To be clear the new TESLABOT is not technically a killbot in that it is not equipped with a keyboard command for terminating peons who offend the users of TESLABOT, but a workaround for that oversight is likely simple. If it comes equipped as advertised with such features as opposable thumbs, it will certainly be equip-able with phased plasma rifles in the 40 watt range or other items with similar functionality.
OK in all seriousness, this diagram notes what the "killbots" will kill...
...or in the polite language of the promo, "eliminate".
Those 'dangerous, repetitive, boring tasks' are what most of us call "jobs".
That is the prey of this killbot.
Of course for 200 years, jobs have been eliminated by advancing technology only to unleash by their increase in productivity a need for more jobs. This, new development, if it comes to pass may be more of the same, but there is concern that it might be different as it is not "the machinery" but is designed to move amongst and service "the machinery" and do the scutt work that the machinery couldn't.
Technology is generally double edged, everyone needs to stay on their toes.
Exit quote: "In the long term I do think there needs to be universal basic income,†Musk said. "But not right now because the robot doesn’t work.â€
Posted by: cxt217 at Mon Aug 23 19:55:43 2021 (MuaLM)
3
a) Musk's work on the Tesla may possibly be an argument /against/ his ability to pull this off. Building an automated car with wireless updating of software is an invitation for problems. If you turn it into a commercial success somehow, you've stuck yourself with an architecture that you cannot secure. It's an invitation to get sued out of existence.
b) Modern AI techniques work in specific ways to get certain flavors of task done. Fundamentally, they have limits, and it is not hard to work out what a lot of them are. It seems unlikely to change the basic arithmetic of 10 or 20 years ago over what kinds of factory task make more sense for automation, and what kinds for human. The tech to replace fast food workers has been around for a while. What changed was the Democrats screwing with the labor market. Thing is, Democrats screwing around with the labor market is a temporary thing, and will be gone before we discover significantly more capable AI techniques.
c) There's an arithmetic of maintenance and design attention that prevents replacement of humans with equipment for all society sustaining tasks. Humans working on something directly are smarter than a bunch of engineers who aren't there, and who are trying to use a machine to do it. Farming in particular is a lot of varied tasks and thinking, and is one of my go to examples of where the maintenance would be prohibitive. A farmer is better doing maintenance on the heavy equipment than some robot would be. Also a good example of where modern AI would be severely problematic, and of a mental task that humans can do much better. (AI training aggregates. Humans can learn a lot about local weather, and the sorting aggregation happens by capitalism.)
d) Some engineering tasks can be automated, but engineering as a whole cannot be automated. To make robots take over all human tasks, you would need to be able to automate the engineering. Otherwise, human engineers at a distance cannot exceed humans at the spot. Same basic logic as why university lunatics with PhDs in telling 'those people' what to do, who are successfully telling 'those people' what to do would always be worse than people minding their own business.
e) There always will be more actual need for retards to do some work than there will be for so called intelligent people to spend their time in technocratic megalomania.
f) As a 'whatever discipline it is that understands this stuff', Musk may be an okay technologist. UBI is bad, because idleness means nothing to distract uninvested people from breaking stuff. You would expect more nihilistic destruction, perhaps of the sort produced by our so called elites, who we likewise have no real need for.
g) One task that we will never be able to completely automate away is fighting other humans. And I saw that as someone insanely optimistic enough to think it might be possible to develop technology sufficient to let us kill everyone in the world who isn't an American. Okay, that probably is not a good goal, but it is definitely a difficult thing to accomplish.
h) I'm pretty sure that one of the big things modern engineering is going to have to deal with is the overconfidence in AI. Lot of people are learning techniques to implement AI based automation. Not clear to me how many really understand that there are limits, or that they should be careful and cautious in what they do. This, /before/ considering the state of programming as an engineering discipline. Caveat, I'm still a pretty bad programmer.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Mon Aug 23 20:35:26 2021 (DHVaH)
4
This seems like cgi fantasy to me. How is that "robot" actuated? Right now, unless theres new technology im unaware of, theres nothing that really does what human muscle does in terms of rapidly contracting and expanding without extra side space. Hydraulics come closest.
As to UBI: Sounds like more "you eill own nothing and be happy" to me. We had pretty close to itopia in this country: it was everyone owning their own family farm or store. Ownership lead to dignity, lack of ownership to serfdom or slavery, everywhere i can think of.
