activistpost--2020-08-31--China’s Dystopian AI Development Incorporates Population Control

Anyone who thinks that AI learns by itself and is ethically neutral has bought the Technocrat lie .
AI is just a computer algorithm programmed by humans to do what humans want it to do .
Biases can not be excluded .
China ’ s AI seeks to reduce global population and is being exported to other countries .
As a Technocracy , China is bent on perfecting the “ science of social engineering ” so that all of society can be monitored and controlled to suit Technocrat goals .
One big goal is to reduce global population in order @ @ @ @ @ @ @ News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood Since its conception , people have worried that an artificial intelligence would turn against humanity and threaten our lives .
While this may be a result to be feared several years in the future , right now the more pressing danger is AI used to oppress millions of people and facilitate the threat of a controlling regime .
Homebound in the pandemic quarantine , my daughter and I have been rewatching Person of Interest on Netflix .
In essence , the former network series is about a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intelligence that watches everyone through networks of cameras , computers and smartphones .
Each week , our team of heroes , assembled by the AI creator , tries to help a person whom the AI has identified as a likely soon-to-be murder victim .
Because this AI was invented by the show ’ s protagonist , it demonstrates empathy and values human life .
However , into the third season , a second AI is operated on behalf of the government , and this AI does not value human life .
It works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of a shadowy corporation , which begins to organize people ’ s lives for its own purposes , including killing people who won ’ t fit into its program .
It is frightening .
This show is good television and I recommend it to anyone who regularly reads this blog and thus interested in how technology can affect our lives .
Person of Interest may also introduce you to what is now happening in this world ’ s most populous country .
I have written much recently on video surveillance and facial recognition @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are limited by Constitutional requirements and there can easily be rules applied to new technologies that will limit the government ’ s abilities to use them indiscriminately .
The U.S. also boasts protections for rights of individuals to assemble and protest , a government that can regularly be changed , and a court system that generally protects those rights .
An independent press shines light on government behavior deemed abusive of these rights .
So think about a country without any of those checks and balances , with no individual rights guaranteed under @ @ @ @ @ @ @ independently operative court system , and a single party dictatorship holding all power .
Now think about what would happen if you give that country unlimited electronic and physical surveillance from hundreds of millions of cameras to drones to capturing all phone , text and internet traffic including searches and social media .
Then give this society ever-increasing sophistication in artificial intelligence to manage the information flow and assign meaning to all the acts it captures , even aggregate the full view of a person ’ s behavior into a score that determines @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s life .
Receive a good score from the government , and you are awarded that apartment you desire or permission to have a baby .
A bad score means roadblocks in your life .
This is what China is rapidly becoming .
China is not only instituting a surveillance society , including a social scoring system for every resident , but it is investing heavily in the artificial intelligence needed to manage it all and make evaluations of what cameras , biometric readers and internet filters capture .
According to U.S. military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 70 billion in government funds on AI development in 2020 compared to $ 17 billion in 2017 .
U.S. non-defense spending on AI this year will be about one billion dollars .
Not only is China building government laboratories to develop the next several generations of AI , but the government ’ s close coordination with companies like Huawei and Alibaba provide the surveillance state with top private commercial research as well .
All powered by the supermassive amounts of data produced in the world ’ s largest surveillance state , because huge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effective AI .
China , as The Economist recently observed , is the Saudi Arabia of data .
The other recommendation I will make in this column is to read Ross Anderson ’ s article in The Atlantic called The Panopticon is Already Here , which explains how surveillance , AI , social scoring , a one-party state , and political oppression are combining in China to both create the first all-knowing social system and to export it to other countries .
Anderson reports on how the entire system is being tested right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” of Xinjiang province , where Muslim Uighurs are monitored every minute of their lives .
Anderson writes of Chinese President , Party leader and effective dictator , Xi Jinping , “ With AI , Xi can build history ’ s most oppressive authoritarian apparatus , without the manpower Mao needed to keep information about dissent flowing to a single , centralized node .
In China ’ s most prominent AI start-ups—SenseTime , CloudWalk , Megvii , Hikvision , iFlytek , Meiya Pico—Xi has found willing commercial partners .
And in Xinjiang ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his test population.
” More than a million Uighurs have been imprisoned which is more political prisoners than any instance since the Nazi concentration camps .
John Oliver discussed life in these prisons and re-education camps on his show this week .
But the Uighurs still living in Xinjiang Province are subject to checkpoints , constant video and other surveillance and the introduction of Han Chinese “ big brothers and sisters ” to monitor forced assimilation into the communist culture .
According to Anderson , “ At these checks , police extract all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bodies .
They measure height and take a blood sample .
They record voices and swab DNA.
” And this surveillance and political compliance testing ground can be easily exported to the rest of the country .
Anderson notes , “ Once Xi perfects this system in Xinjiang , no technological limitations will prevent him from extending AI surveillance across China .
He could also export it beyond the country ’ s borders , entrenching the power of a whole generation of autocrats.
” The investment in AI drives the entire process .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the footage collected by China ’ s cameras is parsed by algorithms for security threats of one kind or another .
In the near future , every person who enters a public space could be identified , instantly , by AI matching them to an ocean of personal data , including their every text communication , and their body ’ s one-of-a-kind protein-construction schema .
In time , algorithms will be able to string together data points from a broad range of sources—travel records , friends and associates , reading habits , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
China ’ s government could soon achieve an unprecedented political stranglehold on more than 1 billion people.
” So new surveillance tools like robot bird surveillance drones , good enough to fool other birds into flying with them , are already being introduced in China to feed more data about people ’ s behavior into state-run AI .
As stated by C/NET , “ China also employs facial recognition , artificial intelligence , smart glasses and other technologies to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens with the aim of one day giving each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how they behave.
” Imagine a credit score that instead of simply measuring financial behavior and ability , measures all aspects of your life and interactions with society .
And then imagine that your score can determine what kind of apartment you are allowed to have – or if the government will allow you to live in an apartment at all .
The same is true for your job , education opportunities , reproduction and other core aspects of your life .
This is the Chinese social score .
As pointed out in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ current system is voluntary , there are incentives for participating and penalties for not participating .
Finally , and maybe most frightening , China is using its economic clout and private industry to export population control technology to dictators around the world .
Anderson observes , “ China is already developing powerful new surveillance tools , and exporting them to dozens of the world ’ s actual and would-be autocracies .
Over the next few years , those technologies will be refined and integrated into all-encompassing surveillance systems that dictators can plug and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE !
Follow us on SoMee , HIVE , Parler , Flote , Minds , and Twitter .
Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

Anyone who thinks that AI learns by itself and is ethically neutral has bought the Technocrat lie. AI is just a computer algorithm programmed by humans to do what humans want it to do. Biases cannot be excluded. China’s AI seeks to reduce global population and is being exported to other countries.
As a Technocracy, China is bent on perfecting the “science of social engineering” so that all of society can be monitored and controlled to suit Technocrat goals. One big goal is to reduce global population in order to consume less resources. ⁃ Technocracy News & Trends Editor Patrick Wood
By:
Since its conception, people have worried that an artificial intelligence would turn against humanity and threaten our lives. While this may be a result to be feared several years in the future, right now the more pressing danger is AI used to oppress millions of people and facilitate the threat of a controlling regime.
Homebound in the pandemic quarantine, my daughter and I have been rewatching Person of Interest on Netflix.
In essence, the former network series is about a man who created a nearly omniscient artificial intelligence that watches everyone through networks of cameras, computers and smartphones. Each week, our team of heroes, assembled by the AI creator, tries to help a person whom the AI has identified as a likely soon-to-be murder victim. Because this AI was invented by the show’s protagonist, it demonstrates empathy and values human life.
However, into the third season, a second AI is operated on behalf of the government, and this AI does not value human life. It works under orders from and for the benefit of a shadowy corporation, which begins to organize people’s lives for its own purposes, including killing people who won’t fit into its program. It is frightening.
This show is good television and I recommend it to anyone who regularly reads this blog and thus interested in how technology can affect our lives. Person of Interest may also introduce you to what is now happening in this world’s most populous country.
I have written much recently on video surveillance and facial recognition in the U.S., but American police are limited by Constitutional requirements and there can easily be rules applied to new technologies that will limit the government’s abilities to use them indiscriminately. The U.S. also boasts protections for rights of individuals to assemble and protest, a government that can regularly be changed, and a court system that generally protects those rights. An independent press shines light on government behavior deemed abusive of these rights.
So think about a country without any of those checks and balances, with no individual rights guaranteed under law, no free press, no independently operative court system, and a single party dictatorship holding all power. Now think about what would happen if you give that country unlimited electronic and physical surveillance from hundreds of millions of cameras to drones to capturing all phone, text and internet traffic including searches and social media. Then give this society ever-increasing sophistication in artificial intelligence to manage the information flow and assign meaning to all the acts it captures, even aggregate the full view of a person’s behavior into a score that determines all important aspects of a person’s life. Receive a good score from the government, and you are awarded that apartment you desire or permission to have a baby. A bad score means roadblocks in your life. This is what China is rapidly becoming.
