Monthly Archives: August 2021

Filming is underway in Europe on David Cronenbergs Crimes Of The Future, starring Viggo Mortensen, La Seydoux, Kristen Stewart and Scott Speedman.

Joining the cast are Tanaya Beatty (Yellowstone), Nadia Litz (Big Muddy), Yorgos Karamichos (The Durrells), and Yorgos Pirpassopoulos (Beckett). Also previously announced were Welket Bungu (Berlin Alexanderplatz), Don McKellar (Blindness), and Lihi Kornowski (Losing Alice).

The film shoots in Athens, Greece until September 2021.

The film takes a deep dive into the not-so-distant future where humankind is learning to adapt to its synthetic surroundings. The evolution moves humans beyond their natural state and into a metamorphosis, altering their biological makeup. While some embrace the limitless potential of transhumanism, others attempt to police it. Either way, Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, is spreading fast.

As we begin filming Crimes Of The Future, just two days into this new adventure with David Cronenberg, it feels like weve entered a story he collaborated on with Samuel Beckett and William Burroughs, if that were possible, said Mortensen. We are being pulled into a world that is not quite like this or any other, and yet is one that feels strangely familiar, immediate and quite credible. I cant wait to see where we end up.

Produced by Robert Lantos, the film reunites Cronenberg with three-time Oscar nominee Mortensen in their fourth collaboration. The movie marks Cronenbergs first original screenplay since eXistenZ in 1999. The film is also the fourth collaboration between Lantos and Cronenberg.

Panos Papahadzis is producer for Athens-based Argonauts Productions and Steve Solomos is co-producer. Executive producers include Joe Iacono, Thorsten Schumacher, Peter Touche, Christelle Conan, Aida Tannyan, Victor Loewy, and Victor Hadida. Bonnie Do and Laura Lanktree are associate producers.

Production designer is Carol Spier (Crash) and composer is Howard Shore (The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy). Douglas Koch (Funny Boy) is cinematographer, with Mayou Trikerioti (Pari) as costume designer, Dimitris Katsikis (Fugitive Pieces) as art director, and Stefanos Efthymiou is sound recordist.

Pic will be distributed worldwide by distributors including Neon (USA), MK2|Mile End (Canada), Metropolitan (France), Weltkino (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), The Searchers (Benelux), Argonauts Productions (Greece), Front Row (Middle East), Capella (CIS/ the Baltic States), and Moviecloud (Taiwan). Rocket Science is handling international sales.

The Canada-Greece co-production is produced in association with Ingenious Media, Coficine, Telefilm Canada, Bell Media, CBC, and the Harold Greenberg Fund, with the support of EKOME and the GFC.

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Cameras Roll On David Cronenberg Sci-Fi Crimes Of The Future With Viggo Mortensen, La Seydoux, Kristen Stewart; More Cast Join - Deadline

Jeanette Winterson is not usually considered a science-fiction writer, yet her novels have always been concerned with alternative realities, and for more than two decades she has drawn on the imaginative possibilities offered by technological and digital advances. Her 2000 novel, The Powerbook, was an early exploration of the fluid identities and connections offered by virtual personae; The Stone Gods (2007) combined history with interplanetary dystopias and featured a relationship between a robot and a human. Her most recent fiction, Frankisstein, reworked Mary Shelleys story of an artificially created intelligence into a modern novel of ideas about the present and future limits of AI and the implications for art, love, sex and biology.

Now, in 12 Bytes, her first collection of essays since 1996s Art Objects, Winterson examines all these preoccupations without the mediation of fiction, though the narrative style is as conversational and erudite as youd expect from her, peppered with irreverent asides and mischievous flashes of wit (Dry as dust I dont do, she has said of the previous collection). The 12 essays here are grouped into four zones, loosely covering the past, the imagination, relationships and the future, and together offer an eclectic odyssey through the history of technological progress a history that for too long sidelined some of its most influential figures because they were inconveniently women or gay, and has only recently begun to restore their reputations. Winterson pays tribute here to the contributions of Ada Lovelace and Alan Turing, along with women such as Stephanie Shirley, the founder of all-female company Freelance Programmers, and the forgotten teams of female programmers during the second world war, their work unacknowledged for decades because it didnt suit a narrative of male expertise.

Winterson explains in her introduction that the essays are the product of a longstanding fascination with advances in machine intelligence, and that she approaches the subject as a storyteller with a modest aim: I want readers who imagine they are not much interested in AI, or bio-tech, or big tech, or data-tech, to find that the stories are engaging, sometimes frightening, always connected. Her primary interest is in what she calls the bigger picture: the metaphysical implications of our transhuman future, about which she appears surprisingly optimistic.

