The Doomsday Machine

Back in 1983, President Regan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, later known as Star Wars. This project was a basic missile defense system that Regan wanted to use as a deterrent against nuclear war and was willing to share the technology with the Cold War nemesis, Russia. However, when the Russians heard about this project, they took it to mean something completely different. The Russians figured that the satellites would not be able to destroy a large barrage of missiles. So the scenario they worked out was slightly different than what Regan was trying to get across. The Russians thought that the US would fire its missiles and destroy most of Russia, and since it was now crippled, Russia would only be able to fire a few, which the satellites would be able to destroy. So the Russians take this defensive announcement to be one of intent and decide that they need to put Perimeter into action.

The Russians had build a large underground bunker deep enough below their soil that it would survive any nuclear attack and a bunch of hardened silos that contained missiles. Whenever a crisis would arise, the leaders of the Soviets would turn Perimeter on and wait. With Perimeter on, a program would run continuously, checking the surface for signs of nuclear attack such as radiation, air pressure and seismic activity. The system has four safeguards, four proposition statements. Such as if it was turned on, then it would begin monitoring the surface status, if the surface seems like it was hit with a nuclear missile then check the lines of communication with the Soviet war room. If communications was down then it would assume that the Soviet General Staff was taken out in one of the attacks. If there was no other signs of attack it and the lines were still up to the war room, it would assume the staff was handling the situation and shut down. With lines of communication dead to the war room, Perimeter would give launch clearance to the person manning the bunker at the time. The person in the bunker would then have final say over launching retaliation missiles.

If the person in the bunker decided to launch, a batch of command missiles would fire first. Once in the air, these missiles would take control of the rest of the process and radio down launch codes to all remaining Russian missiles, which includes every missile in ground silos and even on every sub the Russians had. With this command, every Russian nuclear missile would head straight to the US and finish the war in a single strike, leaving both nations crippled or even dead.

The US had a similar program in effect but instead of underground, their bunker was in the sky. During the Cold War, there was at least one E-4B in the sky every single second. The E-4B is a converted 747 that was made into a flying command base so called Airborne Command Post. There were only 4 made and in a time of crisis, the president and department heads would go up in an E-4 and continue to give commands, even if Washington was destroyed. The following is a clip from the news back in 2007 about during 9/11 a plane was seen over the white house and how it looks strikingly similar to an E-4B and some more facts about the E-4B.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMK5bmdAEHc&NR=1

However, the difference between the US method and the Russian method is that the US told everyone that they had a flying base in case there was a missile strike so their could be retaliation. Again, this is a move to deter aggression. So why would the Russians keep this project for "zombie retaliation" a secret? The most likely idea is that it was not meant to be a deterrent for other nations but themselves. With this program, all the government had to do was turn it on and if they were destroyed, Perimeter would ensure that so would their enemies. With the low resolution radar the Russians had, even a flock of birds could be mistaken for enemy warheads. To make sure that missiles were not accidentally fired first from Russia, they used Perimeter as an assurance of equal destruction. Coincidentally, even the US was nervous about unknowingly launching the first missile so they required every nuclear missile to be locked with numerical codes (Like in WarGames). However, this didn't really work since Strategic Air Command was ticked about this call and simply set all missile codes to a string of zeros.

Even in recent years after the Cold War the Russians still have been secretive about Project Dead Hand (technical name Perimeter). This clip from two years ago can give us a feel for how things might not have changed as much as we would like to believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tDxiPLyrpU

Ironically, around the time that this was going on in 2007 a song and music video was released that seems to acknowledge this issue and I leave you with How Far We've Come.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/matchbox-twenty/172325/how-far-weve-come.jhtml

Works Cited

Diaz, Jesus. "How a Soviet Doomsday Master Missile Looks and Works - Perimeter - Gizmodo." Gizmodo, the Gadget Guide. 25 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"How Far We've Come | Matchbox Twenty | Music Video | MTV." New Music Videos, Reality TV Shows, Celebrity News, Top Stories | MTV. 4 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

Thompson, Nicholas. "Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine." Wired News. 21 Sept. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - Doomsday Plane - the Mystery 9/11 Plane." YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 13 Sept. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

"YouTube - New Cold War Conflict with Russia?" YouTube - Broadcast Yourself. 15 Oct. 2007. Web. 27 Sept. 2009. .