Posted by: Madrocketsci at Mon Aug 23 21:32:39 2021 (SrNF9)
5
As to servicing machinery, thats an incredibly complex task. I was recently in the guts of my parents edm hole drill diagnosing a problem. (An actual "robot" btw). Just taking the panels off (upside down in a tight space, whete no one should have EVER put #$%^ screws) is so far beyond current robotics its incredible. Nevermind putting voltage probes on terminals, reasoning through problems, reading crappy korean manuals, etc...
Posted by: Madrocketsci at Mon Aug 23 21:40:55 2021 (bbnoI)
6
Strange that musk of all people is prone to these fantasies. Most people who work in industry very quickly appreciate how much tacit complexity there is in even apparently very simple processes. How much thinking has to go on to get anything that isnt absolutely mindless and rigidly routinized accomplished. Actual human thinking, which is lightyears beyond our toy neural nets. I would expect this of some commie college professor with a contempt and utter ignorance of the industrial world he wants to command or banish. Not someone running a space program and a car factory.
Posted by: Madrocketsci at Mon Aug 23 21:47:32 2021 (SrNF9)
7
Ehh, on reading the article, there are more constructive ways to take his proposal. "Come work for my robotics group and help build better/more robots" is certainly a worthwhile project - because (as far as I understand the state of the art) we *can't* build anything like the depicted machine right now. (Boston dynamics appears to have the most progress.) Only way to get there is to work on building robots.
The fear-porn/clickbait/petulant Tory-esque overlord take: And then we'll overturn society and replace you all with robots, ROBOTS, I tell you! And then you'll be sorry, you useless eaters! You'll all be on the dole because we won't NEED you anymore! > That attitude annoys me, but it also worries me (not for the reason of the implied threat). A technological society is one that can only exist if there's extreme respect (and remuneration) for the competence and skill that goes into building and maintaining it.
This: (removed image of jewler's lathe), antiquated though it is, was not created by nor operated by mindless drudges. Nor was this: (removed image of steelworks), nor this: () The idea that the maintenance of a civilization *capable* of building rockets is mindless drudgery, and that all thinking can be centralized in some design bureau is lunacy. Even the Soviets weren't that stupid, and they *were* that stupid in heading down that road.
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Mon Aug 23 22:38:23 2021 (hRoyQ)
8
With all the questions AI equipped robots bring about everything from Ethics to Engineering, the editors of InStyle magazine have come up with the single most pressing concern: "Why does the Tesla Bot have a thigh Gap?" Yeah, it was a model in a bodysuit on stage, but there's Bodyshaming to whine about.
Posted by: Mauser at Tue Aug 24 11:52:34 2021 (Ix1l6)
9
Given that the European Union has proposed taxing robots because 1) They replace people who they could tax; and 2) They need to tax someone to pay for their unsustainable spending....
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Aug 24 19:40:01 2021 (MuaLM)
10
Kinda like how they want to tax cars by mileage because electric cars are "depriving" them of gas taxes.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Aug 25 20:50:00 2021 (Ix1l6)
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Aug 24 20:51:00 2021 (LZ7Bg)
7
Achievement is achievement.
Apparently it's routine in many hospitals and facilities that the physical therapy people are supposed to be alerted to every patient that could use their help, as fast as possible -- but instead, nobody tells them a darn thing.
I found this out because it happened to my dad. And then I talked to various other folks who have had hospital stays requiring PT, and they all said that they practically had to kick and scream to have the PT folks alerted, even if their doctors wanted it and their insurance was paying for it.
It seems to be some kind of weird inter-departmental thing, maybe some kind of rivalry or tendency to forget, or maybe just a really bad message system.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Aug 24 23:39:14 2021 (sF8WE)
8
Anyhow... Dr. Google found my dad a worksheet on what you're supposed to do as a patient after his kind of surgery, as composed by some surgeon at Johns Hopkins.
So you might be able to find some kind of post-stroke PT advice, just so you have a baseline. Even if it takes forever to download.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Tue Aug 24 23:41:43 2021 (sF8WE)
9
Speaking as someone who has rolled a critical fail on that task (with fiancee present to laugh at the painful results), good goin'!
