.

Then, forr aircraft left for Jakarta. Two identical Air Force One's landed at the air force port on the east side of Jakarta, where all the cameras and world attention was focused. The other two landed at Soekarno-Hatta on the west side, and looked to anyone watching like standard public carriers. Those had the Wizard of Oz.

Meanwhile, the other two planes stayed in Mumbai. They were carrying all the lawyers and paper-pushers. Their job was to wrap up the business and make sure all the knots were tied.

Back in Jakarta, Obama was put up as an eye-catcher. He has no power and doesn't lead anything. He's like the appendage on an angler fish: just waved around to attract prey. His speeches were vacuous and contained little substance. But, he drew attention, and that could be capitalized on. Anyone who had passed a pre-screening that included a look at their bank accounts, and who expressed an interest in doing some business, was hustled into the appropriate hotel room, where they were hard-sold and contracts signed.

Obama's trip was a whirl-wind, 24 hour, misty-eyed affair that conveniently kept the world focused away from the Wizard of Oz. We were all watching the show and nodding at the simple Indonesian phrases, smiling at the lame jokes, and waiting for something of substance. Meanwhile, in the hotel rooms across town, the real reason for the show was occuring away from the lights and the dignitaries and the meat puppets.

Then everyone left town, and the world's gaze followed, while those two additional planes (remember those?) quietly left Mumbai and slid into Jakarta completely unnoticed. A small army of lawyers and paper-pushers descended on Jakarta to wrap up the business. If there were any sticking points that needed clarifying, or financing that needed to be completed, or additional wining and dining to complete the deal, they were here to finish up.

Yesterday, those two planes quiety slipped out of Jakarta, on to the next stop, following the Wizard of Oz and sopping up the money left behind.

To be sure, the Obama circus is grand theater. He has a good voice and can masterfully read TelePromTrs. He's handsome and charismatic, and was chosen for the job precisely because cameras tend to point at him and not at the Wizard of Oz. In the global media, there are stories upon stories about diplomacy, and human interest tales of baby-kissing, and chuckles about the one or two gaffes, but the real story is on the four aircraft that are part of the road crew, the people behind the scenes controlling your perception and doing the real business of the show in front.

Think of the whole thing like a circus. The MC, in the center ring and with a flashy suit and spotlight, with his melodious voice, keeps you entranced and focused on the dog and pony show. Meanwhile, in the dark and away from the direct attention of the crowd, the stagehands are preparing the ringing, positioning props, laying out costumes, and cleaning up elephant dung. Out front, the box office folks are counting the money, filling out the ledger, getting a head-count on the audience, and wrapping up the business. The performers are concentrating on their upcoming roles, checking costumes and make-up, making sure everything they need to perform is in place, and focusing their minds on the job at hand.

What you see seems effortless and spontaneous. The acts go off with nary a hitch. The music is timed perfectly. The MC speaks his hypnotic lines with perfection. But if you turn you gaze just slightly to the side and peer into the darkness in the next ring, you'll see dark-suited figures scurrying around setting up for the next act. If you do this enough, you can start to anticipate not only where but what the next act will be. If you squint into the vomitorium, you can see the upcoming performers getting into position. If you glance up to the orchestra, you can see the page-turners preparing the music sheets for the next piece. If you look up, you can see rigging and props flying in and out getting into position for the next piece.

You'll see it, but the rest of the crowd will only see an MC, and a dog and pony show.

The Wizard of Oz is the real show. He's in the background counting the box office. That's what the whole show is about. Oh sure, you get a smile. Your kids are thrilled and entertained. The wife is happy to be out of the house. But, the whole reason for this spectacle is to separate you from some cash. All the acts and cotton candy and clowns are there to tickly you into opening your pocket book just wide enough to spill some bills.

Try my trick. While everyone else is watching the center ring, turn your eyes just slightly to the side. You'll be amazed at all the action behind the scenes. I personally think it's more interesting than the show.

Oh, and remember those 34 warships following the circus? No, they aren't guarding the precious President. No, they aren't there to intimidate the world into submission (although there is some bonus effect). They are there to guard the cash box all the way to the bank. After all, that's the whole reason for the show.