Viral Marketing and Alternate Realities- Changing the Way We Play?

Viral marketing is defined as "any strategy that encourages individuals to pass on a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponential growth in the message's exposure and influence". For example, if anyone can has ever owned a hotmail email account, especially in the late nineties, at the bottom at every message you sent out there was a little signature that advertised hotmail by stating "Get your free e-mail address today at hotmail.com". Viral Marketing has three very simple goals in mind. The marketing campaign must be low-cost/very cost effective, successfully advertises the product, and adds to a possible fan base/stick out among the rest of the competition.

Financially speaking, you can't go wrong with a viral marketing campaign, especially when the use of the internet is involved. According to Gaebler.com, the average 30-second television commercial costs approximately $350,000.00. Why spend that kind of money when you could buy a domain for $20, host it on the company's server, hire two to three web designers and developers, a few writers and create a possible cash prize for much, much less? The only cons to this plan are a possible lower recognition rate compared to placing your promotion on, say TBS. In the past three to four years, multiple companies have used the viral marketing approach from Doritos to Sun Microsystems to Guinness.

From this idea, a new form of media emerged. Viral media is taking the internet by storm with the newly dubbed Alternate Reality Games. Alternate Reality Games is a form of viral media that can (but it not limited to) promote a product or cause through social networking. For example, in a trailer for the Bungie Studios game Halo 2, at the last second a website flashed at the bottom of the screen in very small text giving a website, www.ilovebees.com. At first glance, the website looked like a site created in the mid-90's about this woman's bee farm. Right after that conclusion was given, however, the site began to change before your eyes. Pictures would blur, random images would pop up and the real story began. The story told of an AI from the future who was using the website as a sort of distress signal and in fear of her messages being intercepted by "the enemy". Players created websites, fan pages, wikipedia articles and social networking means to spread the word about this game. Why just advertise though normal means when you could spend less money and create an experience fans will remember for the rest of their lives? It ensures a fan base and is fun and smart at the same time.

At the same time, however, Alternate Reality Games can be used to promote awareness of certain causes. For example, Dr. Jane McGonigal who is highly revered in the art of viral media, created a project titled World Without Oil. WWO gave players a situation which stated "What if we ran out of oil in the world? Better yet, what would happen if we ran out tomorrow?" The response was phenomenal. Players created videos, comics, blogs and documentaries about the subject. They were only asked to not play a fictional character they create, but play themselves and be themselves. Last year, the British Red Cross created an Alternate Reality Game titled Traces of Hope which was created to show off their family-tracking system, used to track relatives of war-torn families.

Critics of the internet, and the younger generation, like to state that the internet is only isolating people. What I'm proposing is that while that very may very well be, Alternate Reality Games are also bringing people together whether the game is for fun or product or cause. In 2008, Dr. McGonigal, along with McDonalds and the Olympic Committee created The Lost Ring, the first ARG that was played on almost every continent (minus Antarctica) and brought players together from across the globe to compete in games to gain the title of world record holder, just like the olympics were created for.

Viral media is growing exponentially by the year and it makes me wonder if it will become the new norm of media. Videos are posted at the bottom.

Sources:

"Alternate Reality Game." Web. .

“Viral Marketing.” Web. .

Wilson, Ralph, . "The Six Simple Principles of Viral Marketing." Viral Marketing Today (2005): n. pag. Web. 26 Sep 2009. principles.htm>.

"Year Zero Case Study." 42Entertainment.com. 08 January 2008. 42Entertainment, Web. 26 Sep 2009.

"Red Cross Launches Cutting-Edge Family Search Game." Reuters (2008): 7. Web. 26 Sep 2009.

"How Much Do Television Ads Cost?." Web.

Caveman Science Fiction

This is the latest comic from Dresden Codak. I thought it was kind of relevant.

