Here's something for all iSlaves to look forward to

There's more good news on the horizon -- Apple's full-HD iTV may be released sometime in 2013.

"Rumour" has it that will feature a built-in iSight camera with sophisticated face recognition and motion detection ability that can zoom-in on people's face and follow them as they walk around the room. Plus, Siri (with voice recognition) will be right there with you on the couch in your living-room.

Meanwhile, Apple's iSweatshops in China, Foxconn, will be replacing 1 million human workers with 1 million robots. Presumably, the one million unemployed workers will go home, watch TV and take as many 2-minute bathroom breaks as they want.

Turn on the TV and put on your blinkers

I get the feeling that Conan O'Brien is still upset with Big Media.

He seems to enjoy holding a mirror up to the duplicitous "channeling" of society's (precious little) thinking process. I've pointed this out before; I'll say it again: Just like in politics, we have an "illusion of choice" in news sources.

You can flip channels all you want - and you'll still hear the same point-of-view masquerading as the latest news.

The following SIX media behemoths control virtually all the news & entertainment (including newspapers, magazines, music, TV shows, etc.) on TV and in print:
- News Corporation
- Time Warner
- CBS
- GE/NBC Universal
- Disney-ABC
- Viacom

If you want unbiased opinion -- train yourself to distinguish between meaningless rhetoric and credible facts; look for the agenda/cause behind the symptom being reported (there is almost inevitably one) -- and then come up with your own opinion. Also never ever be too obstinate, afraid or embarrassed to alter your point-of-view if and when new facts come to light.

Conan O'Brien in Feb, 2013...


Conan O'Brien in Nov, 2011...

Why the machines will rule us eventually

In Jesse Ventura's famous "Conspiracy Theory" exposé on FEMA Camps, there was an interview with Mike German, an ex-FBI Terrorism Specialist. Jesse asked him about the vast homeland security apparatus in the United States: "Who is in-charge of all this?" Mike German took a second, and answered: "No-one!"

It is understandable that no single entity can with trusted with access to so much unaccountablity, sensitive information and power ...that too, on a global level. Thus, overall control of the increasingly omnipresent and omnipotent technological surveillence-control grid has to be diffused to prevent any one government agency gaining an unfair advantage; and its functioning must be highly automated in order to prevent bureaucratic turf-wars - or tyranny.

Also, given the incredible volume of information involved, most of the data capture, storage, analysis and assessment is probably already automated - and non-exceptional responses are also most likely determined by algorithms and supercomputers. Humans are really only required to affirm the action recommended by the software.

Everytime a government spokesperson says, "According to our intelligence data...", he is most likely refering to Artificial Intelligence (AI). Today, with the US leading the march, the world's "security" forces are becoming ever-more automated.

But the main reason for minimising human involvement in the decision-making equation is not because software and machines are better at highly subjective deductions... It is because there is a huge TRUST DEFICIT between the rulers and the ruled.

The Ruling Class (governments) cannot trust their subjects (soldiers) to uphold their interests (retain power and privilege) - and the subjects (public) cannot trust the Ruling Class (politicians) to cater to their interests (social mobility).

There is a very tiny number of individuals (perhaps in their 1000s) who are responsible for society being divided on a scale and level that is truly unprecedented in history. But we now trust each other LESS than we are willing to trust machines. Think about it: You are less likely to re-count cash received from a Bank ATM than a Bank Teller.

Humanity is a house divided - and you know what they say happens to a house that is divided...

Are the elites circling their wagons?

Zbigniew Brzezinski is an insider, advisor and spokesman for the world's elites and their intellectual innner-circles. For more than two years, he has been expounding among other things, a rather unwelcome view that an external global hegemony or uni-polar world is increasingly impossible today because real time information sharing (especially, the Internet) has enabled common people (read, the middle class) to become aware of the duplicity of the ONE entity that had the potential to become this "benevolent hegemon" - the United States. His view has been more or less confirmed since the outbreak of Wikileaks and the internal uprisings of 2011 in the Middle East.

The US, in his very weighty words, has lost its moral legitimacy for world domination and leadership because people around the world are able - like never before in history - to discern the true intentions behind the words from Washington DC. This is despite the heavy duty smoke & mirrors 'reportage' employed by the elite-controlled mainstream media.

This development may have prompted the hurried creation of the United Nations' Responsibility-to-Protect (R2P) concept. This move too has backfired in recent conflicts (because of the non-cooperation of Russia and China), leaving the "responsibility" to interve to another illegitimate geo-political actor, NATO.

