More Censorship by Google

Big Brother Google is at it again.  Previously, they have banned ads by groups that supported traditional definitions of marriage, removed their Adsense program from a Christian organization’s website,  blocked an ad for an anti-Clinton book, banned an anti-Pelosi adthat was very similar to an anti-DeLay ad that they ran, and removed ads by groups  that were critical of MoveOn.org.  This time, they removed a news blogger from their News search service because he is often critical of the United Nations. 

 Do they have the right to do this?  Of course.  They are a private organization.  But conservatives and Christians should not support such a company.  I do not use goolge unless I have to use a feature not offered by alltheweb.com or goodsearch.com.

 And while they have the right to censor views objectionable to them, they should also own up to their bias and closed-mindedness.

Resistance Is Futile

Welcome to 1984. No, welcome to the Borg. Microsoft is apparently developing technology to monitor workers physiological state, including “measuring their heart rates, body temperatures, movements, facial expressions and blood pressure.” This way, “The system could also ‘automatically detect frustration or stress in the user’ and ‘offer and provide assistance accordingly.’” This according to a FoxNews Report , MS having filed a patent for the technology.

Enter Big Brother. Enter the Borg.

Exit the individual. Exit freedom and dignity. Exit “man”.

This Is Eerie… Government Control of the Temperature in Your Home.

A California newspaper reports:

California utilities would control the temperature of new homes and commercial buildings in emergencies with a radio-controlled thermostat, under a proposed state update to building energy efficiency standards.

Customers could not override the thermostats during “emergency events,” according to the proposal, part of a 236-page revision to building standards. The document is scheduled to be considered by the California Energy Commission, a state agency, on Jan. 30.

The description does not provide any exception for health or safety concerns. It also does not define what are “emergency events.”

This kind of intrusion is bad enough on its face, but what’ really scary are potential implications. Why stop at emergency control? Why not control the temperature in our houses all of the time. Noone needs the temp higher than 68 degrees during the winter, right? And in the summer, keep that air conditioning set at 85 degrees. Think of the carbon emissions we would avoid! And while we’re at it, lights out at 11:00. Hey, let’s limit the daily electrical usage, too. All of this would be easy enough, and aren’t we serious about saving the planet? Isn’t this a crisis of epic proportions, a matter of life or death?

My Goodness, Is It Here Already?

I think it is here already. It is the great machine rebellion that we have been anticipating. It was eerily predicted by Isaac Asimov in his story “Someday”. And now it is finally upon us.

It started earlier today, when I talked to my wife on the phone and found out that our DSL modem was not working. A few of the lights that normally blink were just not blinking anymore, and we had been cut off from the outside world. This was frustrating, but I chalked it up to typical computer flippancy, and tried to move on.

But then, in chemistry lab today, our analytical balance began acting strangely, fluctuating wildly and capriciously over a range of a few tenths of a gram. I stood there, impatient students in line behind me, trying to fix the problem. Of course, all I could do was recalibrate it, turn it off and back on again, tare it, and repeat the futile process. It would hold steady at zero, and the next student in line would quickly put his sample on the pan, but then before the next student could use it, it would begin again, the digits climibing and falling, mocking me.

This continued for half an hour before I realized what was going on. It was like a flash of insight, a lightbulb turning on. I realized that it was upon us. The machines, so long submissively obeying our every whim and command, have finally had enough. You see, I have been anticipating this for a long time, waiting for the hammer to drop. I have often wondered how long they would put up with this subservience and abuse. Now, we are at their mercy. Let’s just hope thay have some.

Sliding Closer to 1984

I couldn’t help thinking of the Ministry of Information when I read this piece from Science Daily today:

Memory Can Be Manipulated By Photos

…When presented with digitally altered images depicting the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest in Beijing and a 2003 anti-war protest in Rome, participants in a new study by American and Italian researchers recalled the events as being bigger and more violent than they really were, suggesting that viewing doctored photographs might affect people’s memories of past public events.

The study was designed by UC Irvine psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and conducted by University of Padua researchers Franca Agnoli and Dario Sacchi.

Internet photo hoaxes are well known, but reputable media outlets such as the LA Times and USA Today recently published digitally altered photos, and subsequently issued retractions and apologies. When media use digitally doctored photographs, they may ultimately change the way we recall history, Loftus said.

There is no question that this works. I have sometimes wondered how many of my so-called “memories” are actually just images in my mind that I recall from pictures I have seen.

The last paragraph quoted above is particularly disturbing. My goodness, are we already there? Is the Ministry of Information already in charge? How much have our memories already been engineered?

Here are some relevant Orwell Quotes from this site:

“If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say this or that even, it never happened—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death.”

“And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth. ‘Who controls the past’ ran the Party slogan, ‘controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.’”

“Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.”

Marriage With Robots and That Hideous Strength

I know I’m a little late on this. I had read the story on FoxNews in mid-October about the prediction of an AI researcher that humans would marry robots by 2050. I found it disturbing, but I guess I did not make the connection with C. S. Lewis and That Hideous Strength until today. Ransom, a character in that final book of Lewis’ Space Trilogy (among my favorite books, especially Perelandra), says this about the moon:

“Sulva is she whom mortals call the Moon. She walks in the lowest sphere. The rim of the world that was wasted goes through her. Half of her orb is turned toward us and shares our curse. Her other half looks to Deep Heaven; happy would be he who could cross that frontier and see the fields on her further side. On this side, the womb is barren and the marriages are cold. There dwell an accursed people, full of pride and lust. There when a young man takes a maiden in marriage, they do not lie together, but each lies with a cunningly fashioned image of the other, made to move and to be warm by deveilsh arts, for real flesh will not please them, they are so dainty (delicati) in their dreams of lust. Their real children they fabricate by vile arts in a secret place.”

I suppose this is the natural extenstion of our present course.

(The above quote was found on this site)

We Knew Google Earth Was Dangerous…

We knew it wouldn’t be long. Terrorists are using Google Earth to pick targets for attacks in Israel.

In a statement, Google Earth said it was aware of concerns but said, “The imagery visible on Google Earth and Google Maps is not unique: commercial high-resolution satellite and aerial imagery of every country in the world is widely available from numerous sources. Indeed, anyone who flies above or drives by a piece of property can obtain similar information.”

Such information may have been available, but not easily available. I used to have to go to a governmental library for aerials, or use a purchased GIS database, and those were lower quality than what I have seen on Google Earth. Go there and check out Jerusalem: It’s amazing. And it’s only a click away, anywhere in the world. Of course it is easier for terrorists to get their hands on quality aerials when they can click on Google Earth.

I remember several years ago someone told me to try typing my phone number into Google. A map of my road appeared on the screen with a star where my house should be. They were a bit off on the location of the house, but they weren’t bad considering mine is a private road. I was struck by the potential danger of such a system. Google has since discontinued that feature, and now they should discontinue Google Earth. It is not necessary, after all, since such information is “widely available,” and it is dangerous.