Monthly Archives: July 2022

One critical concern over technology is the fear that it could unleash severe havoc on humanity if misused.

Technology misuse alongside ecological disruption and the possibility of nukes misuse are viewed as the most potent existential (immediate and remote) threats to humanity.

Whilst all three threats are highly disruptive, technology misuse is receiving attention in recent times owing to technologys accessibility, speed of growth in knowledge in technological tools and, finally, the high degree of vulnerability in technology.

The evolution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its high application could soon change humans algorithms. Already, we are witnessing an advanced form of AI with gene therapy and bionic implants; these advances may quickly change the biological makeup of humans. Moreover, their pace of evolution is advancing at a rate never seen before in biotechnological engineering.

Ultimately, these advanced AIs aim to create superior humans with additional functionalities above those of ordinary humans. This notion of human upgrade or gravitating toward the robotic status is a difficult concept to look at from a religious perspective.

However, from a scientific and sociological point of view, significant developments lend credence to the idea that humans may be tilting gradually to a robotic or somewhat unknown status.

Unsurprisingly, transhumanists have long yearned for any attempt that could alter human DNA. For instance, Stalin is on record to have immensely pursued an agenda of creating a genetically engineered army with capabilities superior to ordinary citizens.

What, however, is unclear is whether the enhancement of humans guarantees superior capacity or could end up debasing humanity.

Need I mention that this revolutionary AI advances, should they go wrong, could spell doom for humanity perpetually as there are no known full-proof standards and protocols currently in place to govern such a situation.

Indeed, all the prominent actors in the AI space, including Elon Musk, have shared their concern over AI producing significant adverse effects on humanity. It is one thing to innovate, but it takes a great deal of grit to predict accurately and put in place mitigating protocols for possible future externalities to come from todays innovation.

Undoubtedly, the human way of life in society building relationship, work, and socialization, among others have markedly changed over the last several epochs, mainly influenced by advances in technological know-how.

Technology now has become an enabler of life and, in some instances, replacing chores originally preserved for humans. The cognitive capabilities of robots and technologically engineered machines have improved so much that some robots are even alleged to be sentient.

As robots improve in cognitive capacity and assume the characteristics of humans, humans are, on the other hand shifting gradually to robotic status. The shift in humans is in two-fold: inventors of robots who control the rest of society and those controlled by robots.

The first reason humans are becoming more of robots is that in the era of increased automation, no meaningful and unique thinking apart from following processes is required to perform any particular work. Automation is seen as optimal and desirable in the world of work today, driven by efficiency and profit.

Robots are more efficient in performing some specific tasks, and if profit is the underlining consideration, it makes sense to automate to maximize such gains. In such an environment, humans require very little thinking, as robots do all the thinking for us. Beyond human enslavement to machines, the unprecedented technological advances also exacerbate the division between humans those who control us (creators of robots) and those who are controlled.

Secondly, humanitys social construct, defined based on communalism and interdependence, has fast disappeared. The social support mechanism no longer relies on broader community support but is now based on the individuals traits. Individualism freedom of action for individuals over collective or state control appears to have been embraced as a modern way of life and taken hold of us humans.

The meaning of a community where people live together and share in each others joy and pain has drastically faded. Human social bond has been damaged, and people have less sense of group identity resulting in less and less feeling toward their community or people in their community.

It is not uncommon to have individuals live in a particular community for years and yet not notice or identify as neighbours. The proliferation of internet and new media have exacerbated individualism as people now prefer and can build a virtual community of their own without support from their locality.

The unintended consequences of technology could be addressed if regulation is brought to the front burner of policy discourse. Without such deliberate action, the world may struggle if artificial intelligence goes wrong.

In the same vein, the world could be surprised by the exploits of the bad guys who constantly seek to take advantage of cyber-systems vulnerabilities to harm innocent users. Undeniably, there are many vulnerabilities in technology.

