Intelligence Officers Abuse Power, Attack Trump

[From article]
Mark Hosenball of Reuters reports:
Some U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that Donald Trump's "shoot from the hip" style could pose national security risks as they prepare to give him a routine pre-election briefing once he is formally anointed as the Republican presidential nominee.
Eight senior security officials told Reuters they had concerns over briefing Trump, whose brash, unpredictable campaign style has been a feature of his rise as an insurgent candidate. Despite their worries, the officials said the "Top Secret" briefing to each candidate would not deviate from the usual format to avoid any appearance of bias.
[. . .]



The club protects its own.
Trump has, I am certain, protected many secrets in his day. He has needed to assemble parcels of land for major construction projects, for instance, and wrote about this in The Art of the Deal. I am reasonably certain that prior to any briefings, he would sign documents promising to guard their security, as would his advisers – the sort of docuemnts (sic) Hillary and her aides signed at the State Department and violated with her home-brew server.
[. . .]



Did any of them worry about Hillary disclosing information, since she is so careless with top-secret documents?
Make no mistake: the national security apparatus of the United States is a huge business, very comfy in its ways, and fears disruption from an outsider.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2016/06/intelligence_officers_sabotaging_trump_campaign.html

June 3, 2016
Intelligence officers sabotaging Trump campaign
By Thomas Lifson

Acting On Pattern Recognition

Pay Attention! Whether you are crossing the street, watching your city council meetings, your state legislature, or the legend-in-his-own-mind in the White House. You need to act on what you see. That's all you have to do.

[From article]
This man has never seen a car or a streetlight before, nor does he know anything about laws and customs that drivers have become accustomed to obey intuitively. Imagine, however, that he is instructed, in his own language, to simply sit there and observe how these strange foreigners and conveyances move about.
Within an hour or two, I'd lay a strong wager that the man could explain in a fundamental way how this system works, despite the fact that it's entirely foreign to him.
[. . .]
There is a reason that he can very likely accomplish this feat with relative ease: because recognizing patterns is the most fundamental skill of humankind.
This is no accident. It is our most fundamental skill because it has been honed by evolutionary necessity.
[. . .]
Of course, merely recognizing a particular pattern is of no usefulness if expectations and behavior are not amended as a result of its recognition. Civil societies have been cultivated primarily due to sensible action in response to such observations. Herein lies the foundation of the agricultural, commercial, and industrial practices that provide for the world, the basis for religion and philosophy that nurtures men's souls, the genesis of the laws of science, and the reason for the refinement of all of the above.
[. . .]
Is it not, therefore, the most damning of facts that the "progressive" left appears to find no usefulness in logically appraising and acting upon the patterns we routinely observe? Rather, they buck every natural compulsion by not only ignoring patterns, but by acting in direct defiance of logic and survival instincts that we humans have inherited.
How else can one describe a group who could read a report that shows that 450 out of 452 (or 99.6% of) suicide terror attacks in 2015 were perpetrated by Muslims and carried out in the name of Allah, only to insist that Muslims are not uniquely linked to global terrorism?
Or consider this. With the exception of the shooting of Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Ariz. in 2011, "every public shooting since at least since 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns."
[. . .]
And suffice it to say, "Muslims shouldn't be subject to added scrutiny as potential terror threats" and "we need more gun-free zones in America" are the farthest thing from those useful responses. Yet both of those statements embody bulwark positions for the American left.
Sensible Americans can see that the national debt has nearly doubled in past seven years, reaching an unfathomable $18.8 trillion (and it's still rising at ludicrous speed). And they observe, quite reasonably, that it took Obama seven years to accumulate nearly the amount of debt that the previous 43 presidents had accrued over a 220-year period.
[. . .]
We discovered that we couldn't keep our health care plans or our doctors if we liked them, despite our president's promises. We also found that we're paying more for health care now than ever before,
[. . .]
We've noticed all the violence and racial animus created by the grievance peddlers in the Obama administration who stoked the fires of Ferguson and Baltimore, all the while making villains of our nation's law enforcement officers.
We've seen an administration that provided deadly weapons to Mexican drug cartels while seeking to circumvent the Bill of Rights by denying such weapons to law-abiding Americans interested only in protecting their homes, their families, and their God-given right to defend their liberty.
We've watched our president ignore federal law by allowing criminal lawbreakers to enter our country, effectively depressing wages for American laborers while the invaders reap benefits (like health care, education, welfare, etc.) that drown taxpayers in liability.
[. . .]
And we recognize, beyond all shadows of doubt, that none of this is George W. Bush's fault.
[. . .]
All you have to do is pull up a chair, open your eyes, and choose not to ignore what you see.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/01/the_lefts_problem_with_nature_and_logic.html