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Thu Aug 26 19:29:10 2021 (v29Tn)
1
Iodized salt loses its iodine content over time (~5 years), and according to Morton, the anti-caking agents in many commercial salts become less effective over time; still safe, but harder to get out of the container.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Aug 19 23:52:50 2021 (ZlYZd)
2
For the same reason bottled water does... packaging failure.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Aug 20 14:49:58 2021 (4TJz+)
While We're Up
The blogs servers are in Sydney and are getting intermittently arrested for COVID violations. Having caught them between run-ins with the law I'll use this short window to post this, which is a fairly informative overview of the dumpster fire that is current events.
1
The current black hole of a fiasco in Afghanistan is the S* storm that keeps getting upgraded in hurricane strength. It's amazing that we've now had the UK Parliament condemn Biden directly in the worst rebuke from the UK since the War of 1812, and the calls for his resignation are still only trickling in.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Aug 20 12:30:31 2021 (ZiV6b)
2
...the calls for his resignation are still only trickling in.
Tim Poole actually had a video that explains that, because if Joe departs for whatever reason, look who is the immediate replacement for him? Even among the Democrats, literally no major faction in the party want Kamala as the face of their party - a publisher might be willing to release a book of her sayings titled "I'm Talking,' but the power players in the party do not.
At this point, I say it is more likely that an unlikely chain of events put a Republican in the White House before the next election before I would think Joe leaves.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sat Aug 21 18:54:02 2021 (MuaLM)
3
Might leave the PRC happy. They might be the ones really calling the shots.
Choosing to run Biden and Harris, basically letting the campaign be phoned in, may have resulted in an actual share of the vote as low as 10%.
Someone made the decision to 'nominate' Biden, and someone made the decision that Harris would be the running mate.
If the Democrats were run by power players operating on conventional political logic, they would have admitted Biden's neurological issues before the primary, and gone with their second best.
If the Democrats were run by power players operating on conventional
political logic, they would not have sock puppeted Biden into nominating Kam Harris.
If the Democrats were run by power players operating on conventional
political logic, they would have had Biden concede rather than tip their hand to the degree of fraud they could pull off.
There are a lot of elements here that look really weird if domestic rational actors are calling the shots. Yes, domestically we can scare up some pretty deranged madmen.
Either these are the stupidest people in the world, or something really unusual is going on.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sat Aug 21 20:22:22 2021 (DHVaH)
1
Great to hear that your condition continues to improve. Where do we send the catgirl kiss-o-grams?
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Aug 19 23:57:04 2021 (ZlYZd)
2
Glad to hear that you're doing better, even if it is a hard road. It sucks when your body doesn't work the way you expect. Hang in there and we're all rooting for you.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Fri Aug 20 12:51:28 2021 (ZiV6b)
3
Keep going, Muppet. I can't wait to read about the first meal with chopsticks. It should be an 'oot.
Seriously though...do good work.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Aug 20 14:48:18 2021 (bHHXR)
1
I wondered at first who the new Science Babe was. Haven't seen much of Nijisanji EN Wave 2 yet, but Rosemi and Petra's debut streams were really good.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Aug 14 19:38:54 2021 (PiXy!)
1
Well, that, but there were also signs before that Cuomo was being seen as a liability by various people in his own party, as well as having been hated for years by people from his state's party.
It's amazing how that sort of thing tends to come together in about nine months after an election. And it usually happens in the spring or summer, because fall is busy time for politicians.
A lot of white women were offended for a lot of years by Cuomo, and the pious SJWs didn't care a bit. Until they did. It's all about permission to deploy all the ammo -- because you notice that leftist women who make accusations outside a set timetable are brushed away or destroyed.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Aug 11 09:20:22 2021 (sF8WE)
2
Also, somebody left you an important comment message, on the post about your stroke. Bad working conditions are dangerous for everybody, and that kind of lawyer doesn't usually charge for initial consultation. Often takes fees from settlement, if any.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Wed Aug 11 09:23:11 2021 (sF8WE)
1
"I'm so pleased you're not dead!"
Get better soon, BM.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Mon Aug 9 14:53:40 2021 (zdD7e)
2
Good news, and fingers crossed it keeps getting better.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Mon Aug 9 15:20:12 2021 (ZlYZd)
3
So glad to see you updating so soon. Just from the fact that you're able to do so. Awesome news that you're recovering well and hopefully will have little lasting impairment. Get well soon!
