Category: Mayhem

[Editor’s Note:  The Information Environment is a unique space that demands our understanding, as the Internet of Things (IoT) and hyper-connectivity have democratized accessibility, extended global reach, and amplified the effects of its weaponization by our adversaries. We launched the first of our Mad Scientist Weaponized Information Virtual Events on 20 May 2020 with Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies to better understand the ramifications of this rapidly evolving environment on our Soldiers and the Operational Environment. Today’s post captures the preliminary insights we’ve gleaned about competition and conflict in the Information Environment from the first four webinars (and a podcast) in this continuing series. Read on to learn our interim findings!]

LINK TO ARTICLE: https://madsciblog.tradoc.army.mil/253-weaponized-information-what-weve-learned-so-far/

 

“He was mastered by the sheer surging of life, the tidal wave of being, the perfect joy of each separate muscle, joint, and sinew in that it was everything that was not death, that it was aglow and rampant, expressing itself in movement, flying exultantly under the stars.” ― Jack London, The Call of the Wild.

We call this phase around Our star 2020. A cycle that has revealed cracks and fissures within leviathan. We have seen its devastating effects upon our home with raging fires that destroy and corrupt our lungs. We have seen the truth of its strength as society came to a global stand still from a microscopic virus, created by the conditions We choose to exploit Our fellow earthlings in. We have watched as those who “lead” Us profit from playing our differences against one another, only caring about their own self-interest. 2020 is screaming at Us that We are all vulnerable under Leviathans rule and all will fall under its devastating weight. The questions that remain, are we strong enough to stand against it? Are we too late?

The Night Forest Cell of Radical Poets is once again sounding the war cry. Calling to those who inhabit the forest with Us, Our friends of old, and those who may be wandering and want to join, to submit to Journal 3. To anarchists of every kind, to free thinkers, urban primitives, techno pagans, nihilists, eco warriors, vegans, rebels, outsiders, artists, writers, photographers, and anyone else who hears the call of the forest in their soul; JOIN US!

For this issue We are looking for 2020. Your thoughts, experiences, words, poems, stories, essays, other writings, drawings, paintings, photographs, etc. Whatever you have that captures, explains, encases, destroys this critical year for You. For those poets amongst You, We are particularly interested in exploring nursery rhymes for the modern age and creating a special section for this, however, We still want Your other works too.

So, the nitty-gritty: We are happy to receive whatever submission you want to share, but we will only be publishing up to 3 pieces within the Journal itself per person. Anything else we like – with your approval – will be published to our blog. When sending poetry, please include any structure or formatting it may have. Otherwise it may be published differently to your intentions. Please remember, we are also a small team, spread across the planet in a crazy year, but we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. Just give us a nudge otherwise.

The Forest is stirring, the beat builds, Our lungs fill. On the wind We can hear horns of change blowing. Calling Us together. A time that will forever shape the earth beneath Us is upon Us. And Our howl IS coming too! Be part of Our tribe, Our family and let Us share our existence with the trees.
End of Submissions will be 21st December 2020. We will look to publish Journal 3 in January/February 2021; however, the exact date is down to our discretion. So, get creative beautiful earthlings, and stand with us.

Love, peace, and oblivion
Phen, Julian, Okty, Chloe, Liz

LINK: https://nightforestpoetry.wordpress.com/2020/07/10/a-call-to-howl/

Funny, the Randonautica app was recommended to me by a friend of the site and I incorporated it into Xen: The Zen of the Other, my book due out next year.

 

 

Great interview with Will here.

Today I learned that there’s a board game based on the ’80s anarchist book BOLO’BOLO: https://t.co/4gdT42bB3T (hat tip: @BryanAlexander) pic.twitter.com/PvM5gRyVXw

— Jesse Walker (@notjessewalker) June 22, 2020

Lebanon ?? protesters burn down their central bank due to ongoing economic collapse. #btc #bitcoin #Lebanon #LebanonProtests pic.twitter.com/RAJ5RiCyfR

— ₿itcoin – ₿eans – ₿ullets (@TruthRaiderHQ) June 12, 2020

Mayhem approved.