January 23, 2016
The Left's Problem with Nature and Logic
By William Sullivan

New Television Show Reveals Disabled People Are Human

Footage from The new A&E Docu-Series "“Born This Way." 

Photo: Adam Taylor

[From article]
It seems bizarre that someone capable of formulating a sentence thinks it’s necessary to defend his own humanity, but sadly, John was speaking for himself and millions of others like him who, based on a prenatal genetic test, were recommended for abortion.
John survived. Most don’t.
The statistics are hard to pin down, but experts estimate 90 percent of babies with Down syndrome are never born. Think about the last time you saw a child with the telltale facial features indicative of the genetic condition. It’s far more likely you’ll see them in an adult, who was born before prenatal testing became routine. That doesn’t mean Down syndrome is becoming less prevalent; it means that parents are less and less likely to carry these pregnancies to term.
During the closing credits, John’s mother explains that her family is participating in the program in order to give hope to other families who might be facing the same prenatal diagnosis she did. The show aims to change the perception of individuals with the condition — which Steven, another star, calls “Up Syndrome” because he refuses to be depressed or sad.
[. . .]



Medical science has made it possible to learn about a Down diagnosis via a prenatal test. Parents can learn about the challenges babies, children and adults might face with the condition — but all that focuses on the negatives, not the joy children with Down bring their parents.
Weeding out genetic diseases like Down, whose sufferers can and still d [ o lead full and healthy lives, is eugenics, pure and simple. The most extreme version of which comes from the barbaric terrorists of ISIS, who reportedly issued a decree to execute babies born with Down and other genetic diseases.
In the West, most Down babies don’t make it to birth. There are genetic screening tests for preconception for excruciating and deadly diseases like Tay-Sachs. The difference with testing for Down is two-fold: The test is only possible after conception, and the only prenatal “treatment” is termination.
The fact that we need a TV show to humanize individuals with Down syndrome is deeply troubling to begin with.
[. . .]



When John’s mother was told she was pregnant with a child with Down, she was told by doctors, “Don’t expect a lot . . . He will never be a productive member of society.”
With more and more babies with Down aborted, it has become vital to show the world just how wonderful and, yes, normal, life with a Down syndrome family member can be.

http://nypost.com/2015/12/14/the-people-that-so-many-of-us
 -dont-consider-people/

The people that so many of us don’t consider people
By Bethany Mandel
New York Post
December 14, 2015 | 8:00pm

UK Taxpayers Fear Robots Will Take Their Jobs

[From article]
Almost half of Britons fear that robots could one day wipe out humanity, according to an exclusive Sky News survey.
And more than six out of 10 people in the UK think the Government should protect jobs from being taken by robots, our survey suggests.
The results reveal the anxieties felt by ordinary people about the coming robot revolution.
[. . .]
Prominent figures including Professor Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates have also warned about the threat that "super-intelligent" computers could pose to humanity.
[. . .]
He said: "If we one day develop machines that are superior to us in terms of general intelligence, then this machine super-intelligence might be in a very strong position to shape the future according to its preferences.
"And hopefully those preferences will be aligned with ours and it will be a great win.
[. . .]
Andrew McAfee, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told Sky News that the robot revolution "is happening right now".

http://news.sky.com/story/1544448/robot-revolution-40-percent-fear-wipeout-by-machines

Robot Revolution: 40% Fear Wipeout By Machines
Robots will be "as important as the rise of homo sapiens", but can humans share the planet with super-intelligent machines?
01:57, UK,
Tuesday 01 September 2015
By Tom Cheshire, Technology Correspondent

Dangers of Artificial Intelligence Research to Humans

Science research run amok, as at the Broad Institute at MIT investigating how the mind works, is an issue I raised with a research scientist. I asked "What if scientists learned how to completely control the mind?" Someone always comes along to use new technology for evil purposes. He said "You can't stop it." If he is right the same conclusion applies to AI research. Researcher scientists are so intent on learning everything they can, they cannot be stopped. In a portion of a painting by Pieter The Elder Brueghel, called The Blind Leading The Blind, he shows how close to oblivion scientists lead us in their never ending search to know.  