China is not only instituting a surveillance society, including a social scoring system for every resident, but it is investing heavily in the artificial intelligence needed to manage it all and make evaluations of what cameras, biometric readers and internet filters capture. According to U.S. military estimates, China will be spending $70 billion in government funds on AI development in 2020 compared to $17 billion in 2017. U.S. non-defense spending on AI this year will be about one billion dollars.
Not only is China building government laboratories to develop the next several generations of AI, but the government’s close coordination with companies like Huawei and Alibaba provide the surveillance state with top private commercial research as well. All powered by the supermassive amounts of data produced in the world’s largest surveillance state, because huge data sets are the building blocks of effective AI. China, as The Economist recently observed, is the Saudi Arabia of data.
The other recommendation I will make in this column is to read Ross Anderson’s article in The Atlantic called The Panopticon is Already Here, which explains how surveillance, AI, social scoring, a one-party state, and political oppression are combining in China to both create the first all-knowing social system and to export it to other countries. Anderson reports on how the entire system is being tested right now in the “open air prison” of Xinjiang province, where Muslim Uighurs are monitored every minute of their lives.
Anderson writes of Chinese President, Party leader and effective dictator, Xi Jinping, “With AI, Xi can build history’s most oppressive authoritarian apparatus, without the manpower Mao needed to keep information about dissent flowing to a single, centralized node. In China’s most prominent AI start-ups—SenseTime, CloudWalk, Megvii, Hikvision, iFlytek, Meiya Pico—Xi has found willing commercial partners. And in Xinjiang’s Muslim minority, he has found his test population.”
More than a million Uighurs have been imprisoned which is more political prisoners than any instance since the Nazi concentration camps. John Oliver discussed life in these prisons and re-education camps on his show this week. But the Uighurs still living in Xinjiang Province are subject to checkpoints, constant video and other surveillance and the introduction of Han Chinese “big brothers and sisters” to monitor forced assimilation into the communist culture. According to Anderson, “At these checks, police extract all the data they can from Uighurs’ bodies. They measure height and take a blood sample. They record voices and swab DNA.”
And this surveillance and political compliance testing ground can be easily exported to the rest of the country. Anderson notes, “Once Xi perfects this system in Xinjiang, no technological limitations will prevent him from extending AI surveillance across China. He could also export it beyond the country’s borders, entrenching the power of a whole generation of autocrats.”
The investment in AI drives the entire process. The Atlantic article states, “Much of the footage collected by China’s cameras is parsed by algorithms for security threats of one kind or another. In the near future, every person who enters a public space could be identified, instantly, by AI matching them to an ocean of personal data, including their every text communication, and their body’s one-of-a-kind protein-construction schema. In time, algorithms will be able to string together data points from a broad range of sources—travel records, friends and associates, reading habits, purchases—to predict political resistance before it happens. China’s government could soon achieve an unprecedented political stranglehold on more than 1 billion people.”
So new surveillance tools like robot bird surveillance drones, good enough to fool other birds into flying with them, are already being introduced in China to feed more data about people’s behavior into state-run AI. As stated by C/NET, “China also employs facial recognition, artificial intelligence, smart glasses and other technologies to monitor its 1.4 billion citizens with the aim of one day giving each of them a personal score based on how they behave.”
Imagine a credit score that instead of simply measuring financial behavior and ability, measures all aspects of your life and interactions with society. And then imagine that your score can determine what kind of apartment you are allowed to have – or if the government will allow you to live in an apartment at all. The same is true for your job, education opportunities, reproduction and other core aspects of your life. This is the Chinese social score. As pointed out in Wired UK, while some of the current system is voluntary, there are incentives for participating and penalties for not participating.
Finally, and maybe most frightening, China is using its economic clout and private industry to export population control technology to dictators around the world. Anderson observes, “China is already developing powerful new surveillance tools, and exporting them to dozens of the world’s actual and would-be autocracies. Over the next few years, those technologies will be refined and integrated into all-encompassing surveillance systems that dictators can plug and play.”
Read full story here…
Sourced from Technocracy News & Trends
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activistpost--2020-08-31--Research: Light Emitted from Media Devices at Night is Associated with Decline in Sperm Quality

Medical warnings about the growing list of health risks associated with artificial light ( both Bluelight and White ) from screens and light bulbs have been published in variety of sources including the New York Times .
Now research indicates it could be affecting sperm quality as well .
0029 Light Emitted from Media Devices at Night is Associated with Decline in Sperm Quality The last several decades have been characterized by the widespread usage of digital devices , especially smartphones .
At the same time , there have been reports of male fertility decline .
The aim of this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evening exposure to the light-emitting screens of digital media devices and sperm quality .
Semen samples were obtained from 116 men adults aged between 21 and 59 ( 35.2 ±7.2 ) undergoing fertility evaluation for the following sperm variables : volume ( mL ) , pH , sperm concentration ( n/mL ) , motility percentage ( progressive % + non-progressive motility % ) and total sperm count .
Exposure to the screens of electronic devices and sleep habits were obtained by means of a questionnaire .
Smartphone and tablet usage in the evening @ @ @ @ @ @ @ p < 0.05 ) with sperm motility , sperm progressive motility , and sperm concentration , and positively correlated with the percentage of immotile sperm .
In addition , sleep duration was positively correlated with sperm total and progressive motility and negatively correlated with semen pH ( p < 0.05 ) .
A significant negative correlation was observed between subjective sleepiness and total and progressive motility as well as total motile sperm number ( p < 0.05 ) .
The results of this study revealed a link between evening and post-bedtime exposure to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
To the best of our knowledge , this is the first study to report these types of correlations between sperm quality and exposure time to SWL emitted from digital media , especially smartphones and tablets , in the evening and after bedtime .

By B.N. Frank
Medical warnings about the growing list of health risks associated with artificial light (both Bluelight and White) from screens and light bulbs have been published in variety of sources including the New York Times. Now research indicates it could be affecting sperm quality as well.
From Oxford Academic:
0029 Light Emitted from Media Devices at Night is Associated with Decline in Sperm Quality
A Green, S Barak, L Shine, A Kahane, Y Dagan, Y Dagan
Sleep, Volume 43, Issue Supplement_1, April 2020, Page A12, https://doi.org/10.1093/sleep/zsaa056.028
Published:
27 May 2020
Abstract
Introduction
The last several decades have been characterized by the widespread usage of digital devices, especially smartphones. At the same time, there have been reports of male fertility decline. The aim of this study was to assess the relationship between evening exposure to the light-emitting screens of digital media devices and sperm quality.
Methods
Semen samples were obtained from 116 men adults aged between 21 and 59 (35.2 ±7.2) undergoing fertility evaluation for the following sperm variables: volume (mL), pH, sperm concentration (n/mL), motility percentage (progressive% + non-progressive motility%) and total sperm count. Exposure to the screens of electronic devices and sleep habits were obtained by means of a questionnaire.
Results
Smartphone and tablet usage in the evening and after bedtime was negatively correlated (p<0.05) with sperm motility, sperm progressive motility, and sperm concentration, and positively correlated with the percentage of immotile sperm. In addition, sleep duration was positively correlated with sperm total and progressive motility and negatively correlated with semen pH (p<0.05). A significant negative correlation was observed between subjective sleepiness and total and progressive motility as well as total motile sperm number (p<0.05).
Conclusion
The results of this study revealed a link between evening and post-bedtime exposure to light-emitting digital media screens and sperm quality. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report these types of correlations between sperm quality and exposure time to SWL emitted from digital media, especially smartphones and tablets, in the evening and after bedtime.


activistpost--2020-08-30--Pigs with Computer Chip in Brain Courtesy of Elon Musk. FDA on Board for Humans – Like a “Fitbit in

Pigs with Computer Chip in Brain Courtesy of Elon Musk. FDA on Board for Humans – Like a “Fitbit in the Skull”

This sounds like something you ’ d see published in The Onion .
Unfortunately , it ’ s not .
According to Musk , this has been tested on at least 19 different animals .
PETA can not be amused .
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Friday showcased pigs with computer chips in their brains during his unveiling of Neuralink , an upcoming technology aiming to bring symbiosis between artificial intelligence and the human brain .
The live showcase involved displaying real-time neural signals from one of the pigs , whom Musk named Gertrude , CNBC reported .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Neuralink in a human brain would be an hourlong operation that is no more invasive than LASIK eye surgery , inserting a coin-sized device into the skull that would leave a tiny scar after the electrodes are inserted in the brain .
He likened the technology to being essentially a “ Fitbit in your skull.
” Musk also said Friday that the technology had received “ Breakthrough Device ” designation from the Food and Drug Administration , according to Forbes .
A coin-sized device with electrodes inserted inside your skull ?
!
That @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Smart ” devices and wearables – including Fitbits ( see 1 , 2 ) – emit harmful electromagnetic radiation which can make people AND animals sick ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 .
7 .
8 .
9 ) AND increase their cancer risk ( see 1 .
2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) .
In fact , research has even determined that wireless exposure can also disrupt the blood-brain barrier , cause it to leak , and kill brain cells ( see @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ouch and more ouch !
Comparing the Neuralink to a Fitbit is also a really bad choice since the activity tracker has been the subject of a class action lawsuit because wearers were getting rashes .
There have also been news reports about Fitbits shocking wearers .
Again – more ouch !