 

THE YEAR IS 2030. Forget about the flying cars, robot maids, and moving sidewalks we were promised. They’re not happening. But that doesn’t mean the future is a total unknown.

According to a startling Pentagon video obtained by The Intercept, the future of global cities will be an amalgam of the settings of “Escape from New York” and “Robocop” — with dashes of the “Warriors” and “Divergent” thrown in. It will be 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.

At least that’s the scenario outlined in “Megacities: Urban Future, the Emerging Complexity,” a five-minute video that has been used at the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations University. All that stands between the coming chaos and the good people of Lagos and Dhaka (or maybe even New York City) is the U.S. Army, according to the video, which The Intercept obtained via the Freedom of Information Act.

LINK: https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/pentagon-video-warns-of-unavoidable-dystopian-future-for-worlds-biggest-cities/

Megacities Urban Future, the “Emerging Complexity,” from Philippe Desrosiers on Vimeo.

Ok, who’s been leaking our internal briefing notes? 😉

Click to access JLASS-Document.pdf

According to the scenario, many members of Gen Z — psychologically scarred in their youth by 9/11 and the Great Recession, crushed by college debt, and disenchanted with their employment options — have given up on their hopes for a good life and believe the system is rigged against them. Here’s how the origins of the uprising are described:

Both the September 11 terrorist attacks and the Great Recession greatly influenced the attitudes of this generation in the United states, and resulted in a feeling of unsettlement and insecurity among Gen Z. Although Millennials experienced these events during their coming of age, Gen Z lived through them as part of their childhood, affecting their realism and world view … many found themselves stuck with excessive college debt when they discovered employment options did not meet their expectations. Gen Z are often described as seeking independence and opportunity but are also among the least likely to believe there is such a thing as the “American Dream,” and that the “system is rigged” against them. Frequently seeing themselves as agents for social change, they crave fulfillment and excitement in their job to help “move the world forward.” Despite the technological proficiency they possess, Gen Z actually prefer person-to-person contact as opposed to online interaction. They describe themselves as being involved in their virtual and physical communities, and as having rejected excessive consumerism.

In early 2025, a cadre of these disaffected Zoomers launch a protest movement. Beginning in “parks, rallies, protests, and coffee shops” — first in Seattle; then New York City; Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; Las Vegas; and Austin — a group known as Zbellion begins a “global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s] beneficial.”

During face-to-face recruitment, would-be members of Zbellion are given instructions for going to sites on the dark web that allow them to access sophisticated malware to siphon funds from corporations, financial institutions, and nonprofits that support “the establishment.” The gains are then converted to Bitcoin and distributed to “worthy recipients” including fellow Zbellion members who claim financial need. Zbellion leadership, says the scenario, assures its members that their Robin Hood-esque wealth redistribution is not only untraceable by law enforcement but “ultimately justifiable,” as targets are selected based on “secure polling” of “network delegates.” Although its origins are American, by the latter 2020s, Zbellion activities are also occurring across Europe and cities throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, including Nairobi, Kenya; Hanoi, Vietnam; and Amman, Jordan.

In the world of JLASS 2018, Gen Z’s most militant members have essentially taken to privately taxing large corporations and other institutions to combat income inequality or, as the war gamers put it, using the “cyber world to spread a call for anarchy.”

What’s your dark core score?

Over 100 years ago Charles Spearman made two monumental discoveries about human intelligence. First, a general factor of intelligence (g) exists: people who score high on one test of intelligence also tend to score high on other tests of intelligence. Second, Spearman found that the g-factor conforms to the principle of the “indifference of the indicator”: It doesn’t matter what test of intelligence you administer; as long as the intelligence test is sufficiently cognitively complex and has enough items, you can reliably and validly measure a person’s general cognitive ability.

READ FULL ARTICLE: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/beautiful-minds/the-dark-core-of-personality/