Reprint from 2017
Looking for an appropriate link to show how Naomi Wolf is 'speaking my language', ran across this item that covers all the bases.

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After looking (yet again) at the literally infinite superiority of analog models of intelligence, I had to ask: Why did Western researchers abandon analog for digital a LONG time ago? At the time when they made the switch, analog modeling was moving ahead rapidly and digital was not obviously destined to succeed.

And then I saw the answer. It's an answer I've been giving often, but didn't associate it with the development of machine learning.

Digital is hackable. It's possible to insert or modify code via temporary connections or via radio. NSA and CIA are experts at changing code AND blinding the other parts of the system to the change.

Analog is not transparently hackable. To change the way a transistor or tube circuit works, you have to physically desolder a component and replace it with another, or change the setting of a pot. A spy who "repairs" your equipment is a fairly obvious intrusion. Even if you aren't watching your office carefully enough, a change to a carefully documented and measured device is easy to detect later.

The spy could create a temporary change in function by magnetically coupling to an inductive part of the ckt, or by introducing a fake scene or sound to fool the 'eyes' and 'ears', but such a change wouldn't last through a system reset.

NSA/CIA/GCHQ and their contractors Google, Apple, Facebook, etc, are paying billions for digital AI because they want total hackpower. They realized early on that analog systems would WORK TOO WELL and would be EXTREMELY HARD TO HACK from a distance.

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Russian researchers continued working with analog for at least two decades. For sure they were smarter and more creative than Westerners, but maybe they had a specific goal in mind. Russian military equipment also remained tube and analog after Western went solid-state and digital. In that case the reason was openly stated and well known: Tube and analog electronics in planes and tanks is less susceptible to attack by inductive transients as well as hacking. As always Russia is DEFENSIVE and USA STRONG is AGGRESSIVE.

DEFENSIVE = analog and mechanical and tube. Physical reality is defensive.

AGGRESSIVE = software. Theory is aggressive.

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Naomi specifically mentioned hackability:

Lastly, driving all human interaction onto Zoom is not only a way to harvest all of our tech, business secrets and IP – it is a way to ensure that intimacy and connection in the future will be done online and that human face-to-face contact will be killed off.

Harvesting tech and business secrets was THE ORIGINAL SPECIFIC PURPOSE of the internet. NSA created a convenient way for academics and industries to exchange "secure" data because NSA wanted to see everything they were doing.

Again, I deeply and humbly apologize for allowing the Randians to misdefine Naomi Wolf. I didn't participate in the mocking, but I never questioned the mocking, and missed the opportunity to absorb some solid and clear writing and thinking.

Also see here and here.

Labels: Carver, Deadthink

  ¶ 2:36 PM