A hybrid form of human is certain, she asserts in the final essay, I Love, Therefore I Am. Homo sapiens might be on the way out And if that was to happen, how could we pass on the best of what we call human nature? How would we define it? This piece, in common with many of the others, is content to ask more questions than it answers; Winterson acknowledges the ambiguity inherent in so many of the ethical questions surrounding AI.

The technology to change the world for the better is the technology that is in place right now Its the best of times and the worst of times. Dystopia or utopia? Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be harder.

But, while she argues for the primacy of the inner life the part of us that cant be fully known or monetised by Facebook algorithms in somewhat abstract terms, citing Larkins line What will survive of us is love, elsewhere she offers more practical solutions for an AI future that will serve the greater good. In the essay Jurassic Car Park she addresses the problem of the current white male dominance of tech and how this leads to ingrained bias (datasets are selective stories). As well as the obvious solution of more people of colour and women at the table, she writes: I would like to see established artists, and public intellectuals, automatically brought in to advise science, tech and government at every level, because the arts have always been an imaginative and emotional wrestle with reality a series of inventions and creations. Youd think this would be self-evident to the decision-makers, though it becomes harder to share her optimism, writing this on a day when further cuts to arts education have been announced.

For a relatively short book, the scope of its ambition is huge. Winterson whizzes through the history of the machine age, surveillance capitalism, Gnosticism, sex dolls and Greek philosophy, but she is at her most impassioned on the subjects that have been her recurring themes: gender, religion, art, feminism, love. She writes with a sense of urgency about this future that is already here, because the one thing she is insistent about is that we the storytellers, the artists, the readers who share her views on the inner life must not opt out and leave it in the hands of the tech bros: liberal resistance cant be anti-tech or anti-science. So much of it comes down to the old question of whose stories get to shape our reality. Shes right that aspects of this AI future are frightening, but for any non-scientists wanting to understand the challenges and possibilities of this brave new world, I cant think of a more engaging place to start.

12 Bytes: How We Got Here. Where We Might Go Next by Jeanette Winterson is published by Jonathan Cape (16.99). To support the Guardian and Observer order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply

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12 Bytes by Jeanette Winterson review engaging history of technological progress - The Guardian

Monday, 2 August 2021, 10:11 amArticle: Robert J. Burrowes

For many people desperate to see a return to a life thatis more familiar, it is still easy to believe that theupheavals we have experienced since March 2020 and thechanges that have been wrought in their train aretemporary, even if they are starting to drag onsomewhat longer than hoped.

However, anyone who ispaying attention to what is taking place in the backgroundis well aware that the life we knew before 2020 has alreadyended and what is being systematically put in its place asthe World Economic Forum (WEF) implements its GreatReset will bear no comparison to any period prior to lastyear. See KillingDemocracy Once and for All: The Global Elites Coupdtat That Is Destroying Life as We KnowIt.

Of course, those of us who qualify asordinary people have had no say in the shape of whatis being implemented: that shaping has been the prerogativeof the criminal global elite which is now implementing aplan that has been decades in the making and built onhundreds of years of steady consolidation of elitepower.

Also, of course, there is nothing about thisshaping that is good for us. In simple terms, it isreshaping the human individual so that previouslyfundamental concepts such as human identity, human liberty,human rights (such as freedom of speech, assembly andmovement), human privacy and human volition are not justnotions of the past but are beyond the comprehension of thetypical transhuman. At the same time, the global eliteis restructuring human society into a technocratic dystopiawhich is a nightmarish cross between Brave New World,1984 and the Dark Age. See StrategicallyResisting the New Dark Age: The 7 Days Campaign to ResistThe Great Reset.

The only question remaining isthis: Can we mobilize adequatestrategic resistance that is,resistance that systematically undermines the power of theglobal elite to conduct this coup and restores power toordinary people to defeat this coup?

But beforeI answer that question, I wish to highlight just one elementof the elite coup that is taking place and outline theprofound changes that are being left in its wake unless westop them.

These changes are essentially related tothe capacities of computerized technologies to deprive us ofwhat little we have left of our financial autonomy,including because any notion of privacy is rapidlyvanishing.

One reason forhighlighting the issue of money is because while it is goodto see increasing critical attention being paid to theinjectables program, with its devastating consequencesfor humanity, far too little attention is being paid to theprofoundly important transformation being wrought undercover of the elite-driven narrative which has virtually allpeoples attention distracted from this deeper agenda. Andwhile this deeper agenda entails a great many aspects, onesubset of these is related to the way in which the globalfinancial system is being re-engineered to play its role infully controlling the human population.

In a series ofreports issued in early 2020, the Deutsche Bank claimed thatcash will be around for a long time. See the threereports accessible from Transitionto digital payments could rebalance global economicpower.

However, these reports arecontradicted by other research and the ongoing evidence thatcash is vanishing. Most importantly, there is no doubt aboutthe elite intention in this regard. They want cashgone.