These vulnerabilities have always been the conduit for bad geeks to either advance their interest or sometimes that of a sponsored State[s]. As a result, cyber-attacks on national, regional, corporations networks and sometimes on individuals have become common. The pain often inflicted on technology users by these bad guys becomes unmeasurable and often results in the loss of lives and property of those attacked.

Another critical concern is that as humans become more robotized, thereby seeking unending bliss and superiority, isnt there a possibility that they may become more powerful such that they too will begin to exploit cyberspace vulnerabilities and afflict more misery on unassuming technology users?

Moreover, what will be the faith of those already enslaved by technology in such space? Indeed, these questions are possibilities one cannot overlook since the desires of transhumanists to have an unending bliss of life will come at a cost and who must bear that cost?

Therefore, one must be careful with technology as its misuse could spell doom for humanity and possibly extinguish humankind forever.

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Henry Kyeremeh

Kyeremeh@gmail.com

Co-Founder, iWatch Africa

Continued here:
Henry Kyereme: Could advances in technology undermine the future of humans? - Myjoyonline

The groundbreaking designer continued to push the mold forward with a transcendent show for couture week in Paris.

The groundbreaking designer continued to push the mold forward with a transcendent show for couture week in Paris.

Iris Van Herpen, fashions most future-forward designer, looked to the past for her Autumn/Winter 2022 couture show. Inspired by the many identities from OvidsMetamorphoses, from Arachne, to Narcissus, to Apollo, to Daphne, the collection explores oscillating identities and life beyond our physical bodies.

Of course, Herpen didnt forget the future, crafting the collection with eye on the metaverse. As such, the collection, which explores both hyperreality in the digital realm and expands upon introspection in fashion, is called Meta Morphosis (emphasis on the meta.)

Though the meta component of the collection couldnt be showcased in Paris, Herpen worked with a team from Microsoft to create a mixed runway experience, where digital avatars as seen through HoloLens 2 technologywere set to walk alongside models, coexisting in their multiple realities.

Despite the technical difficulties (the Microsoft team got sick) the Meta Morphosis show still paid homage to Ovids centuries-old theme of transhumanism, and the modern theme of blurred lines between physical and digital.

The collection, which was the brands 15th anniversary showcase, included 16 couture looks, built upon Herpens prior technological innovations, like the 3-D printed dresses from 2009. With gradient dyes, unspun laces, and translucent layers, the collection reimagines some of the brands most iconic looks from years past. As is traditional for Herpen, the collection mostly stuck with a general color scheme of light and dark, though there were some unusual shades of amethyst and metallic copper.

Herpen worked with Dutch designers Eric Klarenbeek and Maartje Dro to create the 3-D printed Singularity jumpsuit, using sustainable materials like cocoa shell beans. Other sustainable elements include a biodegradable silk from a species of banana called Abaca, native to the Philippines, created by ForWeavers, and 100 percent recycled Mylar from Solaris.

The use of upcycled materials works to further eliminate the distinctions between man and nature, physical and digital. Herpen also worked with sculptor Casey Curran to create a statue of a future Daphne, bursting from the center of the runway.

By continuing to push the limits of fashion, Herpen has cemented herself as a designer of the future - the Meta Morphosis collection is merely proof of that.

Credits: Images courtesy of Iris Van Herpen.

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Iris Van Herpen Explores Life Beyond the Physical Realm for A/W 22 Couture - vmagazine.com

When is the last time you were outside in the morning to experience a glorious dawn? Or sat watching the sun set across the ocean horizon?

How do you feel when you touch the skin of someone you love? A grandparent, parent, lover or child?

Have you ever seen a spiders web full of morning dew, or after the rain, when the sun is shining through the droplets in the web to reveal the flashing diamonds, sapphires, rubies and emeralds hidden within?

Have you ever stood in a natural environment a beach, desert, rainforest far from a city and noticed that strange and subtle feeling of freedom tremor through your body?