Regardless , the company is launching 3 new products with additional capabilities .
That doesn ’ t mean that people would necessarily want one inside their skull though .
Experts also continue to warn that wireless and “ smart ” devices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ collection by the manufacturers themselves ( see 1 , 2 .
3 , 4 , 5 .
6 ) as well as hackers who can sometimes even set devices on fire .
Creepy and OUCH !
Activist Post reports regularly about invasive and unsafe technology .
For more information visit our archives .
Also Read : Rise Of The Cyporks : Elon Musk Demonstrates Neuralink On A Pig Named Gertrude Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom @ @ @ @ @ @ @ HIVE , Parler , Flote , Minds , and Twitter .
Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
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By B.N. Frank
This sounds like something you’d see published in The Onion. Unfortunately, it’s not.
According to Musk, this has been tested on at least 19 different animals. PETA cannot be amused.
From The Hill:
Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk on Friday showcased pigs with computer chips in their brains during his unveiling of Neuralink, an upcoming technology aiming to bring symbiosis between artificial intelligence and the human brain. The live showcase involved displaying real-time neural signals from one of the pigs, whom Musk named Gertrude, CNBC reported. Musk said the process for installing a Neuralink in a human brain would be an hourlong operation that is no more invasive than LASIK eye surgery, inserting a coin-sized device into the skull that would leave a tiny scar after the electrodes are inserted in the brain. He likened the technology to being essentially a “Fitbit in your skull.” […] Musk also said Friday that the technology had received “Breakthrough Device” designation from the Food and Drug Administration, according to Forbes. Read full article
A coin-sized device with electrodes inserted inside your skull?! That sounds painful. Additionally, all wireless “Smart” devices and wearables – including Fitbits (see 1, 2) – emit harmful electromagnetic radiation which can make people AND animals sick (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. 7. 8. 9) AND increase their cancer risk (see 1. 2, 3, 4, 5). In fact, research has even determined that wireless exposure can also disrupt the blood-brain barrier, cause it to leak, and kill brain cells (see 1, 2). Ouch, ouch and more ouch!
Comparing the Neuralink to a Fitbit is also a really bad choice since the activity tracker has been the subject of a class action lawsuit because wearers were getting rashes. There have also been news reports about Fitbits shocking wearers. Again – more ouch! Regardless, the company is launching 3 new products with additional capabilities. That doesn’t mean that people would necessarily want one inside their skull though.
Experts also continue to warn that wireless and “smart” devices are extremely vulnerable to surveillance and data collection by the manufacturers themselves (see 1, 2. 3, 4, 5. 6) as well as hackers who can sometimes even set devices on fire.
Creepy and OUCH!
Activist Post reports regularly about invasive and unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives.
Image: Pixabay
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activistpost--2020-09-01--Judge Says Feds Can Be Sued for Flint Water Crisis; Shames EPA for Not Taking Protective Action Soon

Judge Says Feds Can Be Sued for Flint Water Crisis; Shames EPA for Not Taking Protective Action Sooner

What happened in Flint , MI is a tragic reminder that all Americans are vulnerable to careless decisions made by legislators , regulators , government agencies and employees .
From the Associated Press : Judge : Feds can be sued for failures in Flint water crisis DETROIT ( AP ) — The federal government can be sued for negligence in the Flint water crisis , a judge said Wednesday , citing the failure of regulators to timely act as good Samaritans and blow the whistle on lead in the water supply .
The decision comes days after the state of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay $ 600 million to settle a raft of lawsuits by Flint residents over disastrous decisions by Gov .
Rick Snyder ’ s administration .
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn ’ t cause Flint ’ s water to be contaminated with lead , but it knew about high lead levels and didn ’ t crack down in time , U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said in an 86-page opinion .
“ Indeed , the harm to ( residents ) increased every day they drank , fed their babies formula made with contaminated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and bacteria-infested water , ” Levy said .
Starting in April 2014 , Flint pulled water from the Flint River for 18 months without treating it to reduce corrosion .
The water caused lead to be released from old pipes and into kitchen taps , bathrooms and water heaters .
The government said Michigan was the lead regulator and bears any responsibility , among other arguments .
But the judge noted that the EPA responded to complaints about the water and provided expertise to the state and Flint .
“ The EPA knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ residents were in danger of drinking and being exposed to lead contaminated water , ” Levy said .
Additionally , reports have indicated that the entire U.S. water supply includes unhealthy levels of chemicals and pesticides AND millions of Americans can ’ t even afford it because of utility cost increases .
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE !
Follow us on SoMee , HIVE , Parler , Flote , Minds , and Twitter .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By B.N. Frank
What happened in Flint, MI is a tragic reminder that all Americans are vulnerable to careless decisions made by legislators, regulators, government agencies and employees.
From the Associated Press:
Judge: Feds can be sued for failures in Flint water crisis
DETROIT (AP) — The federal government can be sued for negligence in the Flint water crisis, a judge said Wednesday, citing the failure of regulators to timely act as good Samaritans and blow the whistle on lead in the water supply. The decision comes days after the state of Michigan said it’s willing to pay $600 million to settle a raft of lawsuits by Flint residents over disastrous decisions by Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency didn’t cause Flint’s water to be contaminated with lead, but it knew about high lead levels and didn’t crack down in time, U.S. District Judge Judith Levy said in an 86-page opinion. “Indeed, the harm to (residents) increased every day they drank, fed their babies formula made with contaminated water, and took showers in lead and bacteria-infested water,” Levy said. Starting in April 2014, Flint pulled water from the Flint River for 18 months without treating it to reduce corrosion. The water caused lead to be released from old pipes and into kitchen taps, bathrooms and water heaters. The government said Michigan was the lead regulator and bears any responsibility, among other arguments. But the judge noted that the EPA responded to complaints about the water and provided expertise to the state and Flint. “The EPA knew as early as June 2015 that Flint residents were in danger of drinking and being exposed to lead contaminated water,” Levy said.
Additionally, reports have indicated that the entire U.S. water supply includes unhealthy levels of chemicals and pesticides AND millions of Americans can’t even afford it because of utility cost increases.
Image: Pixabay
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activistpost--2020-09-02--Since 9/11, the Government’s Answer to Every Problem Has Been More Government

Have you noticed that the government ’ s answer to every problem is more government—at taxpayer expense—and less individual liberty ?
The Great Depression .
The World Wars .
The 9/11 terror attacks .
The COVID-19 pandemic .
Every crisis—manufactured or otherwise—since the nation ’ s early beginnings has become a make-work opportunity for the government to expand its reach and its power at taxpayer expense while limiting our freedoms at every turn .
Indeed , the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that liberty decreases as government ( and government bureaucracy ) grows @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as government expands , liberty contracts .
To the police state , this COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge boon , like winning the biggest jackpot in the lottery .
Certainly , it will prove to be a windfall for those who profit from government expenditures and expansions .
Given the rate at which the government has been devising new ways to spend our money and establish itself as the “ solution ” to all of our worldly problems , this current crisis will most likely end up ushering in the largest expansion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ attacks .
This is how the emergency state operates , after all .
From 9/11 to COVID-19 , “ we the people ” have acted the part of the helpless , gullible victims desperately in need of the government to save us from whatever danger threatens .
In turn , the government has been all too accommodating and eager while also expanding its power and authority in the so-called name of national security .
As chief correspondent Dan Balz asks for The Washington Post , “ Government is everywhere now .
Where does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes to the power players that call the shots , there is no end to their voracious appetite for more : more money , more power , more control .
This expansion of government power is also increasing our federal debt in unprecedented leaps and bounds .
Yet the government isn ’ t just borrowing outrageous amounts of money to keep the country afloat .
It ’ s also borrowing indecent sums to pay for programs it can ’ t afford .
The government ’ s primary response to this COVID-19 pandemic—flooding the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of trillions of dollars for stimulus payments , unemployment insurance expansions , and loans to prop up small businesses and to keep big companies afloat—has pushed the country even deeper in debt .
By “ the country , ” I really mean the taxpayers .
And by “ the taxpayers , ” it ’ s really future generations who will be shackled to debt loads they may never be able to pay back .
This is how you impoverish the future .
Democrats and Republicans alike have done this .
Without fail , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has expanded the nation ’ s debt .
When President Trump took office on January 20 , 2017 , the national debt—the amount the federal government has borrowed over the years and must pay back—was a whopping $ 19.9 trillion .
Despite Trump ’ s pledge to drain the swamp and eliminate the debt , the federal debt is now approaching $ 27 trillion and is on track to surpass $ 78 trillion by 2028 .
For many years now , economists have warned that economic collapse would be inevitable if the national @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. economy .
The government passed that point in June 2020 and has yet to put the brakes on its spending .
In fact , the Federal Reserve just keeps printing more money in order to prop up the economy and float the debt .
At some point , something ’ s got to give .
See : 177 Different Ways to Generate Extra Income As it now stands , the U.S. is among the most indebted countries in the world .
Almost a third of the $ 27 trillion national debt is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and China .
Most of the debt , however , is owed to the public .
How is this even possible ?
Essentially , it ’ s a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul .
First , the government requires taxpayers to pay a portion of their salaries to the Social Security Trust Fund .
The government then turns around and borrows from Social Security to cover its spending needs .