Posted by: David Eastman at Mon Aug 9 15:21:05 2021 (t/97R)
4
Good to see you back and tactical, Brick. I meant what I said earlier: we'll be here for you, so take whatever time you need. It IS good to see that typing is therapy, though. Take good care of yourself, 'kay?
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Aug 9 18:00:54 2021 (LZ7Bg)
9
If they want to put you on blood thiners - Lovanox or warfarin - tell them to eff themselves and take 81mg aspirin per day with four tumblers of whiskey.
Trust me: I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Mon Aug 9 18:10:45 2021 (QMNdN)
10
I have sent good wishes and prayers your way. Keep punching and get well soon!
Posted by: Ed Hering at Mon Aug 9 18:39:18 2021 (/cXdK)
11
Good to see that you are doing better. Keep on and make a full recovery! Prayers for your full recovery will continue!
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Mon Aug 9 19:54:20 2021 (zjM9/)
12
Yay yay yay, yay yay yay!
Btw, my friend Foxfier says it's great that you figured out it was a stroke, as a lot of folks and their medical professionals don't.
Also, "That guy sets a new standard for dedication to making sure people who will worry have accurate information to worry on."
She and her husband are both Navy folks, so maybe it's a case of like recognizing like?
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Mon Aug 9 21:11:34 2021 (sF8WE)
15
Whew, that's a significant relief! It's also great that you have your folks as a support network, unlike SDB.
So actual O2 deprivation, but not caused by a clot? Not sure if that's better or worse.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Aug 9 22:14:40 2021 (Ix1l6)
16
Really glad you're home already - or at least, at your folks' place.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Aug 9 23:20:43 2021 (PiXy!)
17
Welcome back, Brick! Every day's another victory over entropy...
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Aug 10 14:11:19 2021 (v29Tn)
18
Glad to hear you're okay. Sending prayers for a good recovery.
Posted by: normal at Tue Aug 10 15:04:47 2021 (LADmw)
19
Hi Brick. Since you're starting to do a bit better, I thought I should bring up in case nobody else thinks to mention to you. You should probably look at talking to an employment attorney sometime in the very near future. At a minimum they should be able to help you with the worker's comp claim. They would also be able to help you determine if your employer created an unhealthy work environment, which has implications for them not just for your case, but all the workers in a similar situation. Whatever you do, don't agree to anything from your employer without talking to an attorney at this stage.
Posted by: StargazerA5 at Wed Aug 11 08:30:46 2021 (7dKkG)
Posted by: normal at Thu Aug 5 09:04:26 2021 (LADmw)
8
Thoughts and prayers sent your way, in a manner not requiring lifting heavy boxes.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Aug 5 10:02:24 2021 (ZlYZd)
9
Get off artificial breathing as soon as you can when you come around. A close friend of mine started recovering from stroke and succumbed to a ventilator-caused infection. You can do better!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Aug 5 12:06:29 2021 (LZ7Bg)
10
Also! My brother in law had a stroke 20 years ago and is doing well today! You can do it too!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Thu Aug 5 12:07:11 2021 (LZ7Bg)
11
Best wishes added to everyone else's. Good luck!
Posted by: jabrwok at Thu Aug 5 13:22:14 2021 (iyhH7)
Posted by: MadRocketSci at Fri Aug 6 10:36:58 2021 (hRoyQ)
17
Obviously everyone, if anybody hears anything, please share it minus any real details. Those are up to Brick to release.
I've been digging and have come up blank except for his Indeed page (out of date). Let's hope he either contacts one of us or his family does.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Fri Aug 6 18:43:14 2021 (bHHXR)
18
Of course, Wonderduck. Hope you're doing better now too.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Aug 7 03:03:15 2021 (PiXy!)
19
Still working on walking. Minor in comparison to what Brick's got going on.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sat Aug 7 03:37:48 2021 (bHHXR)
20
Brickmuppet! That's... Good news, I guess. Sorry to see another friend in rehab hell.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Aug 7 08:47:02 2021 (PiXy!)
21
I panicked just now because the damn server went down again and we might have missed hearing from you.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sat Aug 7 08:50:45 2021 (PiXy!)
22
Yay, Brickmuppet! I am sure that they will do you some therapy, but there are lots of good tricks and workarounds.
Feel free to do crazy stuff, like forming letters with your ankles and toes, or your tongue. Singing is also good. Use your opposite hand or both hands. Basically, do not exhaust your body or brain, but play with the controls a bit and stimulate it a tad. It will help rewire your brain around bad stuff.