Have you ever marveled at the breath of wind that cools your face on a hot Summers day? Or been intoxicated by the smell of blossom in Spring?

Have you gaped in wonder at the birth of new life: a chick pecking out of its shell, a seed germinating or a baby being born?

Or paused to ponder the sheer magic of being alive yourself?

Or do you find life in the real physical world too constricting, painful, frightening and demanding: something from which you seek to escape, with some distraction or another (work, television, sport, a novel, a drug), as often as you can?

Well, very soon now, we are promised, you will be able to escape reality far more effectively than those primitive means of distraction made possible previously. And far more effectively than even the outcomes promised in those dystopian novels.

So the fundamental questions we must ask ourselves are simple: Do you want real life, with all of the pains, sorrows, fear and fury that go along with beauty, freedom and love? Or do you believe what they tell us and want everything unpleasant to go away? Permanently. And to live in delusion thereafter, given synthetic versions of all of the pleasant feelings and experiences described above?

Remember the dialogue between the Savage and Mustapha Mond during the closing stages of Aldous Huxleys dystopian novel Brave New World?

But I dont want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.

In fact, said Mustapha Mond, youre claiming the right to be unhappy.

All right then, said the Savage defiantly, Im claiming the right to be unhappy.

Not to mention the right to grow old and ugly and impotent; the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be lousy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind.

There was a long silence.

I claim them all, said the Savage at last.

Well, after nearly one hundred years, the dystopian future described by Huxley is almost upon us and, if we are to defeat it, we need a lot more savages willing to forego the promised comforts.

Because if those who see themselves as our global masters get their way, we are about to enter a virtual world that will become more complete by the day and from which there will be no escape.

The Metaverse

Based on many years of effort, the World Economic Forum (WEF) has recently launched its plan to create our new all-digital world, called the metaverse. See Defining and Building the Metaverse.

So if you find natural phenomena ranging from rainforests, beaches and weather variations to ill-health, danger and unhappiness annoying, you will soon be able to escape them, compliments of the metaverse. Or so we are promised. And you wont be troubled by anything resembling what might be called free will either. You will be content to do as you are told, even more than you are content to do already. See Terrified of Freedom: Why Most Human Beings are Embracing the Global Elites Technotyranny.

After all, your mind will no longer be your own. And while the usual descriptions, written by elite agents, fail to mention it, a quick flash of metaverse-induced fear will make sure that you comply, whatever you are required to do. The point is this: You wont be escaping all of those unpleasant feelings after all. They can just be used to control you more directly, to fulfill an elite-determined purpose. But that is a fact they are not advertising.

In their iconic hit song In the Year 2525, written in 1964 by Rick Evans and later recorded by he and Denny Zager to become a No.1. hit around the world in 1969, Evans captured key elements of what is already upon us somewhat ahead of the schedule mapped out in the song.

[Chorus 2]

In the year 3535

Aint gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies

Everything you think, do, and say

Is in the pills you took today

[Chorus 3]

In the year 4545

Aint gonna need your teeth, wont need your eyes

You wont find a thing to chew

Nobodys gonna look at you

[Chorus 4]

In the year 5555

Your arms are hanging limp at your sides

Your legs got nothing to do

Some machines doing that for you

[Chorus 5]

In the year 6565

Aint gonna need no husband, wont need no wife

Youll pick your sons, pick your daughters too

From the bottom of a long glass tube

Whoa-oh-oh

So what is the Metaverse?

According to the WEF: The metaverse is a future persistent and interconnected virtual environment where social and economic elements mirror reality. Users can interact with it and each other simultaneously across devices and immersive technologies while engaging with digital assets and property. See Defining and Building the Metaverse.

Moreover, if technologists are right that 2022 will separate thinkers from builders, then last years technical advances will produce this years first steps towards making the metaverse a reality.

