The Bewilderness

Witness for the future

Shannon Vyff of the Immortality Institute gave a talk yesterday in London on the advocacy work that she undertakes, promoting unlimited lifespans. At a basement room in Birkbeck, to an assorted crowd of extropians, greens and interested parties belonging to Extrobritannia, we heard from a person who actually leads the CR life.

Calorific restriction is controversial but the contrast for Shannon lay between her and, perhaps, her audience. As Brits, we are not particularly active in giving time or money to deserving or undeserving causes, and it was quite breathtaking to see an upstanding example of American voluntarism. From my perspective, it was gratifying that Ms. Vyff decided to devote her energy to causes closer to my heart: life extension and anti-aging.

Her other focus is on the introduction of these ideas to a wider audience of primary school children, proving an inkling of the wonders that technology can provide. This is coupled with the joy of thinking positively about the future and working for it and, to my mind, counts as an important antidote to the killjoyous scaremongering of the luddite greens whose tool of social control is to make children ashamed of life itself. Perhaps there are better written books, but not in this field. Vyff wishes to harness the motivational power of science fiction for a new generation.

Like the Libertarian Alliance, the Immortality Institute remains an outlier. Despite debates over entering the mainstream, the group decided to retain its name, a wise decision. As these concepts become more accepted, other groups will spring up to advocate more moderate agendas, but the promotion of pure life extension remains a valuable project in and of itself.

The genome reader

IBM aims to develop a chip that can sequence your genetic structure and bring portable, personalized medicine to the marketplace. The device is designated as a genome reader:

The genome reader is being designed as a silicon chip in which DNA is threaded through a pore in the chip and its characteristics are read out sequentially. The chip has tiny electrodes to produce electrical fields that can trap negatively charged DNA molecules, after which the chip will measure and sequence the DNA. Components integrated into the chip include chemical, physical and atomic layers that aid in evaluating the molecules and sequencing the genetic composition. A microprocessor, most likely residing outside the chip, would also be needed for DNA sequencing.

The DNA-reading chip might also be used for other biotechnology applications that involve sequencing human, animal, bacterial and vegetable DNA, Stolovitzky said.

I hate to use a cliché, but a step nearer Star Trek.

Brain of a cat, not quite yet...

IBM have announced that, through a series of innovations, they are now able to model the cortical structure on a large scale. Though this does not replicate specific neuronal structures, the team state that they will be able to copy various patterns such as “sense, perceive, interact and recognise”.

The article is accompanied by speculation on how computational structures emulating neural structures will prove useful as the flood of data and connections continue to explode. The shorthand of 'brainchip' and computers at the level of cats may be more of a stretch. Though if we are at the level of a cat in supercomputing, this is a tremendous advance.

Only four

After the exposure and the lies, the excuses and the 'business as usual' attitude, we are told that only four broke the law. Only four were stupid enough to actually get caught. The rest get slapped wrists or a golden handshake, happy wanking their golden pay-off from the backs of the taxpayer, now viewed as a bottomless treasury for Labour's ballot fund.

This Parliament is a sump, a slough, a slurry pit which does not even have the decency to develop an upper crust to disguise its foulness. You cannot drain this away as the swine have developed a taste for speculation, peculation and entitlement. And worse than the poor suckers of dole who know no better, their entitlement is a result of greed, not Special Brew.

How can an electorate inoculate ourselves from those who would wield power? In days past, this was the result of a tie: the contractual ties between governed and governor enriched by the fear of riot, the joy of bribery and an indecent sense of superiority over the occasional war: such are the advantages of a rising power. Even thirty years ago, our greatest traitor, Heath, was tested and sent packing when he had the temerity to ask “Who governs Britain?”

That crisis of governance may be more important than we know. Fifteen years of turbulence may have taught some that it is better to dilute the power of the demos, and transmute rage to apathy, gold to lead. And what better vehicle for this inoculation arose than the European Union: a new structure that observed the norms and the forms, but rendered each voter more impotent than a castrati in a Nevada brothel.

So when I say “only four?” I know that their fellow politicians will look on them as sacrificial lambs, thrown to wolves now and rescued later through sympathetic parole boards and glowing character references from fellow peers.

Pakistan trends radioactive

Pakistan's campaign in southern Waziristan, against Taliban threatening the integrity of their state, has been successful, in part. The Taliban of North Waziristan, fuelling the insurgency in Afghanistan, remain untouched. News is threading through of redeployment by the insurgents to Orakzai, near Peshawar, and a direct threat to NATO supply lines.

The question of Pakistani fragmentation and the consequences for the nuclear arsenal are rarely aired in public. Even if they are, bland assurances of current security are given, leaving detailed assessments of the security threat in private. Pakistan is a radioactively hot topic.

Scapegoating Rome

Occasionally, potential friction between US and UK forces was leaked to the papers. Often, this was directed at Afghanistan, not Iraq. However, the latest leaks, a series designed to destabilise the MOD prior to the start of the Chilcot report, have cast a question mark over potential co-operation with the United States armed forces.

