Futurist-Transhumanist: AI Will Destroy God

(Photo Credit: Jon Callas via Creative Commons 2.0)

 

Since there’s no God, the author surmises, it should be relatively simple—especially with expanding technological capabilities.

Writing for Forbes magazine today, London-based technology blogger Kate Levchuk has made the startling claim that technology—specifically, artificial intelligence—will soon make religion in general, and God in particular, irrelevant.

FBI Director Warns China is America’s Most Significant Intelligence Threat

FBI Director Christopher Wray / Getty Images

 

Beijing engaged in ‘pervasive’ targeting of US secrets, Wray says

China is engaged in aggressive intelligence operations in the United States, ranging from the recruitment of academics to stealing agricultural secrets from farmers, FBI Director Christopher Wray says.

“I think China, from a counterintelligence perspective represents the broadest, most challenging, most significant threat we face as a country,” Wray said during a security conference in Colorado.

The FBI director said the Chinese utilize a “whole of state” spying effort.

Chinese Spies Engaged in Massive Theft of U.S. Technology

Chinese President Xi Jinping / Getty Images

 

Obama weakened counterintelligence against foreign spies, Congress told

China is engaged in large-scale theft of American research and technology from universities, using spies, students, and researchers as collectors, experts told Congress on Wednesday.

Compounding the technology theft, the administration of President Barack Obama weakened U.S. counterintelligence efforts against foreign spies by curbing national-level counterspy efforts, a former counterintelligence official disclosed during a House hearing.

“What The Hell Is It?” – 74 Cryptocurrency Questions Answered

A great article for those who are still in the dark about cryptocurrencies.

 

The price of bitcoin has rocketed more than 1,700% year-to-date.

 

With the price of the cryptocurrency soaring – and mainstream interest surging – Yahoo Finance recently invited readers to send us their top questions regarding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. We condensed questions from nearly 3,500 respondents into the list below, and enlisted a team of Yahoo Finance reporters to answer them, including Daniel Roberts, who’s been covering bitcoin since 2012, and Jared Blikre, our authority on trading. Ethan Wolff-Mann and Julia LaRoche contributed as well. Here’s everything you want to know about bitcoin:

1. What the hell is it? In the most general sense, bitcoin is software that forms a decentralized, peer-to-peer payment system with no central authority like the Federal Reserve or U.S. Treasury. It’s fair to call it a digital currency or cryptocurrency, but at the moment, most investors aren’t really using it as currency to pay for things. Instead, they’re using it as a speculative investment to buy in the hope of turning a profit. Maybe a big profit. (And maybe a big loss).

China, Russia eye closer friendship amid tensions with West

Putin and Xi shake hands at the end of a joint press briefing in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on June 25, 2016.PHOTO: EPA

 

BEIJING (AFP) – Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin promised ever-closer cooperation and oversaw a series of deals on Saturday, as the two countries deepen ties in the face of growing tensions with the West.

In what was Putin’s fourth trip to China since Xi became president in 2013, the two men stressed their shared outlook which mirrors the countries’ converging trade, investment and geopolitical interests.

“Russia and China stick to points of view which are very close to each other or are almost the same in the international arena,” Putin said.

Terrorist groups acquiring the cyber capability to bring major cities to a standstill, warns GCHQ chief

Don’t ever think for a moment this is limited to Europe. Through SCADA/SCADAs vulnerability entire water systems can be shut down or poisoned, sewer systems can overflow. Medication doses can be changed, etc…

 

Terrorists and rogue states are gaining the capability to bring a major city to a standstill with the click of a button, the Director of GCHQ has warned.

In a rare public appearance, Robert Hannigan said the risk to cities like London would increase as more physical objects, such as cars and household appliances, are connected online – the so-called “internet of things”.

IBM allows Chinese Government to review source code: WSJ

International Business Machines Corp has agreed to let China review some product source code in a secure room, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing two people briefed on the practice.

It was not clear which products IBM was allowing reviews of or how much time officials of China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology can spend looking at the code, the WSJ said on Friday.

