Weaponizing Curiosity- EVIDENT

Painting entitled: "Pandora" by Walter Crane 1885 British artist 1845-1915

Are you curious about what this post will cover this week?   I hope so.  In the west we are often brought up on stories reporting the hazards of following up on our curiosity.   We have phrases from these such as... "Remember curiosity killed the cat" and "That's opening Pandora's box!" or Pascal's "Curiosity is only vanity."  Thomas Hobbes, "Curiosity is lust of the mind." and Dorothy Parker's, "The cure for boredom is curiosity.   There is no cure for curiosity;"  are cautionary expressions.  We do have more recent phrases to encourage curiosity, such as Dr. Linus Pauling's "Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life."  or Dr. Madam Marie Curie's advice:   "Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."    Often we explain a question or action by saying we are "just curious" as if this is nothing of real consequence.  The question we need to be asking is "who is curious and why?"     

While our privacy is being invaded continually, we keep letting ourselves, our families, our friends and associates be "harvested" for our meta data yet we don't seem to push back.  Why not?   We should be asking for the motives, agenda, measures to ensure encryption of our data, ways to delete/erase our data, (ultimately there must be a way to actually delete posts, digital records, etc. even if it is not widely known).   This should be a double edged sword.   We need to question almost everything these days since so much of what has been disseminated in all fields of human endeavor has  proved to be "false", unverifiable, based on personal prejudices, theories, commercial interests.   The only way to grow past these shaky foundations is to be curious and to relentlessly question and encourage civil inquiry.   This is what is supposed to be promoted in a "free" society.  One big tech CEO, Tim Cook of Apple, stated before a meeting of the European Union in Brussels:  "Our own information, from the everyday to the deeply personal, is being weaponized against us with military efficiency,... the trade in personal information has exploded into a data industrial complex. (DIC)"  

The DIC is certainly curious about "you", aren't you curious about them yet?   They are using "Weapons of Mass Surveillance"  (WMS) and connecting the globe with Military Industrial Complex (MIC) giant corporation's inventions, such as "EVIDENT"  sold by BAE Corporation and distributed to other subsidiaries and governments around the planet.  "UK defence giant BAE Systems has reportedly sold and exported powerful cyber-surveillance technology, including sophisticated decryption software, to known governments and repressive regimes {Saudi Arabia, Morocco, UAE, Qatar, Algeria, Oman} around the world, a year-long investigation by the BBC has revealed.  The probe focused on a Danish tech company called ETI, bought and incorporated into BAE Systems' Applied Intelligence unit in 2011.  Before the acquisition, ETI developed software known as "EVIDENT", a mass surveillance and interception system."   www.ibtimes.co.uk/bae-systems-sold-powerful-spy-technology-repressive-regimes-across-middle-east-1626390   

​This "system" is supposedly only for use in criminal and anti terror investigations, but has been used to target human rights activists, journalists, women questioning government laws (such as KSA's restriction on women driving) questioning and even joking about their leaders.   Arrests, abductions, torture, imprisonment without trial, and murder have already been the result in a number of countries with this program.  It is evident that "EVIDENT" is used as a weapon in the mass and target surveillance arsenal by governments who have little in common with the democratic rule of law or "ethical" principles of the countries who sold these "tools" to them via companies who have bases in "free western" countries such as the United Kingdom, Canada, Denmark and the USA.   BAE is also involved in Project Dragonfly but with a whole different use.  (see link and excerpt below).

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One outstanding individual who is expanding the bounds of curiosity in science is Dr. Rupert Sheldrake.  He has eight books published and over 80 scientific articles; but his The Science Delusion: Freeing the Spirit of Enquiry (2012) published in the USA as Science Set Free (2012) Winner of the Book of the Year Award from the British Scientific and Medical Network, is to date his most revolutionary writing.  Unfortunately the ideas and questions posed in this work has caused him great personal difficulty from various organizations and colleagues around the world.   He is/was treated by many like the "heretic" Galileo Galilei was by the Catholic church in the 1600s in Italy.   Dr. Rupert Sheldrake's TedTalk was banned and taken off the internet.   However, it was recently uploaded again.   I have included the link here since it is one of the most provocative talks about fundamental ideas in physics and the process of "scientific investigation" and "intellectual phase locking"  i.e. making stuff up (MSU).   Watch/listen to the links below for a truly stimulating talk.  Compared to so much rubbish on TedTalks permitted to remain on their  net site, it is evident Dr. Sheldrake, his logic, facts and curiosity are being targeted.    But he is fighting back.  Also have a look where he is standing and his feet-he has a great sense of humor.   First link is his bio:
​https://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/biography

TedTalk by Dr. Rupert Sheldrake banned as being "disruptive".  Please watch and pass on:  
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKHUaNAxsTg

One of the most aggressive examples of a government which has weaponized curiosity in a negative sense, is China.  Their government is "curious" about everything it's own citizens and citizens of other countries in the world are doing, buying, writing, planning, saying and saving.  They are gathering, analyzing and storing any information they cull through the spread of their communications company Huawei.  Huawei's "smart phones" are actually "spy phones" culling data.  They have a sophisticated system of mass surveillance and they make it known...proudly.
"The new superfast 5G networks, which are 100 times faster than 4G, will literally run the world of the future. Everything from smartphones to smart cities, from self-driving vehicles to, yes, even weapons systems, will be under their control. Huawei has reportedly secured more than 25 commercial contracts for 5G, but has been locked out of an increasing number of countries around the world because of spying concerns.   Whoever controls the 5G networks will control the world — or at least large parts of it."    drudgenow.com/article/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2018%2F12%2F22%2Fhow-arrest-of-chinese-princess-exposes-regimes-world-domination-plot%2F                  
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​"China’s government has long used all the resources at its disposal to keep track of its people and stifle dissent. Spies and wiretaps of the early communist era have been followed by high-tech surveillance of China’s internet and social media."  www.reuters.com/article/wu-apps-china-commentary/commentary-chinas-big-brother-tech-gives-surveillance-new-reach-idUSKBN1CL29A       
I wrote about the "evils" of Google corporation programs "Dragonfly" and "Skynet" on my post of October 2, 2018.   Google created and sold these programs to China.   This country is the beta test...want to guess which countries are next?!          https://www.jopatti.com/blog/echelons

"This facial recognition technology – ominously named Sky Net – can already scan China’s entire population in just 1 second flat. Theoretically, it can also scan all the people on the entire planet, at an accuracy rate of up to 99.8%, in just 2 seconds."  One could speculate that China's recent space efforts in landing a probe on the far side of the moon means they will have a unique vantage point from outside our planet as well.    China's president has an ever expansive sense of curiosity.  China’s current president, Xi Jinping, who was recently gifted with indefinite rule, has two well-known dreams:     vpnpro.com/blog/dystopia-now-chinas-total-surveillance-state/

• to shape the world’s economy around China
• to purify the country of any disruptive people

Who decides who is "disruptive" and what that word actually means in terms of social, political and criminal behavior, is the crucial point in interpretation of the "law" in China.  The analysts who characterize a person or the AI who algorithm a "disrupter" often do so just with the meta data gained from your "smart" phone.  Truly this psyops tactic to brand it "smart" when it would be more accurately labeled a "spy phone", has fooled most into acquiring them and uploading all their personal data as soon as possible.   Watch this report from 2017, which BBC did on a similar system sold to the UAE and other Gulf States:           " How BAE sold cyber-surveillance tools to Arab states" - BBC News
 www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7eT-FboQIk  
The consequences of being put into a "profile" as a "disrupter" can be severe.  Already certain investigative journalists have had their jobs terminated, their ability to move, take transport, rent apartments, obtain a credit card or a bank loan denied. Their websites, social media platforms and youtube channels have been "de-platformed" and erased.  Their family and friends have distanced themselves out of self preservation and they have been "isolated" and dis-empowered by digital tools.   They have also been made examples of to the wider society.
   
The lesson is evident.   'Go against the prevailing government or corporations and their leaders, and your livelihood, your social life, your mobility and your "freedoms" will be "deleted".   They don't even have to arrest you or put you in prison.   This is punishment enough to deter most from taking the first steps to investigate wrongdoing, to ask questions or to even make jokes about those in power positions.
www.businessinsider.com/china-social-credit-system-punishments-and-rewards-explained-2018-4/
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There is another lesson and warning here for us.  Aren't you curious enough to know what it is?

Elder Shaolin monk in Henan province using a "smart phone" aka a "spy phone" up in the mountains.

Until next week,  keep watch over the watchers whenever you can.

From the hills of Henan in winter,

Jo


REFERENCES:
www.janes.com/article/85541/bae-systems-looks-to-introduce-ai-decision-support-into-naval-combat-systems
BAE Systems’ Naval Ships – Combat Systems business is exploring the application of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques into its INTeACT family of surface ship combat management systems (CMS) as part of a wider innovation activity known as Project Dragonfly.

MonsterMind - unlike similar schemes that have existed for many years now - "would also be capable to fire back at such attacks without any human intervention" Snowden said in an extended interview with Wired’s writer James Bamford.
The new defense program, Snowden warned, could unintentionally cause serious diplomatic incidents, because many cyberattacks are routed through computers in countries that are not aware of their involvement. That means that a retaliation strike launched by the US system could lead to a conflict with the nation where the machines used by adversaries are located.
“These attacks can be spoofed,” Snowden said. “You could have someone sitting in China, for example, making it appear that one of these attacks is originating in Russia. And then we end up shooting back at a Russian hospital. What happens next?”
www.rt.com/news/180096-monster-mind-snowden-nsa/