The major criticisms involve an inability to communicate or co-operate with allies: of having an imperious attitude that leads to contempt:

General Stewart bluntly admitted that “our ability to influence US policy in Iraq seemed to be minimal.” He said that “incredibly,” there was not even a secure communication link between his headquarters in Basra and the US commander, General Rick Sanchez, in Baghdad.

Col Tanner said that General Sanchez “only visited us once in seven months.” Col Tanner also added that he only spoke to his own US counterpart, the chief of staff at the US corps headquarters in the Green Zone, once over the same period.

Top British commanders angrily described in the documents how they were not even told, let alone consulted, about major changes to US policy which had significant implications for them and their men.

Only historians will be able to tell how far this lack of communication impacted upon British operations. The Pentagon, as managed by Donald Rumsfeld, was reputed to be unsympathetic to coalitions or co-operation. The evidence of the British generals seems to bear this out. Understanding the impact of your policies upon your allies is basic courtesy, one that was not adhered to, according to our armed forces:

When the Americans decided, in March 2004, to arrest a key lieutenant of the Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr – an event that triggered an uprising throughout the British sector – “it was not co-ordinated with us and no-one [was] told that it was going to happen,” said the senior British field commander at the time, Brigadier Nick Carter.

“Had we known, we would at least have been able to prepare the ground.” Instead, “the consequence [was] that my whole area of operations went up in smoke… as a result of coalition operations that were outwith my control or knowledge and proved to be the single most awkward event of my tour.” 

Yet, none of these problems were addressed at the time. Our generals expect plaudits for evading American orders, rather than dealing with the increasing problems of the Iraqi insurgency that forced the Basra scuttle. To ride the populist vehicle of Anti-Americanism to distract from the strategic and political errors carried out by the MOD and the top brass would be contemptible: scapegoating Rome to avoid the shortcomings of Greece.

When will Labour reach debt's door?

Our public finances are now a disaster, a scary disaster. There is one graph on Burning our Money that brings this home. An ONS graphic where the trend disappears off the page. Don't they realise that their final few months in office are proving the ruination of the country?

Not according to Philip Woolas. This is the best economic policy that our money can buy. A pity that it is our money and their policy. Without the red ink in the sand, our recession would have been worse and the economic damage more grave. From where I am standing, on tip-toe, looking out at the approaching gravediggers, I would beg to differ.

On a current basis, the deficit is soaring and a debt spiral is now a possibility. The OECD has recommended drastic action immediately. Let us hope that the markets enforce action BEFORE the general election so that the authors of this scorched earth policy reap the benefit of impoverished voters before they leave office.

Von Rumpuy Pumpuy on Europe and taxes

Unrehearsed comments from the leading candidate for the European Presidency indicate that a federast is in charge. The next steps are already being refined in stealth: new European taxes, raised and set at Commission level, to fund their new competences and expanded welfare state.

Without the link to a legislature, the link between representation and taxation vanishes, though European federalists would cite an attenuated connection. We are not convinced.

“The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,” Mr Van Rompuy told European and American guests, who included Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State is cited as the inspiration for an EU president following his reported remark: “Who do I call when I want to call Europe?”

Mr Van Rompuy added: “The green fiscal instrument is one possibility although an ambiguous one: this type of regulatory tax should eventually become redundant. But the possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed and for the first time ever, the big countries in the Union are open to this.”

There is an unholy alliance here: federalists who extend power at a European level and politicians who can raise taxes without the tiresome bother of explaining themselves to parliaments or electorates.

What greater evidence do we need for an EU struggling against the historical tide of democratisation as they try and establish a bureaucratic-rational oligarchy. It is for the good of the planet, you know!

The Taliban pawns taken by the Pakistani castle, the king powerless

Despite the vigorous short-term success of the campaign in the tribal areas, Pakistan's crisis has not dissipated. A shot across the bows was provided by the new American aid bill, as a focal point for dissatisfaction with dependency upon the USA. Now this pervasive opposition is spreading throughout society.

The country is swamped by theories of paranoia, 'stab in the back' and conspiracies. Instead of seeking internal solutions for the instability and low intensity conflict that has disfigured their country, Pakistan blames external enemies. Understandable from a past history of defeat and schism, yet vulnerable to political upheaval and constitutional betrayal.

Political disruption and a lack of legitimacy are long-term problems that provide a conduit for a process of Islamification and revolutionary change, driven from the bottom up and co-opted by factions within the elites. The Taliban did not prove to be the useful disruptor and have therefore been attacked, as a reminder that jihadists are useful pawns, not allies.

Starter for 10 seats: doubled paternity leave

Gordon Brown will throw us into a permanent 'permanent campaign' with six months of tactics to highlight the supposedly negative differences between Labour and the Tories. In detail, this is not as sophisticated as it sounds. It is a reprised opportunity for Brown to reel out one tactic: set up a policy, demand that the opposition support it, and attack them for [assign negative quality] if they don't.

The gap that Brown must bridge is not one of opposition. Before hauling himself up the polls, Brown must ensure that Labour's policies appeal and that the opposition will not match them. We can foretell that the manifesto will be a list of entitlements, all of which are designed to appeal to important voter groups without apparent cost. They fall back on the client state.