But from the perspective of the human experience, one development stands out above all others: extended reality (XR) technologies. These include virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and brain-computer interfaces (BCI), which together position themselves as the next computing platforms in their own right.

Nevertheless, it is clear that a precise definition of the term metaverse (for a start: is it a product, service, place or moment in time?), upon which there is broad agreement even among those who routinely use the term, is yet to emerge. See 3 technologies that will shape the future of the metaverse and the human experience.

Having written that, here is one definition elaborated in the article above that reveals just how far some of those heavily involved in this work have become disconnected from any sense of themselves and, hence, reality: Specifically, the metaverse is the moment at which our digital lives our online identities, experiences, relationships, and assets become more meaningful to us than our physical lives. The original quotation can be read here: Spheres of Self: Performativity and Parasociality in the Metaverse.

And, as Cathy Li describes it, the metaverse is most useful as a lens through which to view ongoing digital transformation. The belief is that virtual worlds, incorporating connected devices, blockchain and other tech, will be so commonplace that the metaverse will become an extension of reality itself. See Who will govern the metaverse?

Let me reiterate two points from the paragraphs immediately above: our digital lives become more meaningful to us than our physical lives. And the metaverse will become an extension of reality itself.

Really?

While statements such as these reveal the breathtaking level of insanity that underpins this entire enterprise see The Global Elite is Insane Revisited it does not mean that we are not under enormous threat. Just as vast arsenals of nuclear weapons, by some insane logic, are supposed to provide us with security while actually threatening the existence of all life on Earth, the metaverse is part of a substantial package of measures that will reduce human life to one not worth living.

Why? Well, as noted by authors such as Tom Valovic: The metaverse is one element in the path to implementing technocratic governance over all of humanity.

As Planet Earth and our physical world continue to experience massive biospheric degradation and disruption, the elites that are now in many cases pulling the strings of governance at the country level are heading for the exit doors. Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are exploring the realm of space and Musk has a Mars mission planned. Globally oriented elites looked out for themselves which is what they do best.

Paralleling the notion of space flight as a form of existential escapism is the metaverse. So what if our cities are crumbling, infrastructures falling apart, and the biosphere is seriously degrading? So what if our wasteful consumer-driven lifestyle has created unprecedented levels of pollution so extensive that its now the number one cause of health problems globally? No problem well just kick back and don our Meta headsets (or worse get a brain implant) and escape into an artificially fabricated world that lets us turn our back on the massive ecological and environmental problems we now face. See Why We Should Reject Mark Zuckerbergs Dehumanizing Vision of a Metaverse.

Education in the Metaverse

Of course, the metaverse is deeply interwoven with other components of their plan, such as those in relation to what they call education, which is more accurately described as the process by which young transhuman slaves are programmed to perform their function in the technocratic economy that is being imposed upon us. Of course, education sounds better than virtual programming of young transhuman slaves so, in the interests of not raising obvious concerns, the word education has been used.

As noted by Dr. Michael Nevradakis, discussions on this subject at the recent gathering of the World Economic Forum emphasized the importance of virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with participants touting the purported educational and economic benefits that would derive from use of these technologies in the classroom by helping, according to Dr. Ali Saeed Bin Harmal Al Dhaheri & Dr. Mohamad Ali Hamade, to increase accessibility, enhance quality and improve the affordability of education globally. See Experiential learning and VR will reshape the future of education.

However, as Nevradakisalso noted, these discussions had little to say about the need to protect childrens data or digital identities or, for that matter, providing the types of early-life experiences children require as part of their socialization. See Future of Education? WEFs Vision Heavy on Virtual Reality and AI Technologies, Light on Privacy Concerns.

Of course, there is no need for concern about the early-life experiences of those young transhumans who are being programmed for decades of servitude prior to being terminated when they are no longer functional.