Genetic Prefection

"What if you could have genetic perfection? Would you change who you are, if you could?"This quote from Repo: The Genetic Opera is also a moral dilemma that, chances are, our society will be asking ourselves in the next five to fifty years. This idea begs many questions, the answers of which can be confusing, frightening, and possibly recursive. Should we allow scientists to abnormally extend life? Or what about forced evolution; should or should we not be able to control our own genetic destination? Lastly – and easily the most frightening – should we allow genetic or surgical procedures as a possible fashion statement? With these implications on the horizon, we may just see a revolution in genetics similar to the technological revolution of the eighties.

Before we begin, let us discover what gene therapy is and how it works in a general sense. According to the Human Genome Project, gene therapy is "a technique for correcting defective genes responsible for disease development." When it comes to performing this technique there are several approaches. To quote the project;

A normal gene may be inserted into a nonspecific location within the genome to replace a nonfunctional gene,

An abnormal gene could be swapped for a normal gene through homologous recombination,

The abnormal gene could be repaired through selective reverse mutation, which returns the gene to its normal function,

The regulation (the degree to which a gene is turned on or off) of a particular gene could be altered

Now that we have a basic understanding, let's move on the issues at hand.

Most prominently, gene therapy is advertised to be the cure all of diseases, such as genetic disorders as well as cancer and many others. Recently there have been breakthrough in the cure for AIDS and leukemia using gene therapy. However, one of the side effects of this would be increasing the maximum age level of almost everyone. Wouldn't it be nice to live forever, and be able to tell your great great grand children about life in the late nineties? Well with advent of gene therapy, this may be a possibility. However there's a down side to this; what happens when the population continues to grow and no one is dying. If this is the case there may be a potential crisis on our hands, anywhere from housing to food shortages. Our only solutions would be space colonization or self population control .

Another concern that could be brought about with the advent of gene therapy and the genetic revolution could be forced human evolution. What if you could adjust you genes so that you are specifically good at something? For instance, adjusting your eyes to see at night. Or altering vocal chords to produce a nicer singing voice. These are just the beginnings of things that could be possible if we manipulate our own genes to suit our environment. Right now many scientists believe that humans have stopped evolving,]. If this is true, than in the future in order for our species to continue to survive, this may become a necessity. But when will we know if we have gone too far?

The last, and the by far the most terrifying in my opinion, would have to be gene therapy as a cosmetic procedure. While this may be a quite a way off, seeing as gene therapy is not perfected, but imagine what would happen in our society culturally and physically. Say you were born with brown eyes and wanted blue. Well for a small fee and quick injections it could be yours. Along these lines are the potential for things that humans aren't suppose to have; anything from third arms, to having horns as a fashion statement. This is a very scary use of gene therapy.

In conclusion, gene therapy has much to offer us as a society, and as the human race as a whole. With the advent of curing disease we will be able to virtually eliminate death caused by anything from common ailments to complex disorders . With control of our genes we will be able to continue humanities evolutionary track as we see fit. Finally, we will have complete control over the way or bodies look and behave. So I will leave you with this quote;

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, con a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

-Robert A. Heinlein.

Citations:

· DeNoon, Daniel. "'Major Advance' in HIV Gene Therapy." WebMD - Better information. Better health.. 16 Feb. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.webmd.com/hiv-aids/news/20090216/hiv-gene-therapy-major-advance>.

"Gene Therapy." Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 11 June 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml#whatis>.

"Human Evolution." A Relationship Between Evolution, Genetics, Morality, Ethics, Psychology, Education, and Culture. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.onelife.com/evolve/manev.html>.

Michael, Michael. "Gene therapy has promise, pitfalls for society - Science." The Johns Hopkins News-Letter. 6 Nov. 2009. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://media.www.jhunewsletter.com/media/storage/paper932/news/2006/11/09/Science/Gene-Therapy.Has.Promise.Pitfalls.For.Society-2453688.shtml>.

"Promising Gene Therapy Could Rejuvenate Aging Brain Networks." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 2 May 2000. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2000/05/000501081815.htm>.

Weiss, Rick. "washingtonpost.com: Scienc

e on the Ethical Frontier." washingtonpost.com - nation, world, technology and Washington area news and headlines. 12 Oct. 1997. 24 Sep. 2009 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/science/ethical/cosmetic.htm>.

Just an interesting video

This video isn't particularly prevalent to anything, and it's a couple years old now, but it's got some very interesting information about society and our trends, so I figured I'd post it.