Foreign languages can help, too. Yup, get them to prescribe anime or WWII documentaries.
And yay, Wonderduck! Glad you are better.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sat Aug 7 12:38:52 2021 (sF8WE)
23
Oh, and videogames. Drawing videogames, Tetris, whatever. Just short easy casual games until you get stronger, probably, but I bet they will have you do some.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sat Aug 7 12:42:33 2021 (sF8WE)
24
Obviously, if it is "just" peripheral weakness of hands, feet, etc., that is easier to get back than when people can't access/forget their skills. But there are tons of exercises and helps, either way.
You are a persistent guy. You can do it.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Sat Aug 7 12:50:03 2021 (sF8WE)
25
Best wishes for as full a recovery as possible!
Posted by: DougO at Sat Aug 7 13:28:58 2021 (kqK5x)
Karl Kasarda, the showrunner, is, as we've noted before, generally pretty grounded and reasonable, not at all one of those crazy Big-L-libertarian-boogaloo-boys. He is very safety minded and gives a lot of attention to less discussed firearms/safety/preparedness topics like the importance of always having trauma kits.
With that in mind it will be interesting to see what In-Range sees as practical firearms training for current year.
Meanwhile:
Perusing the news, it seems that that the only news happening in the world is that there's this disease called COVID-19 and there are disagreements about masks.
More on the Freedom Phone
Following up on the earlier post on the topic, here Tim Pool interviews Eric Finman the man behind the Freedom Phone. The two of them and the engineers discuss it, mesh networking, the Fediverse, and concerns being voiced about the Phone. Eric Fineman is not an experienced public speaker but he does a creditable job of allaying many of the fears about this device....
"It's just a group of people." Is gonna be in some PR handbook someday.
...right up until shortly after 09:32 when he cuts his wrists lengthwise, douses himself in gasoline, does a Naruto Run through a campfire, grabs a Tiki torch, and shouts "Tekalili!" before proceeding with what is otherwise an interesting discussion.
1
One mildly annoying thing is he doesn't list the actual components--as Tim brings up with the "8MP front camera". Some people would like to know which sensor it is. Ditto the "1.8GHz 8 cores". Well, some of us would like to know how many of those cores are A5x series vs A7x series, and what GPU's in there.
It's not the Umidigi A9 pro, because the cameras are different (24MP vs 8MP front camera, for example, and the A9 Pro says the Helio P60 in it is 2GHz, it's got less RAM, and so on. The A9 has specs that don't match the Freedom Phone, either.)
Posted by: Rick C at Sun Aug 1 17:24:39 2021 (eqaFC)
From the latest episode ofMy Hero Academia,which is, frankly, one of the best superhero shows ever.
Well, perhaps not, but damn this story is good, and going in directions I'd never imagined.
Before this season, I never in a million years would have thought that they could make Endeavor a compelling and tragic character as well as an effective mentor.
If you want to discuss it, spoiler tags are [ spoiler ] Spoiler goes here [ /spoiler ] but with no spaces between brackets and text.
I had come across a fanfic where a regretful
Endeavor is sent back in time from a future that got a little too grim dark and desperate. It makes sense that the writer had been reading the manga, and picked up on the prep work the mangaka had done for this storyline, or even read this storyline.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 1 11:02:23 2021 (DHVaH)
It seems that NASA has been doing studies of the information gleaned from the various probes that have visited Jupiter and in the process of simulating the environment of Jupiter's moon Europa they have concluded that this is what it looks like on its night side.
The NASA/JPL article linked note that this phenomena has a lot of potential for analyzing the composition of Europa's ice and its subsurface ocean, via spectroscopy. However, there would seem to be other potential implications of this discovery.
Given that:
Currently, any life on Europa is assumed to be based on relatively inefficient chemosynthesis and to be dependent on discharges from equally hypothetical volcanic vents.
Cherenkov radiation is blue light, meaning it's pretty high energy visible light.
Water is an excellent ionizing radiation shield.
NASA says the sea ice is literally glowing blue, and seems to imply that this light is visible to the naked eye..
So, if the sea-ice over the ocean is, in fact, glowing in blue light, then this light could represent another potential source of energy beyond the hypothesized volcanic vents. As happens on Earth, this would only be complimented by any black smokers spewing nutrients.