Then the government raises taxes or prints more money in order to pay out whatever is needed to the retirees .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ economics that only makes sense to government bureaucrats looking to make a profit off the backs of the taxpayers .
According to the U.S. Debt Clock , each taxpayer ’ s share of the national debt is $ 214,000 and growing .
That ’ s almost five times more than the median income for what Americans earn in a year .
That ’ s also almost five times more than the average American has in savings , across savings accounts , checking accounts , money market accounts , call deposit accounts , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Americans are so financially strapped that they don ’ t have even $ 500 in savings and nothing whatsoever put away for retirement .
Just the interest that must be paid on the national debt every year is $ 338 billion and growing .
According to the Congressional Budget Office , the fastest growing item in the budget over the next decade will be interest on the debt .
As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported in 2019 , before COVID spending pushed the country over the fiscal cliff , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion last year to $ 928 billion by 2029 , a nearly threefold increase .
If tax cuts and spending increases are extended , interest will exceed $ 1 trillion and set a new record as a share of the economy .
The federal government will spend more on interest than on Medicaid or children by 2020 .
By 2024 , interest will match defense spending.
” Bottom line : The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn ’ t have on programs it can ’ t afford , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ones who will have to pay for it .
As financial analyst Kristin Tate explains , “ When the government has its debt bill come due , all of us will be on the hook.
” Despite the tax burden “ we the people ” are made to bear , we have no real say in how the government runs , or how our taxpayer funds are used , but we ’ re being forced to pay through the nose , anyhow .
We have no real say , but that doesn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ us at every turn and forcing us to pay for endless wars that do more to fund the military industrial complex than protect us , pork barrel projects that produce little to nothing , and a police state that serves only to imprison us within its walls .
All the while the government continues to do whatever it wants—levy taxes , rack up debt , spend outrageously and irresponsibly—with little thought for the plight of its citizens .
This brings me to a curious point : what the future will look like ten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt is expected to surpass $ 78 trillion , an unsustainable level of debt that will result in unprecedented economic hardship for anyone that does not belong to the wealthy elite .
Interestingly enough , that timeline coincides with the government ’ s vision of the future as depicted in a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command .
According to the video , the government is anticipating trouble ( read : civil unrest ) , which is code for anything that challenges the government ’ s authority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grooming its armed forces ( including its heavily armed federal agents ) accordingly to solve future domestic political and social problems .
The training video , titled “ Megacities : Urban Future , the Emerging Complexity , ” is only five minutes long , but it provides a chilling glimpse of what the government expects the world to look like in 2030 , a world bedeviled by “ criminal networks , ” “ substandard infrastructure , ” “ religious and ethnic tensions , ” “ impoverishment , slums , ” “ open landfills @ @ @ @ @ @ @ growing mass of unemployed , ” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite must be protected from the impoverishment of the have nots .
And then comes the kicker .
Three-and-a-half minutes into the Pentagon ’ s dystopian vision of “ a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild , a restive underclass , criminal syndicates , and bands of malicious hackers , ” the ominous voice of the narrator speaks of a need to “ drain the swamps.
” Emblazoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rallies , and used as a rallying cry among Trump supporters , “ drain the swamp ” became one of Donald Trump ’ s most-used campaign slogans .
Far from draining the politically corrupt swamps of Washington DC of lobbyists and special interest groups , however , the Trump Administration has further mired us in a sweltering bog of corruption and self-serving tactics .
Funny how the more things change , the more they stay the same .
Now the government has adopted its own plans for swamp-draining , only it wants to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of futuristic urban American cities of “ noncombatants and engage the remaining adversaries in high intensity conflict within.
” And who are these noncombatants , a military term that refers to civilians who are not engaged in fighting during a war ?
They are , according to the Pentagon , “ adversaries.
” They are the “ enemy.
” They are people who don ’ t support the government , people who live in fast-growing urban communities , people who may be less well-off economically than the government and corporate elite , people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are unemployed , people who engage in crime ( in keeping with the government ’ s fast-growing , overly broad definition of what constitutes a crime ) .
In other words , in the eyes of the U.S. military , noncombatants are American citizens a.k.a .
domestic extremists a.k.a .
enemy combatants who must be identified , targeted , detained , contained and , if necessary , eliminated .
Just recently , in fact , I re-watched Escape from L.A. , John Carpenter ’ s 1996 post-apocalyptic action film that imagines a future @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which the United States has elected a president for life who runs the country according to his own theocratic moral law .
Anyone who runs afoul of the president ’ s moral laws is stripped of their citizenship and either electrocuted or deported to the island of Los Angeles , a penal colony where lawlessness reigns supreme .
In the late 20th century , hostile forces inside the United States grow strong .
The city of Los Angeles is ravaged by crime and immorality .
To protect and defend its citizens , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A presidential candidate predicts a millennium earthquake will destroy L.A. in divine retribution .
The earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59 P.M. August 23rd in the year 2000 .
After the devastation , the Constitution is amended , and the newly elected president accepts a lifetime term of office .
The country ’ s capital is moved from Washington , D.C. , to the president ’ s hometown of Lynchburg , Virginia .
Los Angeles Island is declared no longer part of the United States and becomes the deportation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unfit to live in the new , moral America .
The United States Police Force , like an army , is encamped among the shorelines , making any escape from L.A. impossible .
From the southeastern hills of Orange County to the northwestern shore of Malibu , the great wall excludes L.A. from the mainland .
The president ’ s first act as permanent Commander in Chief is Directive 17 : once an American loses his or her citizenship , they are deported to this island of the damned , and they never @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filmmaker whose dystopian visions of the future are eerily prescient , but this film is particularly unnerving : environmental disasters ; engineered viruses used like weapons to control the masses ; riots and looting that leave the populace longing for law and order ; religion used like a weapon ; martial law ; surveillance that keeps every citizen under the government ’ s watchful eye ; and a growing awareness that the only path to freedom left for humanity is to shut down the government and start over again .
We ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clear in my book Battlefield America : The War on the American People , unless we make some effort to reject the sorry excuse for representative government that we have been saddled with , the future that awaits us—whether it ’ s the future envisioned by the Pentagon in its training video or the future imagined by Carpenter—will be a living nightmare from which there is no escape .
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of .
His new book Battlefield America : The War on the American @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be contacted at [ email protected ] .
John W. Whitehead ’ s weekly commentaries are available for publication to newspapers and web publications at no charge .
Please contact [ email protected ] to obtain reprint permission .
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By John W. Whitehead
“A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take away everything that you have.”—Anonymous
Have you noticed that the government’s answer to every problem is more government—at taxpayer expense—and less individual liberty?
The Great Depression. The World Wars. The 9/11 terror attacks. The COVID-19 pandemic.
Every crisis—manufactured or otherwise—since the nation’s early beginnings has become a make-work opportunity for the government to expand its reach and its power at taxpayer expense while limiting our freedoms at every turn.
Indeed, the history of the United States is a testament to the old adage that liberty decreases as government (and government bureaucracy) grows. To put it another way, as government expands, liberty contracts.
To the police state, this COVID-19 pandemic has been a huge boon, like winning the biggest jackpot in the lottery. Certainly, it will prove to be a windfall for those who profit from government expenditures and expansions.
Given the rate at which the government has been devising new ways to spend our money and establish itself as the “solution” to all of our worldly problems, this current crisis will most likely end up ushering in the largest expansion of government power since the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
This is how the emergency state operates, after all.
From 9/11 to COVID-19, “we the people” have acted the part of the helpless, gullible victims desperately in need of the government to save us from whatever danger threatens. In turn, the government has been all too accommodating and eager while also expanding its power and authority in the so-called name of national security.
As chief correspondent Dan Balz asks for The Washington Post, “Government is everywhere now. Where does it go next?”
When it comes to the power players that call the shots, there is no end to their voracious appetite for more: more money, more power, more control.
This expansion of government power is also increasing our federal debt in unprecedented leaps and bounds. Yet the government isn’t just borrowing outrageous amounts of money to keep the country afloat. It’s also borrowing indecent sums to pay for programs it can’t afford.
The government’s primary response to this COVID-19 pandemic—flooding the market with borrowed money in the amount of trillions of dollars for stimulus payments, unemployment insurance expansions, and loans to prop up small businesses and to keep big companies afloat—has pushed the country even deeper in debt.
By “the country,” I really mean the taxpayers. And by “the taxpayers,” it’s really future generations who will be shackled to debt loads they may never be able to pay back.
This is how you impoverish the future.
Democrats and Republicans alike have done this.
Without fail, every president within the last 50 years has expanded the nation’s debt. When President Trump took office on January 20, 2017, the national debt—the amount the federal government has borrowed over the years and must pay back—was a whopping $19.9 trillion. Despite Trump’s pledge to drain the swamp and eliminate the debt, the federal debt is now approaching $27 trillion and is on track to surpass $78 trillion by 2028.
For many years now, economists have warned that economic collapse would be inevitable if the national debt ever surpassed the size of the U.S. economy. The government passed that point in June 2020 and has yet to put the brakes on its spending.
In fact, the Federal Reserve just keeps printing more money in order to prop up the economy and float the debt.
At some point, something’s got to give.