Invisibility

In an earlier post in this blog and on the FOX News website, an article was shown that in 2007 the British Military made a 60 ton Challenger Tank invisible. According to the article, the tank moved in a field right in front of the observers but not a single person knew a tank was present in the field. No one is entirely sure how this was done, some say it was camera and projector technology at its finest but so far the British government and the scientist related to the experiment, John Pendry denies it ever happened and the government states, "No Comment". Two years have passed since than and other technologies have come into the spotlight, invisibility is a lot closer than we actually think and it could be possible that the British did discover something.

Man has always tried to master ways of stealth and invisibility. Yet, in the beginning we did not have much to use in our attempts except simple trickery and illusion. A great example is of the Japanese ninja's of past who used their enemies own eyes against them. A normal person only has 60 degrees of vision with 100 degrees of peripheral vision. Yet, when the eye focuses on something that vision narrows to a mere 6 degrees, this is key moment they would strike. In addition, they would take advantage of the moving eye. Whenever you look around, you are blind at that time. The motion blur that is occurring is called Psychotic Suppression in which the brain just fills in information by its self, effectively making us blind when our eyes are darting around. For about 40 minutes a day, we technically see nothing because of this.

About 500 years later, during World War II, we see some of the first advances in invisibility. A method called deception camouflage was used to trick the German Luftwaffe into bombing the wrong targets. During the war, Churchill ordered Jasper Maskelyne and his group of followers dubbed the "magic gang" to conceal over 125 miles of land from German air forces. Over night they would a fake port of Alexandria with all the convincing buildings and military points to trick them. In addition, to mask the 120 miles of the Suez Canal, Jasper used search lights with a spinning mirror array within their lights aimed at the canal. This would reflect off the water creating the illusion of cities, towns and a canal that was not even there.

What path to technology only found in science fiction would be complete without its conspiracy theory. During WWII, the Americans took on another project at an attempt to make their ships radar invisible, codenamed Project Rainbow and later known as the Philadelphia Experiment. A letter with a proposal from Einstein was sent to the Navy. They would later take this to the next step and perform a full scale test. The ship was mounted with massive field coils that generated huge EM fields. On October 28, 1943 the test began. Shortly after starting it, a green fog envelops the ship and the ship vanishes along with the fog. They cut power shortly after to discover it reappears a distance away out of the same green fog. Supposedly, people on the ship went crazy, deranged, some disappeared completely and even some men were embedded into the ship itself. (This is not a confirmed event but the letters from Einstein hold some weight toward it)

Its present day and how far have we come since than? The answer is quite far. With the discovery of meta materials, materials that are man made through a combination of other materials to create an effect that otherwise would not be present in nature, such as light bending. Notes made by scientist John Pendry, the same man who denied the tank experiment, show how to make such a material and how it works. David Smith at Duke University has made a material that bends microwaves which would effectively hide anything within the material from radar. Proffesor Shang at the University of California Berkley has created a meta material that bends light at an optical frequency, in other words makes it invisible. In the video below, these technologies are explained in much greater detail. In addition, a 3rd technology known as virtual invisibility is demonstrated which might be the technology used on the British Challenger tank.



The science is there and it is sound. Within the video experiments are run and shown to proof that they due in fact work. The scope of how complex this technology is is indeed staggering yet to produce such items actually costs almost nothing. A personal cloak would be easy and cheap to produce once the "right device" (Smith) is used.

With great power comes even greater responsibility. Invisibility is something that will most likely come to be and it take people in good character to use it wisely. The future of the world will be changed drastically once this technology makes it out of development. Armies can move unseen, weapons undetectable, radar and infrared will be useless. The government could theoretically spy on anyone, cops could be at every street corner and we would not know. Civilians with cloaks could have the potential to ensure disaster. Crimes can be committed much easier and stalkers have a whole new world to explore. Invisibility is something can lead to more bad than good in any respects to it. It has little use except for defensive measures and secret aggressive actions. You can not stop what can not be seen. Most people fear nuclear Armageddon, what about the man they can not see in their room?