The digitization of money has been occurring fordecades and it is now being accelerateddramatically.

Moreover, the World Economic Forum andother elite organizations have been actively working towardsachieving a cashless economy for years. To get a sense ofthis trend, see Whywe need a less-cash society and TheUS should get rid of cash and move to a digital currency,says this Nobel Laureate economist.

Notably, inthis respect, the BetterThan Cash Alliance has 78 members committed todigitizing payments. If you think that this is agrassroots initiative set up by people like you and me, youwill be surprised to read that the Bill & Melinda GatesFoundation is a Resource Partner to the initiativealong with some UN agencies, many national governments andcorporations such as Mastercard and Visa.

So while thetrend toward a cashless society has been progressingsteadily for some decades, with countries like Denmark,Norway and Sweden already virtually cashless and Indiarapidly moving in that direction see IndiasPM Modi defends cash ban, announces incentives the so-called Covid-19 pandemic was contrived partlyto provide a pretext for further accelerating the move fromcash to cards and apps, with increasing numbers of peopleusing the digital methods, even for small sums, partlybecause some people were scared into believing that thevirus could be transmitted by bills andcoins.

But there is more. In addition to measures notmentioned here, other plans include the use of a facial scanthat records your entry to a store and is linked toartificial intelligence that identifies you and your creditrating. This then enables, or otherwise, your ability to payfor goods and services based on this facialscan.

Does all of this matter, you might ask.Well the convenience of cards and apps has two significantcosts: your privacy and your freedom. You lose both simplybecause while paying with cash is anonymous, paying by cardor app leaves a digital trail that is as difficult to followas an elephant whose tail you are already holding. And thisdigital trail forms a vital part of the surveillance gridthat enables all of those who are tracking and documentingyour movement, your payments and your behaviour to do sowithout leaving the comfort of their chairs. For more detailon this, watch Cash or card will COVID-19 killcash? which is embedded in the article Cashor Card Will COVID-19 Kill Cash? Leaving a DigitalFootprint With Every Payment.

But it goesbeyond this. As touched on above in relation to privacy andexplained at some length by Whitney Webb, there is arelated push by WEF partners to tackle cybercrime thatseeks to end privacy and the potential for anonymity on theinternet in general, by linking government-issued IDs tointernet access. Such a policy would allow governments tosurveil every piece of online content accessed as well asevery post or comment authored by each citizen, supposedlyto ensure that no citizen can engage in criminalactivity online.

Notably, the WEF Partnershipagainst Cybercrime employs a very broad definition of whatconstitutes a cybercriminal as they apply this labelreadily to those who post or host content deemed to bedisinformation that represents a threat todemocratic governments. The WEFs interest incriminalizing and censoring online content has been madeevident by its recent creation of a new GlobalCoalition for Digital Safety to facilitate the increasedregulation of online speech by both the public and privatesectors. See EndingAnonymity: Why the WEFs Partnership Against CybercrimeThreatens the Future of Privacy.

But to getback to cash: Unfortunately for us, the global elite doesnot intend to leave the abolition of cash to ourpreference for the convenience of cards and othermoves to entice us to switch to digital payment. It fullyintends to force us to accept digital methods as the onlymeans of payment.

In part, this is because electronicpayments are extremely lucrative for banks and paymentservice providers, while the data broker industry is alsomaking huge revenues. See Cashor Card Will COVID-19 Kill Cash? Leaving a DigitalFootprint With Every Payment.

And in some ways,killing cash is simple. Two obvious ways of doing soare by removing ATMs (including from shopping centres) andclosing local bank branches so that cash is simplyunavailable. As has been happening for some time. See WhyAre ATMs Disappearing at an Alarming Rate after a Wave ofBranch Closures? and Australianbank branches and ATMs are vanishing.

But, inthis instance, even profitability is at the trivial end ofthe elite motivation spectrum.

Cash is being forcedout of existence because it undermines the elite agenda totake all power from ordinary people.

So, in parallelwith other regressions over the past 18 months as the elitecoup to take complete control of our lives has continued tounfold, there have been warnings from variousinstitutions including the World Economic Forum and theCarnegie Endowment for International Peace about thepossibility of an allegedly imminent cyber attack thatwill collapse the existing financialsystem.

Following a simulation in 2020, in whichthe World Economic Forum along with the Russian governmentand global banks conducted a high-profile cyberattacksimulation that targeted the financial industry, anothersimulation was held on 9 July 2021 involving the WorldEconomic Forum and the Russian government-owned Sberbank aswell as other key financial agents. See CyberPolygon and Cyber Polygon2021. In reality, of course, such a collapse of thefinancial system would constitute the final yet necessarystep to implement the World Economic Forums desiredoutcome of forcing a widespread shift to digital currencyand increased global governance of the internationaleconomy.