As it now stands, the U.S. is among the most indebted countries in the world.
Almost a third of the $27 trillion national debt is owed to foreign entities such as Japan and China.
Most of the debt, however, is owed to the public.
How is this even possible? Essentially, it’s a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
First, the government requires taxpayers to pay a portion of their salaries to the Social Security Trust Fund. The government then turns around and borrows from Social Security to cover its spending needs. Then the government raises taxes or prints more money in order to pay out whatever is needed to the retirees.
It’s a form of convoluted economics that only makes sense to government bureaucrats looking to make a profit off the backs of the taxpayers.
According to the U.S. Debt Clock, each taxpayer’s share of the national debt is $214,000 and growing.
That’s almost five times more than the median income for what Americans earn in a year. That’s also almost five times more than the average American has in savings, across savings accounts, checking accounts, money market accounts, call deposit accounts, and prepaid cards. Almost 60% of Americans are so financially strapped that they don’t have even $500 in savings and nothing whatsoever put away for retirement.
Just the interest that must be paid on the national debt every year is $338 billion and growing. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the fastest growing item in the budget over the next decade will be interest on the debt.
As the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported in 2019, before COVID spending pushed the country over the fiscal cliff, “Interest payments will rise from $325 billion last year to $928 billion by 2029, a nearly threefold increase. If tax cuts and spending increases are extended, interest will exceed $1 trillion and set a new record as a share of the economy. The federal government will spend more on interest than on Medicaid or children by 2020. By 2024, interest will match defense spending.”
Bottom line: The U.S. government—and that includes the current administration—is spending money it doesn’t have on programs it can’t afford, and “we the taxpayers” are the ones who will have to pay for it.
As financial analyst Kristin Tate explains, “When the government has its debt bill come due, all of us will be on the hook.”
Despite the tax burden “we the people” are made to bear, we have no real say in how the government runs, or how our taxpayer funds are used, but we’re being forced to pay through the nose, anyhow.
We have no real say, but that doesn’t prevent the government from fleecing us at every turn and forcing us to pay for endless wars that do more to fund the military industrial complex than protect us, pork barrel projects that produce little to nothing, and a police state that serves only to imprison us within its walls.
All the while the government continues to do whatever it wants—levy taxes, rack up debt, spend outrageously and irresponsibly—with little thought for the plight of its citizens.
This brings me to a curious point: what the future will look like ten years from now, when the federal debt is expected to surpass $78 trillion, an unsustainable level of debt that will result in unprecedented economic hardship for anyone that does not belong to the wealthy elite.
Interestingly enough, that timeline coincides with the government’s vision of the future as depicted in a Pentagon training video created by the Army for U.S. Special Operations Command.
According to the video, the government is anticipating trouble (read: civil unrest), which is code for anything that challenges the government’s authority, wealth and power, and is grooming its armed forces (including its heavily armed federal agents) accordingly to solve future domestic political and social problems.
The training video, titled “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” is only five minutes long, but it provides a chilling glimpse of what the government expects the world to look like in 2030, a world bedeviled by “criminal networks,” “substandard infrastructure,” “religious and ethnic tensions,” “impoverishment, slums,” “open landfills, over-burdened sewers,” a “growing mass of unemployed,” and an urban landscape in which the prosperous economic elite must be protected from the impoverishment of the have nots.
And then comes the kicker.
Three-and-a-half minutes into the Pentagon’s dystopian vision of “a world of Robert Kaplan-esque urban hellscapes — brutal and anarchic supercities filled with gangs of youth-gone-wild, a restive underclass, criminal syndicates, and bands of malicious hackers,” the ominous voice of the narrator speaks of a need to “drain the swamps.”
Drain the swamps.
Surely, we’ve heard that phrase before?
Ah yes.
Emblazoned on t-shirts and signs, shouted at rallies, and used as a rallying cry among Trump supporters, “drain the swamp” became one of Donald Trump’s most-used campaign slogans.
Far from draining the politically corrupt swamps of Washington DC of lobbyists and special interest groups, however, the Trump Administration has further mired us in a sweltering bog of corruption and self-serving tactics.
Funny how the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Now the government has adopted its own plans for swamp-draining, only it wants to use the military to drain the swamps of futuristic urban American cities of “noncombatants and engage the remaining adversaries in high intensity conflict within.”
And who are these noncombatants, a military term that refers to civilians who are not engaged in fighting during a war?
They are, according to the Pentagon, “adversaries.”
They are “threats.”
They are the “enemy.”
They are people who don’t support the government, people who live in fast-growing urban communities, people who may be less well-off economically than the government and corporate elite, people who engage in protests, people who are unemployed, people who engage in crime (in keeping with the government’s fast-growing, overly broad definition of what constitutes a crime).
In other words, in the eyes of the U.S. military, noncombatants are American citizens a.k.a. domestic extremists a.k.a. enemy combatants who must be identified, targeted, detained, contained and, if necessary, eliminated.
Funny how closely fact tracks fiction these days.
Just recently, in fact, I re-watched Escape from L.A., John Carpenter’s 1996 post-apocalyptic action film that imagines a future (2013, in fact) in which the United States has elected a president for life who runs the country according to his own theocratic moral law. Anyone who runs afoul of the president’s moral laws is stripped of their citizenship and either electrocuted or deported to the island of Los Angeles, a penal colony where lawlessness reigns supreme.
As the film’s opening narrator recounts:
In the late 20th century, hostile forces inside the United States grow strong. The city of Los Angeles is ravaged by crime and immorality. To protect and defend its citizens, the United States Police Force is formed. A presidential candidate predicts a millennium earthquake will destroy L.A. in divine retribution. The earthquake measuring 9.6 on the Richter scale hits at 12:59 P.M. August 23rd in the year 2000. After the devastation, the Constitution is amended, and the newly elected president accepts a lifetime term of office. The country’s capital is moved from Washington, D.C., to the president’s hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. Los Angeles Island is declared no longer part of the United States and becomes the deportation point for all people found undesirable or unfit to live in the new, moral America. The United States Police Force, like an army, is encamped among the shorelines, making any escape from L.A. impossible. From the southeastern hills of Orange County to the northwestern shore of Malibu, the great wall excludes L.A. from the mainland. The president’s first act as permanent Commander in Chief is Directive 17: once an American loses his or her citizenship, they are deported to this island of the damned, and they never come back.
Carpenter is a brilliant filmmaker whose dystopian visions of the future are eerily prescient, but this film is particularly unnerving: environmental disasters; engineered viruses used like weapons to control the masses; riots and looting that leave the populace longing for law and order; religion used like a weapon; martial law; surveillance that keeps every citizen under the government’s watchful eye; and a growing awareness that the only path to freedom left for humanity is to shut down the government and start over again.
We’re almost there now.
As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, unless we make some effort to reject the sorry excuse for representative government that we have been saddled with, the future that awaits us—whether it’s the future envisioned by the Pentagon in its training video or the future imagined by Carpenter—will be a living nightmare from which there is no escape.
ABOUT JOHN W. WHITEHEAD
Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute . His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People is available at www.amazon.com . Whitehead can be contacted at johnw@rutherford.org.
Publication Guidelines / Reprint Permission
John W. Whitehead’s weekly commentaries are available for publication to newspapers and web publications at no charge. Please contact staff@rutherford.org to obtain reprint permission.
Image: Anthony Freda Art
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activistpost--2020-09-01--FLASHBACK 2016: Privacy Invasion and Security Risks from Internet of Things (IoT) Eclipsed by Curren

FLASHBACK 2016: Privacy Invasion and Security Risks from Internet of Things (IoT) Eclipsed by Current Events

IBM recently warned about a flaw in millions of wireless Internet of Things ( IoT ) modules that can severely compromise medical devices and “ wreck ” utility “ Smart ” Meters .
This isn ’ t really surprising – security expert warnings about IoT go back several years and there are countless examples of past and recent hacks ( see 1 , 2 , 3 ) .
Today there seems to be no avoiding the risks and consequences from 5G and IoT technology being installed everywhere , whereas a few years ago people were still weighing the advantages and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smart ” enabled home .
Home Monitoring Will Soon Monitor You When the Internet of Things begins to track electrical usage , houses could become more measured—and scrutinized—than ever .
I worry .
About my family .
My house .
My dumb possessions , and my treasured ones .
Doesn ’ t everyone ?
“ Happiness , ” Don Draper opines in Mad Men ’ s pilot , “ is the freedom from fear.
” Companies sell people solutions to those fears—even if they are contrived ones .
Listerine , invented to cure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whose kicks are used for sloth more than athleticism .
Apple , whose modernist , glass-and-aluminum shields hide compulsion .
Just as people originally bought mobile phones to protect against hypothetical emergencies , so internet-connected smart devices now often sell comfort from fear .
Motion cameras that deter evil babysitters .
Recording doorbells that stave off solicitors and burglars .
Propane scales that avert cook-out disaster .
Sensor-tentacled boxes that warn against flooding .
Individually , such fears and their solutions are harmless at best , vain at worst .
But when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are real reasons for concern .
When it comes to smart devices , that includes profound security deficiencies—exemplified by the recent botnet attack that used insecure cable boxes and internet cameras to take down DNS services .