The Blind Leading The Blind

[From article]
Artificial intelligence has the potential to be as dangerous to mankind as nuclear weapons, a leading pioneer of the technology has claimed.
Professor Stuart Russell, a computer scientist who has lead research on artificial intelligence, fears humanity might be 'driving off a cliff' with the rapid development of AI.
He fears the technology could too easily be exploited for use by the military in weapons, putting them under the control of AI systems.
Professor Russell, who is a researcher at the University of California in Berkeley and the Centre for the study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University, compared the development of AI to the work that was done to develop nuclear weapons.
[. . .]
In an interview with the journal Science for a special edition on Artificial Intelligence, [Professor Stephen Hawking] said: 'From the beginning, the primary interest in nuclear technology was the "inexhaustible supply of energy".
'The possibility of weapons was also obvious. I think there is a reasonable analogy between unlimited amounts of energy and unlimited amounts of intelligence.
'Both seem wonderful until one thinks of the possible risks.
[. . .]
Professor Russell, however, cautions that this unchecked development of technology can be dangerous if the consequences are not fully explored and regulation put in place.
[. . .]
'To those who say, well, we may never get to human-level or superintelligent AI, I would reply: It's like driving straight toward a cliff and saying, 'Let's hope I run out of gas soon!'
In April Professor Russell raised concerns at a United Nations meeting in Geneva over the dangers of putting military drones and weapons under the control of AI systems.
He joins a growing number of experts who have warned that scenarios like those seen in films from Terminator, AI and 2001: A Space Odyssey are not beyond the realms of possibility.
[. . .]
Professor Russell said computer scienitsts needed to modify the goals of their research to ensure human values and objectives remain central to the development of AI technology.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3165356/Artificial-Intelligence-dangerous-NUCLEAR-WEAPONS-AI-pioneer-warns-smart-computers-doom-mankind.html

'Artificial Intelligence is as dangerous as NUCLEAR WEAPONS': AI pioneer warns smart computers could doom mankind
Expert warns advances in AI mirrors research that led to nuclear weapons
He says AI systems could have objectives misaligned with human values
Companies and the military could allow this to get a technological edge
He urges the AI community to put human values at the centre of their work
By RICHARD GRAY FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 09:30 EST, 17 July 2015 | UPDATED: 10:12 EST, 17 July 2015

Robotics Threat To Humans

[From article]
In some parts of rural and regional Australia more than 60% of jobs could be lost, said CEDA Chief Executive Professor Stephen Martin.
"The pace of technological advancement in the last 20 years has been unprecedented and that pace is likely to continue for the next 20 years," he said.
Robots might even support lonely people
A more radical suggestion proffered in the report is the idea that robots could "offer support for lonely people".



If that seems hard to believe, just 10 years ago no-one thought there would be a car that drove itself.
Google has now designed such a car, which has driven around California without any accidents - except when a human driving another car rear-ended the robotic vehicle.



http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33160688

Australia's robot-led future puts squeeze on humans
17 June 2015

Pilots Need More Time Flying, Instead of Computer Control

Pilot Control Panel


Suspected Debris From Air Asia Plane

[From article]
The problem is not the thunderstorms but with modern aviation practices.
[. . .]
A professional pilot always expects things to go wrong. Nothing is normally taken for granted in the cockpit. The fact that a flyer flips a switch is no guarantee that the selected system is going to operate.
Air Asia pilots have precisely the same training and skill requirements as any other airline in the world. What happened to them can happen to any other operator. And has happened.
The degradation of flying skills is endemic throughout the airline industry.
[. .]
hand flying skills became less important and began to take a back seat compared to computer operating competence, which was now seen as the primary way to fly in the intense electronic environment of a modern airliner.