That's Impossible - YouTube (In 10 minute parts, automatically moves onto next part)

Sources:
Bland, Eric. "Invisibility Cloak Closer Than Ever to Reality: Discovery News." Discovery Channel : Science, History, Space, Tech, Sharks, News. Discovery, 15 Jan. 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2009. .
"FOXNews.com - British Defense Researchers Create Invisible Tank - Science News | Science & Technology | Technology News." Breaking News | Latest News | Current News - FOXNews.com. 01 Nov. 2007. Web. 19 Sept. 2009. .
"Thats Impossible." Thats Impossible. History Channel. HIST. Www.youtube.com. Www.youtube.com, 05 Aug. 2009. Web. 19 Sept. 2009. .

The Motion Sensing Revolution

In the past, games and gamers have always been abstracted from each other. Through awkward little plastic joysticks and controllers, players were tried absorb themselves into games. But, as technology increasingly pushed forward, games and gamers alike began witnessing the advent of the motion sensing revolution.

My First experience with human integration in games was with the Nintendo Entertainment System’s “Zapper” light gun. The Zapper worked by reading the light emitted by a television screen, and it determined whether or not it was pointed at a target. (Baer) Although this wasn’t true motion sensing, I still recognized the amazing mechanic of shooting virtual objects on a television screen with an actual physical object that I could move around, and that this was only a precursor of what was next.

During the 2009 Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3), gamers were introduced to one of the biggest revolution in terms of motion sensing technology. All three of the home entertainment consoles introduced a new motion sensing technology to the audience. Nintendo’s Wii’s motion controller was given a precision upgrade, while both Microsoft and Sony unveiled their own versions of motion sensory peripherals. While Nintendo’s motion tracking technology remains the same, both Microsoft and Sony have taken a different approach to technology by introducing more precise tracking sensors. (Nguyen)

Microsoft’s approach to motion sensing was through the apparatus named “Natal”, which could sense where players were moving and interacting. (Nguyen) Sony’s approach was similar, but it required players to use a secondary controller as a prop. This theoretically leads to better motion control and sensing. One of the biggest reasons why motion sensing technology has become a priority for console developers is to draw in people who would never consider themselves gamers and prompt them to buy a console. (Terdiman)

The first source of information that I used for this post came from the website “Übergizmo”, which is a site dedicated to blogging all aspects of emerging technology, news, and gadgets to whoever has an interest in technological goodies. The website and article can be found here. This website has legitimate credentials, and has been invited to cover the events of game expos, such as E3, PAX, and GDC. The main reaction that this article had to the Motion sensing revolution was cautiously optimistic: For every good move that Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft made, it also addressed multiple pitfalls and possible downsides.

While researching this topic further, I found a much different article in regards to the so called motion sensing revolution. The website and page can be found here. The article went into detail about the novelty of motion sensing controllers, and how they actually constricted player’s interactions within a gaming environment. The article firmly stated that motion sensing technology was nothing more than a relic of the past, and that modern games are being held back by this limited technology. (Reisinger)

The reason why I chose this article is because it came from an extremely reliable and credible online source, CNET.com. This site is known widely as one on the best review sites in regards to technology, gadgetry, blogs, news, tech tutorials, and downloads. It doesn’t surprise me that this site has a more negative outlook on the motion sensing technology revolution as CNET is also known for being quite blunt when it comes to reviews. In my opinion, that’s a good quality.

When comparing both of these articles, I found the Übergizmo piece to be much more credible and convincing. The reason for this is because Übergizmo address both sides of the argument, rather than siding with one which is evident in the CNET article. Despite Übergizmo being less credible, they did a much better overview of the motion sensing technology, and how it has the potential to truly change gaming.

Here are the Electronic Entertainment Expo Demonstrations of Microsoft's Natal, and Sony's motion sensing controller:

Works Cited

Baer, Ralph H. “Television precision target shooting apparatus and method.” US Patent 4395045. July 26, 1983.

Nguyen, Hubert. "Motion Control - The Art of Motion Control: Beyond the Hype." Ubergizmo, The Gadget Blog. 4 June 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2009. .

Terdiman, Daniel. "Microsoft's Project Natal: What does it mean for game industry?" Technology News - CNET News. 1 June 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2009. .

Reisinger, Don. "Is motion-sensitive gaming a gimmick?" Technology News - CNET News. 16 June 2009. Web. 13 Sept. 2009. .