Beyond claimed educational and economic benefits, however, some authors argue that digitalizing education can play a role in easing pressures on the environment and climate. How so? Nevradakis again: Indeed, the WEF said the use of textbooks, notebooks and pencils as critical learning tools is on the way out, due to environmental pressures and COP26 goals (from the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference), which will drive the digitalizing of education streams. See Future of Education? WEFs Vision Heavy on Virtual Reality and AI Technologies, Light on Privacy Concerns

But it is clearly delusional to suggest that the use of textbooks, notebooks and pencils has greater adverse impact on the environment and climate than the environmental cost and climate impact of producing sophisticated technology for each student. And despite claims of improved affordability it is equally delusional to ignore the economic and social cost, for example, to the child laborers in the Congo working in appalling conditions to extract strategic minerals to produce this technology. See Humanitys Dirty Little Secret: Starving, Enslaving, Raping, Torturing and Killing our Children.

Besides, as touched on below, education is already a monstrous experience, destroying the Selfhood of the child so that they become submissively obedient. Removing the bulk of educationsremaining social component by technologizing it can only make it even worse.

Babies in the Metaverse

Then again, maybe children will no longer be put through school. It simply wont be necessary because children, for transhuman slaves at least, will no longer exist.

By 2070, the metaverse will offer you virtual babies, environmentally-friendly digital children, according to UK artificial intelligence (AI) expert Catriona Campbell. Parents will see and interact with their offspring through next-generation AR [augmented reality] glasses and haptic gloves. The latter devices enable users to experience a realistic sense of touch when handling virtual or holographic objects. As a bonus, these children take up no space, cost nothing to feed and remain healthy, if that is what you want, for as long as they are programmed to live. A subscription might cost as little as $25 each month.

And if this seems like a monumental leap out of reality to you, Campbell also believes that within 50 years technology will have advanced to such an extent that babies which exist in the metaverse are indistinct from those in the real world. As the metaverse evolves, I can see virtual children becoming an accepted and fully embraced part of society in much of the developed world.See Virtual babies who grow up in real time will be commonplace by 2070, expert predicts.

Thats right, Campbell is claiming that within 50 yearsbabies which exist in the metaverse are indistinct from those in the real world! Pause a moment. How does that sound to you?

Just in case you cannot wait, you are welcome to start using early versions now. See, for example, Virtual Baby, Adopt a Virtual Baby and My Virtual Child.

Oh, and by the way, you wont be having sex either, whether for reproductive purposes or otherwise. You will prefer virtual sex. See Sex And Pornography Aim To Strike Gold In The Metaverse.

Critiquing the Metaverse

Beyond the criticisms already noted above, there area great many other criticisms of the metaverse and the role it will play in the overall elite program being implemented under what the WEF callsits Great Reset. This comprehensive program will transform human society and human life for those people left alive after the eugenics component has been fully implemented. See The Final Battle for Humanity: It is Now or Never in the Long War Against Homo Sapiens.

If you like, you can read a little more about what the masters of this metaverse intend for us, as well as critiques of it, by authors such as these.

Derrick Broze: While some people may not intend for The Metaverse to become an all encompassing reality that supersedes physical reality, for the Zuckerbergs, Microsofts, and WEFs of the world, that is exactly what they intend for The Metaverse. For the billionaire class and their puppet organizations, such as the WEF and the United Nations, the Metaverse offers up the potential to commandeer all life into digital prisons where the people can be charged for services and products in the digital realm. With the people of the world safely tucked into their digital beds, the Technocrats could complete their total takeover of natural resources, the economy, and humanity itself. See The Great Narrative And The Metaverse, Part 2: Will The Metaverse End Human Freedom?

Dr. Michael Nevradakis: Who will govern the metaverse? According to the WEF, real-world governance models represent one possible option for metaverse governance. However, far from referring to constitutionally defined institutions of governance, with checks and balances, the WEF cites Facebooks Oversight Board as an example of such a real-world governance model. See WEF Launches Metaverse Initiative, Predicts Digital Lives Will Become More Meaningful to Us Than Our Physical Lives.