Using the vast depth and breadth of biological and radiological knowledge that comes with a History degree, I find myself asking, "Can you grow plants with Cherenkov radiation?" It seems likely, given that blue light is pretty high in energy, and that they make blue grow lights.
The ice and water should protect against the hard radiation that ultimately causing the light, so in theory there might well be a very habitable region in Europa's ocean, one where actual photosynthesis, could potentially take place. Photosynthesis is vastly more efficient than the chemosynthesis that has been postulated as making life on Europa plausible, and (rather more so than chemosynthesis) might even support multicellular life.
Additionally, life or no life, Europa's oceans might be well lit...in an eerie blue glow (dependent, of course upon the thickness of the ice and brightness of the glow).
There are a whole bunch of variables that need to be looked at regarding this, and I'm sure SOMEBODY knows if Cherenkov radiation is devoid of anything that plants need, but I'll be damned if I can find any info in the matter at the moment.
Photosynthesis aside, there is a model put forth by a Richard Greenberg (presumably, his degrees are not in history) that Europa's ocean may be as oxygenated as earth's if not more so, due to the creation of Oxygen and Peroxides created by the radiation bombardment of the icy surface.
1
Cherenkov radiation, IIRC, should just be an EM wave. Under the usual model for EM waves, the frequency would be the main thing that matters.
That would depend on there being a biochemistry that can photosynthesize at one of the available frequencies. Which probably isn't something we can theoretically or numerically calculate any time soon.
Greenberg was a planetary science faculty, and most of his doctoral students were in planetary science. With one in applied mathematics. Looks like he retired in 2015 or so.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 1 11:15:11 2021 (DHVaH)
2
Yeah, Given that Cherenkov Radiation is visible and blue I'd THINK it would just be blue light ie: fairly high energy visible EM radiation. It should be fine for plant growth, certainly if the plants evolved around it, but I'm not sure I'm not missing something in particular about it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Aug 1 11:27:26 2021 (5iiQK)
3
Spectral content, and power.
Sun is on a bunch of frequencies. Power, by the time it hits Earth, isn't entirely negligible. So, any photosynthesis chemistry operating in that frequency range of high intensity, has enough power to support a biological process. In fact, trees etc., use several chemistries to exploit sunlight.
The basic question is how much power does the cherenkov radiation output, and whether it penetrates deep enough into Europa for our otherwise undetectable life.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Sun Aug 1 12:42:02 2021 (DHVaH)
4
I think one of my favorite explanations for Cerenkov Radiation came in a reply to the original Can of Ravioli as a Relatavistic Weapon thread: "Cerenkov Radiation is the lightspeed police flashing their lights at you."
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Aug 4 00:54:28 2021 (Ix1l6)
Jeff Bezos is scheduled to launch about in about 40 minutes as I type this. Blue Origin is planning to launch their New Shepherd rocket into space. This is intended to be a sub-orbital tourist vehicle in competition with Virgin Galactic Among the passengers are (assuming the flight is successful) Jef Bezos, his brother and the youngest and oldest people to go into space. The latter is Wally Funk, one of two surviving members of the Mercury 13 group of women that were sent through astronaut evaluation (and passed) in the late '50s and early '60s. This was not a sanctioned set of tests however, and the women did not go into space, which caused some understandable consternation as they had met or exceeded the requirements and had been told they were in the official program. This story has been somewhat embellished over the years, but Mrs. Funk is an exceptionally talented and experienced aviator and it is good to see her finally get to follow the ballistic trajectory she was told she would those many years ago.
One of the less appreciated aspects of this story is that it appears that, having heard snarky criticisms of rockets as Freudian symbols, Jeff Bezos decided to just roll with it and make it as dildoriffic rocket in the history of mankind.
A Few Questions About the Freedom Phone
There was a big stink last week about a new phone being marketed.
The Freedom Phone is advertised as prioritizing privacy and security. It comes loaded with several free-speech-oriented applications (and Gab) and has several privacy features including something called 'Trusty' which is advertised as a secure phone operating system.
Now there have been numerous criticisms of this endeavor...rather an awful lot, see here, here, here, here, here, here, and, here. That's a small fraction of the stories.
The phone itself appears to be a cheap Chinese model (Umidigi's A9-Pro) purchased in bulk from Ali-Baba for about $119 U.S.. Given the 500 dollar price of the Freedom Phone, this seems to approach the iPhone in mark up.