I am sure the world's ruling class did not sit back after the shocking realisation that their "subjects" (the middle class) - the ones that gave them the legitimacy to rule via the ballot box - now see through the lies, deception, manipulation, hypocrisy, and conflicting interests of the ruling class.

This hugely significant 'Legitimacy Deficit' between the Rulers and the Ruled threatens to break the dialectic relationship that is absolutely vital to an orderly world. THERE CAN BE NO RULING CLASS IF THERE ISN'T A WILLING CLASS OF SUBJECTS! The circumstance of there being no rulers or overlords is called the State of Anarchy!

A nation's "subject" is one who is willing to "subject" himself to another provided their interests are concurrent or parallel (not necessarily the exactly same) -- but voluntary submission would DEFINITELY NOT be possible if the interests are contradictory! And that is what the middle class is coming to realise: The ruling class' interests are in fact CONTRARY to their interests.

The timing of this realisation by Zbigniew Brzezinski is significant. It was in the aftermath of the 2008 Financial/Economic Crisis that the public got to see the nakedly self-serving manner in which the elites' interests were contrary to theirs. A crisis that was obviously facilitated by the ruling class and precipitated by their crony oligarchs, ended up hurting the middle class and ACTUALLY BENEFITTING the oligarchs and rulers!!!

I think he made his concern clear, in privately, to the global ruling class before he came out and said publicly that the "global political awakening threatens the world order" two years ago. Around 2008, there was a profound shift in the concept of "national security". THE GUN SIGHTS OF VARIOUS "NATIONAL SECURITY FORCES" WERE BEGINNING TO TURN INWARD!

Even India - under the UPA government, and largely (as far as I can deduce) under the direction of P. Chidambaram and Manmohan Singh - began to REDEFINE the potential theatre of conflict. It was no longer Kashmir or northeast India or even the southern coast of Tamilnadu. FOR INDIA'S RULERS, THE NEW THEATRE OF CONFLICT WAS INSIDE INDIA ITSELF!!!

The Mumbai attack, as well as the sudden and massive escalation of the class war being fought over nearly one-third of the area of the country under the umbrella rubric, "Maoist insurgency" occured during this period. And officials of India's Home Ministry even identified the nation's young people as a potentially significant security "challenge"!

Yes, I think the elites are circling their wagons, so to speak.

Watch this very informative video to know Zbigniew Brzezinski better. (The details of sources for the report are here.)


Also see this document which was apparently circulated during the recently concluded global elite-fest called the World Economic Forum at Davos. It is titled: "Vulnerability Of The Elites"

Vulnerability Of The Elites by abcabc123123xyz

Technology is killing employment

There's been a deluge of articles recetly trying to analyse the jobless "recovery" being experienced in developed markets who have started to on-shore specialised niches in manufacturing and technology. The conclusion is that technology (and robotics) are becoming extremely cost-competitive to sweatshop labour and 'knowledge coolies' from the developing world.

The machines are literally taking over. They are cheaper, completely obedient, predictable, and don't require bathroom breaks or pensions funds. I've found this very comprehensive article on Yahoo, which explores the loss of midskill, middle pay, middle class jobs to technology.

The thing to remember is this: What is being lost is the entry level for the next generation of human workers in these sectors. No one - except the oligarchs' spawns - starts at the top of the organisational pyramid, skipping the middle level altogether!

Moreover, there is hardly any sector that will be unaffected by the creep of technology. We don't have a Skynet yet, but it is more believeable that ever before! There are holographic pop groups in Japan, robotic surgeons elsewhere, softwares that can supposedly write Ads (here's my earlier rant on the subject), and even pilotless war machines over Afghanistan...

Here's how you can fight back for now... If your workday feel boring and repetitive; If your job mostly requires you to follow directions from clients or supervisors; If your job requires you to keep to well-defined processes and procedures... Then you can enhance your value as an employee beyond merely fulfilling basic tasks by injecting theose ingredients into your working-life that robots and software programmes can't do yet.

Be inquisitive... Don't settle for being told what WHAT you need to do; find out the the PURPOSE behind the activity.

Be imaginative... Do simply complete tasks on a checklist; explore if there's another way that'll fulfill the PURPOSE better.

Be daring... Don't blindly follow a process or procedure; question it and even dare to step-out-of-line if you feel a process is actually working against the PURPOSE.

Be human... ('Only human' usually taken to refer to people's weaknesses. Break that mindset - and stop using humanity as an excuse!) Don't think of co-workers as competitiors; they are cogs in the same machine you are in. With less friction, the whole machine works better. Be empathetic and considerate and they will reciprocate.