But an earlier World Economic Forum report from its Global Redesign Initiative was more blunt: The report postulates that a globalized world is best managed by a coalition of multinational corporations, governments (including through the UN system) and select civil society organizations (CSOs). See Sustainable Development Goals and Human Rights p. 209, citing Everybodys Business: Strengthening International Cooperation in a More Interdependent World.

So if you believe that you and I are destined to have a say in the metaverse that is unfolding, you would be wise to keep investigating. Elite proposals are invariably very distant from the type of governance models usually considered by ordinary people in a multiplicity of contexts, where the emphasis is on facilitating widespread grassroots participation, not rule by technocrats.

You can read considerably more about what our technocratic overlords have in mind including the existing trade in such things as virtual real estate, virtual clothing and virtual art and what is wrong with it, in the articles on the metaverse published by Patrick Wood on Technocracy News & Trends: Metaverse. And there is more in articles such as these: The Top 10 Creepiest and Most Dystopian Things Pushed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and How Our Lives Could Soon Look: The World Economic Forum Posts An Insane Dystopian Video.

And heres another simple issue to ponder. Remember how I mentioned above that a quick flash of metaverse-induced fear would ensure that you complied with an elite-determined directive, how does the idea of eating bugs, processed sewage and human flesh appeal? Well, given that your mind will no longer be your own, what appeals now, or doesnt, will be irrelevant once the metaverse is determining how you perceive things. See Canadian Company Pledges To Produce TWO BILLION BUGS Per Year For Human Consumption and Will You Eat Cultured Meat Grown From Human Cells?

You will eat Soylent Green because that is what the program tells you.

So why are people embracing the Metaverse?

In a recent article in which he described taking his son to watch a film through 3D glasses, Charles Eisenstein noted The on-screen reality was so vivid, stimulating and intense that it made the real world seem boring by comparison. See Transhumanism and the Metaverse.

How can this happen?

Because we terrorize our children into submissive obedience, devoid of the unique and powerful individual Self they were gifted by evolution at birth. See Why Violence?,Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practiceand Do We Want School or Education? Why? Essentially to keep them performing tasks that bore them senseless throughout their school and working life.

Fundamentally, this terrorization works because it compels our children into suppressing awareness of how they feel. As a result, only the most intense experiences register emotionally: The capacity to experience a subtle feeling has been lost. And without this capacity, they cannot develop into the powerful, courageous Self-willed individuals that evolution intended. They are human relics. Ready and willing to be turned into a transhuman slave in the unconscious hope they will be finally able to experience, in the metaverse, what was taken from them in the real world as a child.

But they wont get that experience, even in the metaverse. It is not what the elite has in mind for us.

Resisting the Metaverse

Of course, the metaverse is just one feature of the Global Elite agenda that is being imposed upon us. And it is not enough to resist individual features of the Great Reset program. We must strategically resist its most fundamental elements so that the entire agenda is defeated.

If you are inclined to join those strategically resisting the Great Reset and its related agendas, you are welcome to participate in the We Are Human, We Are Free campaign which identifies a list of 30 strategic goals for doing so.

In addition and more simply, you can download a one-page flyer that identifies a short series of crucial nonviolent actions that anyone can take. This flyer, now available in 16 languages (Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish & Slovak) with more languages in the pipeline, can be downloaded from here: The 7 Days Campaign to Resist the Great Reset.

If strategically resisting the Great Reset (and related agendas) appeals to you, consider joining the We Are Human, We Are Free Telegram group (with a link accessible from the website).

And if you want a child who is powerfully able to perceive the dysfunctional lure of the metaverse, and is able to join you in resisting it, consider making My Promise to Children.

CONCLUSION

So, for just a little longer, the choice is yours.

Read more here:
Virtual Beauty, Virtual Freedom, Virtual Love: Is the Metaverse Our Future? - PRESSENZA International News Agency