However, while it is noted that the same result could be had by jailbreaking, stripping out and reprograming an A9-Pro with Trusty and all the other free speech apps (and Gab) that skillset is beyond those who are not tech hobbyists.
For my part, I am a....I am a Mac user. Thus, the only thing I know about computers is that they require good industrial design to keep the magic smoke in the machines, enabling the sorcery to activate the magic mirror that sees through the tubes that interface with the ley lines.
That is, perhaps, an extreme example, but jaibreaking phones and selecting apps that enable privacy is beyond the ken of those for whom smartphones are essentially black box technology. An excellent argument can be made that people should have a basic understanding of the kit we use, but that is not the reality of the present for a great many people, which leads to my first question for the tech literate amongst my readership: Is 300 dollars reasonable to charge for jailbreaking a phone, stripping it of its data and OS and installing a secure OS and apps (as well as Gab) ?
Perhaps more importantly, are Trusty and the other apps really able to be considered in any way secure? I thought that passage through the ley lines was managed by the mighty warlocks, like AT&T or Verizon, meaning that one's data is passing through those that will sift through it.
I'm also curious how much HARDWARE vulnerability is inherent in a phone designed and built in China, as I understand it, for the domestic market. I understand that there is no capacity for domestic production of smartphones in the U.S. but the PRC is not the only place with that capacity, finland, India and Taiwan come to mind.
The notion that someone associated with 'Conservative Inc.' might be a squalid grifter is not beyond the scope of believability.
At all.
The idea that this might be a grift is a very believable one...and yet....
There is an AWFUL lot of what appears to be concern trolling on this matter. Tim Pool suggested that the people doing Freedom Phone are taking fire because they are over target, and the media fusillade against the project is reactionary. However, he has not examined one of these things.
I don't know enough to make a decision, so I ask you gentle readers, (well the tech savvy amongst you) what do you think of this thing are there any prticular red flags not mentioned in the numerous reports on it or can a Chinese phone (or any phone) be made so it will protect the user's data via software modifications.
And if that is the case, are there any horses left in that barn?
1
I don't know that anyone has actually proven that the hardware encryption available to that phone, and others that use various Chinese domestic chips, has backdoors or the like, but I also don't know anyone who truly believes they don't. At the very minimum, the level of encryption provided, even if not explicitly back-doored, is insufficient to stand against any determined attack.
As for as what your network provider can get, you can generally assume that the encrypted content of what you send is safe, but that what kind of data you're sending, and to whom, is not. The protocols to support hiding even who you're talking to are gaining encryption support, but it's not there in usable terms yet.
My thinking on where we are vis a vis the whole encryption vs government and big tech spying, at least here in the US, is that you can't effectively keep Amazon, Google, etc from knowing way more about you than you'd like, in terms of who you talk to, where you go, what you read, your source of news, etc. The govt simultaneously knows both more and less, but has huge problems knowing who and what to actually look at, so unless you do something that raises red flags, it's more a concern in principle than in actual fact. And of course, "trying to encrypt everything you do while displaying thought to the right of Mao" is a very large red flag.
Posted by: David Eastman at Tue Jul 20 14:09:36 2021 (t/97R)
2
No such thing as absolute security. It is always a test against what people are willing to put into breaking in. If you are not carefully considering physical security, hardware, software, etc., you are overlooking a vulnerability. Media fire is because the PRC cannot afford to have it realized that they can and will dick around with the hardware they supply, even though they are known to be doing so. Smartphones are basically a bad idea. Assume anything on them is compromised, and put nothing important on them.
Posted by: PatBuckman at Tue Jul 20 15:40:27 2021 (6y7dz)
3
I'm curious about this phone and like the idea of it. Even if it is a generic smart phone, I don't mind the kind of markup discussed - it would be worth it to me since I lack the time & knowledge to 'jailbreak' a phone on my own. I don't mind letting a capitalist make extra money from me. The deal-breaker for me is 'made in China'. We know they mess with the hardware. I'd be willing to pay more for a phone made in a less adversarial country (assuming the chips aren't imported from China).
Love your blog. I've probably been reading over 10 years now.
Cheers,
Steve S.
Posted by: Steve S at Wed Jul 21 18:37:35 2021 (wcJ16)
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