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2014/12/air_asia_8501_when_will_we_learn.html

December 30, 2014
Air Asia 8501. When will we learn?
By Rob Schapiro

Stephen Hawking Warns Of Threat To Humans From Artificial Intelligence

Stanley Kubrick's film 2001 and its murderous computer HAL encapsulate many people's fears of how AI could pose a threat to human life

[From article]
Stephen Hawking: "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete and would be superseded"
Prof Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, has said that efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence.
He told the BBC:"The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."
His warning came in response to a question about a revamp of the technology he uses to communicate, which involves a basic form of AI.
[. . .]
In the short term, there are concerns that clever machines capable of undertaking tasks done by humans until now will swiftly destroy millions of jobs.
In the longer term, the technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has warned that AI is "our biggest existential threat".

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-30290540

2 December 2014 Last updated at 08:02 ET
Stephen Hawking warns artificial intelligence could end mankind
By Rory Cellan-Jones

Google Employees, All Too Smart, Live in Bubble

[From article]
A Google employee says his company hires the absolute smartest people in the world and that it's a pretty big problem.
Avery Pennarun, an engineer for Google's broadband arm Fiber based in Canada, blew the whistle on what he calls the staff's overconfidence problem in a June 30 blog post he titled The Curse of Smart People.
'Smart people have a problem,' Pennarun writes, 'especially when you put them in large groups. That problem is an ability to convincingly rationalize nearly anything.'

How do these principles apply to schools like Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc? As a user of Google products I often wonder why they make so many "upgrades?" Often the improved version is worse than the old. Why not just leave it alone as long as it's working?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2683347/Smart-successful-people-cursed-Google-employee-blows-whistle-search-giants-problem-confident-geek-types-living-bubble.html

Google employee blows the whistle on search giant's problem with over-confident 'geek types living in a bubble'
Avery Pennarun is an engineer with Google's broadband service Fiber
His recent blog entry gushes over working with 'smartest people in the world'
Says their overconfidence and love of logic cuts them off from the real world
By JOSHUA GARDNER
Daily Mail (UK)
PUBLISHED: 08:41 EST, 7 July 2014 | UPDATED: 11:32 EST, 7 July 2014

Computers Fool Humans, Passing For Human

[video embedded]
[From article]

A programme that convinced humans that it was a 13-year-old boy has become the first computer ever to pass the Turing Test. The test — which requires that computers are indistinguishable from humans — is considered a landmark in the development of artificial intelligence, but academics have warned that the technology could be used for cybercrime.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/computer-becomes-first-to-pass-turing-test-in-artificial-intelligence-milestone-but-academics-warn-of-dangerous-future-9508370.html

Turing Test breakthrough as super-computer becomes first to convince us it's human
Eugene Goostman, a computer programme pretending to be a young Ukrainian boy, successfully duped enough humans to pass the iconic test
ANDREW GRIFFIN
Sunday 08 June 2014

Real Equality in Cambridge MA

[From article]
McGovern said. "The question is, how do we raise these issues of poverty and hunger to the point where it becomes the No. 1 issue in the city, because it should be."

Here's how to implement Councilor McGovern's "No. 1 issue in the city." (Erin Baldassari, "Officials discuss ways to close Cambridge’s poverty gap," April 14, 2014, CAMBRIDGE Chronicle) All City Councilors and all City Managers, Deputy and Assistant City Managers should voluntarily contribute half of their incomes to a selected homeless or poor person. It would signal that everyone in Cambridge who earns more than $90,000 should make a sacrifice to equalize income in the city. It should also help to end the achievement gap at the same time. This altruism of politicians (Gasp!), unknown in history, might spread to the state, the nation, and the world. Cambridge could add to its progressive accomplishments making everyone equal in money and intelligence.

http://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/article/20140414/NEWS/140418139

Officials discuss ways to close Cambridge’s poverty gap
By Erin Baldassari
Posted Apr. 14, 2014 @ 2:13 pm
Updated at 2:18 PM
CAMBRIDGE Chronicle

Can Machines Run The World Without Humans?