Yet the total vision promised by the Internet of Things trades the uncertainty of fear for the certainty of scrutiny .
To watch everything with gadgets necessitates that they also be able to watch you watching .
Even more than you think they already can .
I ’ m looking at an app called Sense on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graph of my home ’ s electrical usage .
I flick a light switch on and the graph climbs a little .
The data is captured by a power-usage meter installed on my electrical main—a small , red box with a wireless antenna that connects to the internet , and thereby to Sense ’ s service and app .
Another view shows bubbles representing the individual devices and appliances that are currently using electricity in my house .
An HVAC unit occupies the biggest bubble , then the oven ( we ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I flip the light switch off , and the light bubble in the Sense app disappears , like magic .
My lights and oven aren ’ t connected to the internet , but now that my electrical main is , Sense knows when I ’ m using certain devices , for how long , and how much energy they consume in the process .
This type of signal processing is called energy load disaggregation , sometimes also known as nonintrusive load monitoring , and it ’ s been around since the 1980s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or “ disaggregate , ” the total electrical load in a building into its constituent parts—air conditioning , appliances , lighting , and so forth .
Traditionally , load disaggregation has been used to monitor residential and commercial usage and efficiency .
But Sense Labs , the Cambridge-based startup who loaned me their device to install in my circuit box , has something bigger and weirder in mind .
Mike Phillips , Sense ’ s CEO , has a background in speech recognition .
His company SpeechWorks , which went public in 2000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ automated corporate phone systems .
Some of the same approaches that can help computers recognize and understand speech can be applied to electricity , it turns out .
Sense does load disaggregation by detecting small changes in the electrical voltage and current at the main breaker to identify the signatures of individual devices .
To improve the quality of recognition , signature-detection is aided by machine learning : By sharing the patterns found among all electrical devices detected by every individual Sense-enabled residence , the service can recognize more electrical appliances with greater @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Sense seems like it might be useful only to obsessives : Those intent to connect everything in their homes to the internet just to be able to stroke them on a smartphone , those inclined to micromanage electrical usage in order to reduce their home ’ s cost and energy footprint , or those who regularly worry about leaving the oven or the iron on .
But Sense Labs is looking beyond parsimony and pathology .
Even if the apparent value of disaggregation comes from tracking energy usage , Phillips explains to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a signal for what ’ s going on in your house .
For example , if Sense users see the TV turn on at 4 p.m. , they might take it as a sign that the kids are safely home from school .
If the oven turns on , they ’ d know that a spouse actually remembered to put the chicken in the oven .
Checking when the garage door opened last night could confirm whether the teenager got home by curfew last night .
From there , Sense eventually hopes to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Some of these functions might take the place of other , more ad-hoc gadgets currently in homes .
For example , one common early-Internet-of-Things application is the Wi-Fi-connected moisture sensor .
Just drop a device like Twine into the basement and it can send a text message in the event of flooding .
But with Sense , the same feat could be accomplished by monitoring the sump pump instead .
Sense ’ s website offers a host of promising applications of the technology , including reporting when the wash is done , or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a week .
Eventually , it might also switch internet-connected devices on or off .
In practice , however , even synthetic reports , like a wash-is-done notification , are a far away ; for now , the app just displays a list of on-and-off events for the various devices it identifies .
And that ’ s if it identifies them at all .
Sense begins finding a home ’ s devices within a few days , and Phillips estimates that a relatively complete set should emerge in a month or so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Sense ’ s picture of my home hardly feels complete .
Only a few lights ever show up , for example , and some devices ghost in and out of existence .
In contrast to the immediate gratification of most internet gadgets , Sense is slow and semi-permanent .
The device requires professional installation by an electrician ( so as to avoid possible electrocution ) .
Once set up , Sense needs a Wi-Fi signal to operate correctly , but the basements , garages , and other out-of-the-way places where the main @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nearby the home ’ s Wi-Fi router .
Sense tells me that they ’ re considering a wired option , but homeowners don ’ t generally wire Ethernet to their breaker boxes , either .
Still , it ’ s early days for automated consumer load aggregation .
The precision of disaggregation available in the Sense service needs time to mature , which it will if more people install the device , allowing the machine-learning backend to bolster the service ’ s overall knowledge .
Sense feels like the start of something new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that future requires that Sense offers a service compelling enough that consumer will be willing to install the device semi-permanently into their home ’ s electrical grid .
At a time when Internet-of-Things devices have been responsible for nationwide DDoS attacks and drone-enabled , cascading smart lightbulb hacks , security and privacy might offer the greatest obstacles to its adoption .
On the security front , Sense represents a theoretical improvement over standard-fare Internet of Things , which are often poorly engineered for security and installed in large numbers .
By moving sensing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the electrical main , the possible points of attack are reduced—so long as the Sense itself doesn ’ t get hacked .
But when it comes to privacy , things are more complicated .
After all , Sense listens in on and records every electrical apparatus in the home .
That ’ s a lot of potentially invasive—and valuable—data .
Early adopters of the Nest smart thermostat embraced that device without fully considering the implications of its capacity to monitor presence in the home .
When Google bought Nest for $ 3.2 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ability to merge that internal view of the home with everything else Google already knows about its users—their web searches , the places they ’ ve visited , and so forth .
Sense offers a similar opportunity to slurp up live , granular data on everything people do with electricity in their homes—which is most everything , these days .
Nest knows the general patterns of occupancy in a home , but for anyone with smartphone running Google services like Maps , the company probably knew those patterns already .
Sense , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make use of individual appliances , lights , and devices—how often , and for how long .
Monitoring the garage door or the oven might seem innocuous , until one considers the fact that big data is already being used for purposes like insurance and loan underwriting .
The frequency and time of day of garage use offers new ways to evaluate and confirm a household ’ s automotive risk , based on how often they appear to be driving and at what times of day .
And the use ( or disuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or blender or microwave could be used to draw conclusions about a home ’ s cooking tendencies , and thereby its occupants ’ general health .
Own a table saw or a Hitachi magic wand ?
Your insurer—or your employer—might want to know about that , too .
A job candidate who runs a clothes iron regularly might appear more desirable than one who runs a “ personal massager ” daily .
Likewise , a warehouse pick-and-pack runner who spends days off using power tools might prove a less desirable employee than one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The commercial applications of load disaggregation are also plentiful .
Imagine if Amazon or Walmart or Google knew not just what consumers search for and buy , but also what ordinary , non-electronic products they already own , and how often they use them .
Someone ’ s porn-viewing predilections could be correlated against their toasting habits .
Their sleep patterns—determined by lamp or television usage—could be compared to their proclivity for online impulse purchases .
Do people who use electric razors daily tend to buy boxers , while those who do so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Facebook might know and serve the proper ad accordingly .
For now , such granularity is impossible with Sense .
But over time , load disaggregation ’ s potential will improve .
And not just because of machine learning , but also because disaggregation could end up getting baked into products—and even the electrical grid itself .
Today , Internet-of-Things devices require individual connections to a home network .
That ’ s part of what makes them hard to manage , not to mention unsecure .
But it also allows so-called “ smart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ones ; the user can always opt out of the wireless features of a kettle or a refrigerator and just brew tea or chill food like usual .
But once a load disaggregation hub of Sense ’ s ilk is installed , basic identification , usage , and data reporting could eventually be accomplished via the electric line itself , and without the consumer even knowing .
I asked my Georgia Tech colleague Justin Romberg , a professor of electrical and computer engineering and an expert in digital signal processing to weigh in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blender or a razor wanted to cooperate with a power meter , he explains , it could do so easily by sending a predetermined electrical pulse on the line to signal power cycles or even secondary information about what it ’ s doing .
It ’ s hypothetical and would take years to roll out , but if standardized and installed in newly manufactured appliances , the result could be made compatible with a local hub like Sense or , via the electrical main , a remote one elsewhere on the grid from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in secret about how its owner uses it .
So much for “ nonintrusive ” load monitoring .
To their credit , Sense ’ s leadership team is attentive to the privacy concerns their service presents .
Phillips admits that gaining and maintaining consumer trust is essential to his product ’ s success , but he also hopes he ’ s on the right side of that trust from the outset .
The company ’ s privacy policy prohibits the sale of user data without opt-in permission , and also includes a promise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s data upon request .
Sense does retain the right to use anonymized data in order to improve its machine-learning algorithms .
Of course , technology companies change their policies all the time , and as a venture-backed company in today ’ s technology marketplace , success likely means acquisition .
On this front , Sense ’ s financial structure might distance the company from the data-greediness of traditional technology startups .
In September , Sense Labs closed a $ 14 million Series A , led by two energy-sector venture firms focused on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
One is Royal Dutch Shell ’ s venture arm , and the other , Energy Impact Partners , is an investment fund capitalized entirely by utility companies .
Smart utility meters , which automate billing and help power companies better match supply to demand , have increased consumer suspicion of the monopoly utilities that serve them .
Energy Impact Partners ’ s managing director , Lindsay Luger , tells me that her fund ’ s investors want better ways to engage with customers .
Homeowners may not care much about their utility @ @ @ @ @ @ @ homes a lot ; for most Americans , a home is their most valuable asset .
A product like Sense might allow energy businesses to give people new insights into sustainability , monitoring , and automation in their homes .