US Navy Revives Ancient Navigation as Cyber Threats Grow

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Jared King

 

Satellites and GPS are vulnerable to cyber attack. The tools of yesteryear are not.

…

The Naval Academy stopped teaching celestial navigation in the late 1990s, deeming the hard-to-learn skill irrelevant in an era when satellites can relay a ship’s location with remarkable ease and precision.

National Geographic gets paid to promote Chinese culture

China’s State Council Information Office (SCIO) on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the US National Geographic Society (NGS) and venture capital organization International Data Group (IDG) to promote Chinese culture and cultural exchanges between the two countries.

Deutsche Bank to Cut Workforce by a Quarter: Report

Preparing for rough times ahead:

 

Frankfurt: Deutsche Bank aims to cut roughly 23,000 jobs, or about one quarter of total staff, through layoffs mainly in technology activities and by spinning off its PostBank division, financial sources said on Monday.

That would bring the group’s workforce down to around 75,000 full-time positions under a reorganisation being finalised by new Chief Executive John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July with the promise to cut costs.

Rise of the brain-controlled robot ARMIES: Chinese military trains students to control machines with their minds

Students at the People’s Liberation Army Information Engineering University in Zhengzhou are being taught to control robots using only their thoughts. In the image above an instructor looks at a computer with a student, who is wearing a cap with electrodes embedded in it to detect the electrical activity of their brain

 

• Researchers have developed technology that allows students to control robots through a cap that detects the faint electrical activity of their brains
• Students can control the robots’ movement and get them to pick up objects
• Officials say the technology could provide new types of home appliances
• It is being developed at a Chinese military academy in Zhengzhou

Forget joysticks and exoskeletons, the future of warfare could see robot armies controlled using just a commander’s mind.

China has been training students at a military academy to use headsets that detect and interpret the brain activity of the wearer, allowing them to control the machines.

Putin: Russia Has Competitive Advantage in IT Sector

Dvorniki (Vladimir Region) — Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia has a competitive advantage in the IT-sector, but this should not imply conceit.

J.P. Morgan Chase expected to lay off more than 5,000 by next year

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. has begun layoffs that are expected to total more than 5,000 by next year, people familiar with the matter said.

The New German Arrogance (II)

Germany knows controlling the flow of information is key, therefore it is now capturing the cyber realm. This, plus taking steps towards an EU Army, forcing further integration of EU member states and turning them into vassal states (i.e. Cyprus) are all key actions/characteristics of a nation striving to be a world superpower. Germany is now directly competing against the United States. The Fourth Reich has (almost) landed.

 

BERLIN/WASHINGTON/VIENNA (Own report) – In cooperation with NSA, a US military intelligence service, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has massively intercepted and stored emails from Austria, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic. This became evident through an internal email from an employee of the Deutsche Telekom AG, responsible for cooperation with the intelligence service and police. According to the email, published by the Austrian parliamentarian Peter Pilz, Telekom, already in early February 2005, had given a green light to the BND having access to a fiber optic cable for internet communication connecting Luxembourg to Austria and numerous other countries. At the time, Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD), as Head of the Federal Chancellery, bore the highest responsibility for the activities of the BND. According to reports, Austria’s domestic intelligence was also being tapped. Whoever is cognizant of this communication, knows “almost everything about the Republic’s political life,” summarized Pilz. The governments concerned have raised no serious protests, in the Germany-dominated EU. The German government is continuing the BND’s technological upgrading, aimed ultimately toward raising German espionage “to an equal footing” with the NSA – also in internet spying.

China pledges to double trade with Latin America within 10 years

China has pledged to nearly double annual trade with Latin America to US$500 billion within 10 years as it hosts a forum with nations from the region, attempting to increase its influence in an area considered the backyard of the United States.

President Xi Jinping also pledged at the opening of the two-day meeting to boost China’s direct investment in the region to U$250 billion within a decade.

“The relationship between China and Latin America is on an upward trend. Mutual political trust between the two has also been boosted,” Xi said.