If this financial collapse happens, thesolution suggested by key agencies to unite thenational security apparatus and the finance industry first,and then use that as a model to do the same with othersectors of the economy will ensure that we lose whatlittle control is left in our lives, not just in relation toour financial resources but in all other domains as well.For a full explanation, see WEFWarns of Cyber Attack Leading to Systemic Collapse of theGlobal Financial System.

And for anotheraccount of the deeper agenda and its financial impactsalready, including its economic genocide, as well aswhat is yet to happen, watch this interview of CatherineAustin Fitts: GlobalistCentral Banking New World Order ResetPlan.

Beyond this, if you want some insightinto another key threat in the cybercrime realm, check outthis video by the Ice Age Farmer in relation to the cyberthreat to the power grid. See NextCrisis Bigger than COVID Power Grid/Finance Down WEFs Cyber Polygon.

Fortunately, there is some resistancealready.

In response to concerns in the United Statesthat businesses that refuse cash will disadvantagecommunities with poor access to traditional banking systems,there are signs that a national movement protectingconsumers ability to pay in cash may be emerging witha number of states and cities already outlawing cashlessoutlets. See Cashor Credit? State and City Bans on Cashless Retailers Are onthe Rise.

Realistically, however, given what isat stake, considerable elite pressure will be applied toreverse these decisions in time. So we need our defense tobe more rigorous and less reliant on agents who are unlikelyto be tough enough to defend our interests or will besidelined or killed for doing so, as at least two nationalpresidents who resisted the elite intention last year havesince been killed. See Coronavirusand Regime Change: Burundis Covid Coup and JohnMagufuli: Death of an African FreedomFighter.

Moreover, given the likelihood thatthe financial system will be deliberately crashed at somepoint and possibly soon we need to employ a varietyof tactics, that build resilience into our resistance, todefeat this initiative.

Hence, storing and paying withcash, moving your accounts to local community banks orcredit unions (and away from the large corporate banks) andmaking the effort to become more self-reliant, particularlyin food production, will increase your resilience, as willparticipating in local trading schemes, whether involvinglocal currencies or goods and services directly.

Aswith all elements of the defense we implement, it will needto be multi-layered and integrated into the overall defensestrategy. The elite intends to kill off many of us asthe depopulation measures within the coup, including thedestruction of the global economy throwing 500,000,000people out of work and killing millions as a result, as wellas the injectables program already killing tens ofthousands, make perfectly clear and enslave therest.

For an integrated strategy to defeat the elitecoup, see the We Are Human, WeAre Free campaign, which has 29 strategic goals fordefeating the coup including meaningful engagement withpolice and military forces to assist them to understand andresist, rather than support, the elite agenda.

But fora simpler presentation, see the 7Days Campaign to Resist The Great Reset. The Telegram groupis here.

One of the interestingchallenges about the current Covid-19 Crisis is thatit continues to very successfully distract most people fromawareness of the deeper agenda: the Global ElitesGreat Reset and related initiatives, such as thatdiscussed above in relation to money.

Hence, apartfrom the perennial problem of raising awareness andmobilizing resistance among those still believing theelite-driven propaganda, we face two key strategichazards.

The first hazard is a longstanding one: whilevirtually all people believe that elite agents in thiscase, governments are controlling events, muchresistance will focus on begging governments, throughsuch things as petitions and protest demonstrations, tofix it for us. The elite has long dissipated ourdissent by having us direct it at one or other of itsagents. This case is no different. And while we are notusing our occasional large rallies to inform people how toresist powerfully every day of their life, these rallies area waste of time whatever solidarity they build in the shortterm. History is categorically instructive on thatpoint.

A second strategic hazard we face is thatresistance to the vaccine and the vaccinepassport might be successful (in the sense thatconcerted actions stall some government implementation ofsome measures in relation to these two initiatives) andleave most people believing that they have won, whilethe deeper agenda remains in the shadows with virtuallyno-one resisting.

It is important, therefore, thatthose who are aware of the deeper agenda continue to provideopportunities for others to become aware of this too and thefundamental threat it poses to us all while also sharing howwe can resist its key dimensions in a way that makes adifference. It is not enough to complain about elite agents,such as governments, the medical and pharmaceuticalindustries, and the corporate media.

We muststrategically resist the elite coup itself with actions suchas those in the 7Days Campaign to Resist The Great Reset before we findourselves locked in a technocratic prison without thefree-willed minds necessary to analyze, critique, plan andact.

Biodata: Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetimecommitment to understanding and ending human violence. Hehas done extensive research since 1966 in an effort tounderstand why human beings are violent and has been anonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of WhyViolence? His email address is flametree@riseup.netand his website is here.

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Taking Control By Destroying Cash: Beware Cyber Polygon As Part Of The Elite Coup - Scoop.co.nz