Many utilities are already attempting to facilitate this by subsidizing Nest thermostats , and Sense monitors might soon follow suit .
Of course , that might also entail data collection and aggregation .
Luger echoes Phillips ’ s concerns about data ownership , but also notes that people are getting increasingly comfortable sharing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results are beneficial .
All of which might be fine if Sense could and would secure and isolate that data from other uses in the long run .
But as a startup , the company must eventually contend with its status as a business expressly built to become a financial instrument .
On that front , Sense has an advantage that both impresses and terrifies .
Most supposedly “ smart ” devices are really dumb and stupid .
Dumb because they facilitate an Internet of Things You Don ’ t Really Need—connecting gadgets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worked perfectly well already .
Just ask the guy who spent 11 hours trying to make tea with a Wi-Fi kettle .
And stupid because , despite having microprocessors that can do general-purpose computing , these devices mostly act like fancy buttons and data relays .
Factor in the security woes of smart devices , and the Internet of Things looks foolish , too .
Worse , the alternative to idiotic smarts in devices might not be intelligence , but shrewdness .
No matter how earnest and well-intentioned businesspeople like Mike Phillips and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intentions can ’ t close the Pandora ’ s box a service like Sense opens .
More than ever , a product ’ s social and ethical implications must be evaluated in relation to the possible consequences of its likely future use .
Luger says that her firm doesn ’ t go into investments with specific exit strategies in mind .
“ Build a great company , and an exit will find you , ” she tells me .
She points out that lots of industries might find Sense ’ s business an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ firm ’ s capital base , offer an obvious acquisition target .
But she admits that Google and Amazon are possible suitors as well , along with insurance and manufacturing companies that might be interested in real-time data from their appliances .
Which suggests that any future of widespread , residential load disaggregation is likely also a future of constant scrutiny .
If that future becomes too dystopian , owners could always hire an electrician to remove the Sense device from their panels .
But things are never so simple , particularly when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to search the web without Google , after all , or to connect with friends without Facebook , or to network without LinkedIn ?
Consumers have already proven willing to hand over personal data for cash or discounts .
Insurance is following suit .
Soon , drivers might not be able to get auto insurance without connecting a networked device to their vehicles ’ on-board diagnostics port .
Or health insurance without a fitness tracker .
Or a loan without a full-access social media disclosure .
Or , perhaps , utility service @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to that the uncertainty about how technology companies and the government will cooperate under a Donald Trump presidency , and all of that information about what ordinary people do starts to look less like a fair exchange for free services , and more like an unplanned entry into a society of total surveillance .
It may seem quibbling to bring up such matters in the context of a $ 250 energy monitor that few will buy initially , run by apparently well-meaning folks with innocuous intentions .
But it always seems that way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The terror of a truly smart gadget like Sense is the same as its promise : that it really is the future , and furthermore that its arrival is inevitable .
That ’ s something to think about when plugging in or turning on an appliance .
Eventually , soon even , the tiny electrical load it draws will reach past the blender or the light bulb , out above the house and up into the cloud , where it will replicate onto the ledgers of federal agents and commercial advertisers and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Become an Activist Post Patron for $ 1 per month at Patreon .
So , not really a glowing endorsement back in 2016… In 2020 – opposition to 5G , IoT , and additional “ Smart ” technology is WORLDWIDE due to unwanted surveillance as well as health , environmental , and safety risks .
In fact , cities worldwide AND entire countries have taken action to ban , delay , halt , and limit 5G installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums .
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G , IoT , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more information visit our archives and the following websites : Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE !
Follow us on SoMee , HIVE , Parler , Flote , Minds , and Twitter .
Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By B.N. Frank
IBM recently warned about a flaw in millions of wireless Internet of Things (IoT) modules that can severely compromise medical devices and “wreck” utility “Smart” Meters. This isn’t really surprising – security expert warnings about IoT go back several years and there are countless examples of past and recent hacks (see 1, 2, 3).
Today there seems to be no avoiding the risks and consequences from 5G and IoT technology being installed everywhere, whereas a few years ago people were still weighing the advantages and disadvantages of having an IoT / “smart” enabled home.
From The Atlantic (November 11, 2016):
Home Monitoring Will Soon Monitor You
When the Internet of Things begins to track electrical usage, houses could become more measured—and scrutinized—than ever.
I worry. About my family. My house. My dumb possessions, and my treasured ones. Doesn’t everyone? “Happiness,” Don Draper opines in Mad Men’s pilot, “is the freedom from fear.” Companies sell people solutions to those fears—even if they are contrived ones. Listerine, invented to cure a made-up condition called halitosis. Nike, whose kicks are used for sloth more than athleticism. Apple, whose modernist, glass-and-aluminum shields hide compulsion.
Just as people originally bought mobile phones to protect against hypothetical emergencies, so internet-connected smart devices now often sell comfort from fear. Motion cameras that deter evil babysitters. Recording doorbells that stave off solicitors and burglars. Propane scales that avert cook-out disaster. Sensor-tentacled boxes that warn against flooding.
Individually, such fears and their solutions are harmless at best, vain at worst. But when many people use these products, there are real reasons for concern. When it comes to smart devices, that includes profound security deficiencies—exemplified by the recent botnet attack that used insecure cable boxes and internet cameras to take down DNS services. Yet the total vision promised by the Internet of Things trades the uncertainty of fear for the certainty of scrutiny. To watch everything with gadgets necessitates that they also be able to watch you watching. Even more than you think they already can.
I’m looking at an app called Sense on my smartphone. It displays a live graph of my home’s electrical usage. I flick a light switch on and the graph climbs a little. The data is captured by a power-usage meter installed on my electrical main—a small, red box with a wireless antenna that connects to the internet, and thereby to Sense’s service and app.
Another view shows bubbles representing the individual devices and appliances that are currently using electricity in my house. An HVAC unit occupies the biggest bubble, then the oven (we’re baking cupcakes), then the light. I flip the light switch off, and the light bubble in the Sense app disappears, like magic. My lights and oven aren’t connected to the internet, but now that my electrical main is, Sense knows when I’m using certain devices, for how long, and how much energy they consume in the process.
This type of signal processing is called energy load disaggregation, sometimes also known as nonintrusive load monitoring, and it’s been around since the 1980s. Load disaggregation attempts to separate, or “disaggregate,” the total electrical load in a building into its constituent parts—air conditioning, appliances, lighting, and so forth. Traditionally, load disaggregation has been used to monitor residential and commercial usage and efficiency. But Sense Labs, the Cambridge-based startup who loaned me their device to install in my circuit box, has something bigger and weirder in mind.
Mike Phillips, Sense’s CEO, has a background in speech recognition. His company SpeechWorks, which went public in 2000, developed speech-activated services, largely for automated corporate phone systems. Some of the same approaches that can help computers recognize and understand speech can be applied to electricity, it turns out. Sense does load disaggregation by detecting small changes in the electrical voltage and current at the main breaker to identify the signatures of individual devices. To improve the quality of recognition, signature-detection is aided by machine learning: By sharing the patterns found among all electrical devices detected by every individual Sense-enabled residence, the service can recognize more electrical appliances with greater accuracy and speed.
On first blush, Sense seems like it might be useful only to obsessives: Those intent to connect everything in their homes to the internet just to be able to stroke them on a smartphone, those inclined to micromanage electrical usage in order to reduce their home’s cost and energy footprint, or those who regularly worry about leaving the oven or the iron on.
But Sense Labs is looking beyond parsimony and pathology. Even if the apparent value of disaggregation comes from tracking energy usage, Phillips explains to me, electrical usage can also be a signal for what’s going on in your house. For example, if Sense users see the TV turn on at 4 p.m., they might take it as a sign that the kids are safely home from school. If the oven turns on, they’d know that a spouse actually remembered to put the chicken in the oven. Checking when the garage door opened last night could confirm whether the teenager got home by curfew last night.
From there, Sense eventually hopes to offer home intelligence beyond electrical usage. Some of these functions might take the place of other, more ad-hoc gadgets currently in homes. For example, one common early-Internet-of-Things application is the Wi-Fi-connected moisture sensor. Just drop a device like Twine into the basement and it can send a text message in the event of flooding. But with Sense, the same feat could be accomplished by monitoring the sump pump instead. Sense’s website offers a host of promising applications of the technology, including reporting when the wash is done, or how much television a home has watched in a week. Eventually, it might also switch internet-connected devices on or off.
In practice, however, even synthetic reports, like a wash-is-done notification, are a far away; for now, the app just displays a list of on-and-off events for the various devices it identifies. And that’s if it identifies them at all. Sense begins finding a home’s devices within a few days, and Phillips estimates that a relatively complete set should emerge in a month or so. Yet after about that much time, Sense’s picture of my home hardly feels complete. Only a few lights ever show up, for example, and some devices ghost in and out of existence.
In contrast to the immediate gratification of most internet gadgets, Sense is slow and semi-permanent. The device requires professional installation by an electrician (so as to avoid possible electrocution). Once set up, Sense needs a Wi-Fi signal to operate correctly, but the basements, garages, and other out-of-the-way places where the main electrical panel are housed are not necessarily nearby the home’s Wi-Fi router. Sense tells me that they’re considering a wired option, but homeowners don’t generally wire Ethernet to their breaker boxes, either.