[From article]
Ernest Davis, a computer scientist at New York University.
While AI can trounce the best chess or Jeopardy player and do other specialized tasks, it's still light-years behind the average 7-year-old in terms of common sense, vision, language and intuition about how the physical world works, Davis said.
For instance, because of that physical intuition, humans can watch a person overturn a cup of coffee and just know that the end result will be a puddle on the floor. A computer program, on the other hand, would have to do a laborious simulation and know the exact size of the cup, the height of the cup from the surface and various other parameters to understand the outcome, Davis said.
[. . .]
Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., who is writing a book about the future singularity. But once machines become as smart as man, the economy will double every week or month.
[. . .]
"There are such strong financial incentives in using technology in ways that aren't necessarily in everyone's interest," Hibbard said. "That's going to be a very difficult problem, possibly an unsolvable problem."

http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/07/18109236-human-takeover-by-machines-may-be-closer-than-we-think?lite

Human takeover by machines may be closer than we think

Warner Bros.
A killer robot from the 2009 film "Terminator Salvation" — exactly the type of future we don't want to see after singularity.
NBC News
By Tia Ghose
LiveScience

Pot Smoking 'Permanently Lowers IQ'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9426205/Cannabis-smoking-permanently-lowers-IQ.html

Cannabis smoking 'permanently lowers IQ'
Teenagers who regularly smoke cannabis are putting themselves at risk of permanently damaging their intelligence, according to a landmark study.
 By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
8:00PM BST 27 Jul 2012

Dim Bulbs

While awake, a human brain can generate enough energy to power a light
bulb (between 10-23 watts). - Provided by RandomHistory.com

Is this the source of the phrase "dim bulb?"

Scientists: People Not Smart Enough For Democracy

The conclusion is the argument made by Plato and Aristotle that democracy is the least worst form of government, not the best.

[From article]
"Mato Nagel, a sociologist in Germany, concluded that democracies rarely or never elect the best leaders. Their advantage over dictatorships or other forms of government is merely that they "effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders."

http://news.yahoo.com/people-arent-smart-enough-democracy-flourish-scientists-185601411.html

People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish, Scientists Say
By Natalie Wolchover
LiveScience.com
Tue, Feb 28, 2012
* * *
Democracy is the best form of government to protect all citizens from the stupidity of voters. The writers of the US Constitution and the ancient Greeks were aware of this problem. Not only do people have misguided opinions, but they vote on those opinions. See John Ziegler's film, "Media Malpractice" about what voters thought after the 2008 election. This is nothing new. See also "Numbers Rule" by George Szpiro, about how voters seldom elect the best candidate.

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/politico-editor-john-harris-voters-are-stupid/427521

Politico editor John Harris: Voters are stupid byCharlie Spiering

US Intelligence Compromised

[From article]
" intelligence is about patterns.
[. . .]
our government insists that Islamist terrorists have nothing to do with Islam and that jihad's just a peaceful inner struggle. (Check out al Qaeda's new online magazine if you want a little taste of Islamist pacifism.)
[. . .]
Leaking classified info won't get you into much hot water when even spying just lands you a plane ticket home, a photo op and a book deal."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/america_plays_the_fool_in_pakistan_fZOjcKtRYU17iMSHAd38HJ

America plays the fool in Pakistan's double game
Ralph Peters
New York Post

Last Updated: 12:36 AM, July 27, 2010

Posted: 12:26 AM, July 27, 2010

Intelligence Agencies Run by Bureaucracies

[From article]
"Bureaucracies aren't brave.
[. . .]
The goal of The intelligence community wasn't revelatory insight, but consensus -- so no one organization could be singled out for blame when things went south.

Intelligence work without moral courage is just a welfare program for university grads."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dumbing_down_intel_0XN7ghpziQKaioXAzeUY2M

Dumbing down Intel

Bigger isn't better in spy game

Ralph Peters
New York Post

Last Updated: 8:53 AM, July 21, 2010

Posted: 11:47 PM, July 20, 2010

Female US Spy

[from article]
"human intelligence is more valuable than technological intelligence."

[. . .]

"What Americans don't know is that the peace movement was funded by the Soviets to the tune of millions of dollars. The money would come in a diplomatic black bag."

[. . .]

"I loved the adrenaline rush. I did my job well. I pissed off a lot of people."

Barbara Makuch

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/become_spy_no_skanks_5Qkkt2xmt8GhKhAcYTbFGJ

Become a spy? No skanks!
Andrea Peyser
Ne York Post

Last Updated: 9:43 AM, July 12, 2010

Posted: 3:29 AM, July 12, 2010