Still, it’s early days for automated consumer load aggregation. The precision of disaggregation available in the Sense service needs time to mature, which it will if more people install the device, allowing the machine-learning backend to bolster the service’s overall knowledge.
* * *
Sense feels like the start of something new and durable among internet-connected devices. Finding that future requires that Sense offers a service compelling enough that consumer will be willing to install the device semi-permanently into their home’s electrical grid. At a time when Internet-of-Things devices have been responsible for nationwide DDoS attacks and drone-enabled, cascading smart lightbulb hacks, security and privacy might offer the greatest obstacles to its adoption.
On the security front, Sense represents a theoretical improvement over standard-fare Internet of Things, which are often poorly engineered for security and installed in large numbers. By moving sensing from individual devices to a single sensor on the electrical main, the possible points of attack are reduced—so long as the Sense itself doesn’t get hacked.
But when it comes to privacy, things are more complicated. After all, Sense listens in on and records every electrical apparatus in the home. That’s a lot of potentially invasive—and valuable—data.
Early adopters of the Nest smart thermostat embraced that device without fully considering the implications of its capacity to monitor presence in the home. When Google bought Nest for $3.2 billion, in 2014, it bought the ability to merge that internal view of the home with everything else Google already knows about its users—their web searches, the places they’ve visited, and so forth. Sense offers a similar opportunity to slurp up live, granular data on everything people do with electricity in their homes—which is most everything, these days.
Nest knows the general patterns of occupancy in a home, but for anyone with smartphone running Google services like Maps, the company probably knew those patterns already. Sense, by contrast, can know when consumers make use of individual appliances, lights, and devices—how often, and for how long. Monitoring the garage door or the oven might seem innocuous, until one considers the fact that big data is already being used for purposes like insurance and loan underwriting. The frequency and time of day of garage use offers new ways to evaluate and confirm a household’s automotive risk, based on how often they appear to be driving and at what times of day. And the use (or disuse) of an electric oven or cooktop or blender or microwave could be used to draw conclusions about a home’s cooking tendencies, and thereby its occupants’ general health.
Own a table saw or a Hitachi magic wand? Your insurer—or your employer—might want to know about that, too. A job candidate who runs a clothes iron regularly might appear more desirable than one who runs a “personal massager” daily. Likewise, a warehouse pick-and-pack runner who spends days off using power tools might prove a less desirable employee than one who unwinds through innocuous television viewing.
The commercial applications of load disaggregation are also plentiful. Imagine if Amazon or Walmart or Google knew not just what consumers search for and buy, but also what ordinary, non-electronic products they already own, and how often they use them. Someone’s porn-viewing predilections could be correlated against their toasting habits. Their sleep patterns—determined by lamp or television usage—could be compared to their proclivity for online impulse purchases. Do people who use electric razors daily tend to buy boxers, while those who do so every other day prefer briefs? Soon Facebook might know and serve the proper ad accordingly.
For now, such granularity is impossible with Sense. But over time, load disaggregation’s potential will improve. And not just because of machine learning, but also because disaggregation could end up getting baked into products—and even the electrical grid itself.
Today, Internet-of-Things devices require individual connections to a home network. That’s part of what makes them hard to manage, not to mention unsecure. But it also allows so-called “smart” devices to be used as dumb ones; the user can always opt out of the wireless features of a kettle or a refrigerator and just brew tea or chill food like usual. But once a load disaggregation hub of Sense’s ilk is installed, basic identification, usage, and data reporting could eventually be accomplished via the electric line itself, and without the consumer even knowing.
I asked my Georgia Tech colleague Justin Romberg, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and an expert in digital signal processing to weigh in. If an ordinary appliance like a blender or a razor wanted to cooperate with a power meter, he explains, it could do so easily by sending a predetermined electrical pulse on the line to signal power cycles or even secondary information about what it’s doing.
It’s hypothetical and would take years to roll out, but if standardized and installed in newly manufactured appliances, the result could be made compatible with a local hub like Sense or, via the electrical main, a remote one elsewhere on the grid from the very outset—chattering away, unavoidably and in secret about how its owner uses it.
So much for “nonintrusive” load monitoring.
* * *
To their credit, Sense’s leadership team is attentive to the privacy concerns their service presents. Phillips admits that gaining and maintaining consumer trust is essential to his product’s success, but he also hopes he’s on the right side of that trust from the outset. The company’s privacy policy prohibits the sale of user data without opt-in permission, and also includes a promise to delete all of a user’s data upon request. Sense does retain the right to use anonymized data in order to improve its machine-learning algorithms.
Of course, technology companies change their policies all the time, and as a venture-backed company in today’s technology marketplace, success likely means acquisition. On this front, Sense’s financial structure might distance the company from the data-greediness of traditional technology startups. In September, Sense Labs closed a $14 million Series A, led by two energy-sector venture firms focused on new terrain for large, traditional companies. One is Royal Dutch Shell’s venture arm, and the other, Energy Impact Partners, is an investment fund capitalized entirely by utility companies. Smart utility meters, which automate billing and help power companies better match supply to demand, have increased consumer suspicion of the monopoly utilities that serve them.
Energy Impact Partners’s managing director, Lindsay Luger, tells me that her fund’s investors want better ways to engage with customers. Homeowners may not care much about their utility companies, but they care about their homes a lot; for most Americans, a home is their most valuable asset. A product like Sense might allow energy businesses to give people new insights into sustainability, monitoring, and automation in their homes. Many utilities are already attempting to facilitate this by subsidizing Nest thermostats, and Sense monitors might soon follow suit.
Of course, that might also entail data collection and aggregation. Luger echoes Phillips’s concerns about data ownership, but also notes that people are getting increasingly comfortable sharing their personal data, especially when the results are beneficial. All of which might be fine if Sense could and would secure and isolate that data from other uses in the long run. But as a startup, the company must eventually contend with its status as a business expressly built to become a financial instrument.
On that front, Sense has an advantage that both impresses and terrifies. Most supposedly “smart” devices are really dumb and stupid. Dumb because they facilitate an Internet of Things You Don’t Really Need—connecting gadgets to the internet mostly complicates tasks that worked perfectly well already. Just ask the guy who spent 11 hours trying to make tea with a Wi-Fi kettle. And stupid because, despite having microprocessors that can do general-purpose computing, these devices mostly act like fancy buttons and data relays.
Factor in the security woes of smart devices, and the Internet of Things looks foolish, too.
Worse, the alternative to idiotic smarts in devices might not be intelligence, but shrewdness. No matter how earnest and well-intentioned businesspeople like Mike Phillips and Lindsay Luger might seem, those good intentions can’t close the Pandora’s box a service like Sense opens. More than ever, a product’s social and ethical implications must be evaluated in relation to the possible consequences of its likely future use.
Luger says that her firm doesn’t go into investments with specific exit strategies in mind. “Build a great company, and an exit will find you,” she tells me. She points out that lots of industries might find Sense’s business an appealing target: Utility companies, her firm’s capital base, offer an obvious acquisition target. But she admits that Google and Amazon are possible suitors as well, along with insurance and manufacturing companies that might be interested in real-time data from their appliances. Which suggests that any future of widespread, residential load disaggregation is likely also a future of constant scrutiny.
If that future becomes too dystopian, owners could always hire an electrician to remove the Sense device from their panels. But things are never so simple, particularly when curiosities become standards. How easy is it to search the web without Google, after all, or to connect with friends without Facebook, or to network without LinkedIn? Consumers have already proven willing to hand over personal data for cash or discounts. Insurance is following suit. Soon, drivers might not be able to get auto insurance without connecting a networked device to their vehicles’ on-board diagnostics port. Or health insurance without a fitness tracker. Or a loan without a full-access social media disclosure. Or, perhaps, utility service without a whole-house load disaggregator.
Add to that the uncertainty about how technology companies and the government will cooperate under a Donald Trump presidency, and all of that information about what ordinary people do starts to look less like a fair exchange for free services, and more like an unplanned entry into a society of total surveillance. It may seem quibbling to bring up such matters in the context of a $250 energy monitor that few will buy initially, run by apparently well-meaning folks with innocuous intentions. But it always seems that way, until it doesn’t anymore.
The terror of a truly smart gadget like Sense is the same as its promise: that it really is the future, and furthermore that its arrival is inevitable. That’s something to think about when plugging in or turning on an appliance. Eventually, soon even, the tiny electrical load it draws will reach past the blender or the light bulb, out above the house and up into the cloud, where it will replicate onto the ledgers of federal agents and commercial advertisers and corporate actuaries, and remain forever.
Become an Activist Post Patron for $1 per month at Patreon.
So, not really a glowing endorsement back in 2016…
In 2020 – opposition to 5G, IoT, and additional “Smart” technology is WORLDWIDE due to unwanted surveillance as well as health, environmental, and safety risks. In fact, cities worldwide AND entire countries have taken action to ban, delay, halt, and limit 5G installation AS WELL AS issue moratoriums.
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G, IoT, and other invasive and unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites:
Become a Patron!
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Send resources to the front lines of peace and freedom HERE! Follow us on SoMee, HIVE, Parler, Flote, Minds, and Twitter.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.