News — At The Edge — 8/10
The past, present and future are converging — unreality, conspiracies, drones, psychedelics, food and climate –in ways that make it exceedingly hard to know where to focus your attention.
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A world of lies: Dispatches from ‘the war against reality’ —
‘’We all know there will be no real politics…[but] have to give our viewers the sense that something is happening’…the enemy this week…[so] feels ‘like a movie!’….
[T]he the spurious storylines and made-up enemies, the redefinition of what constitutes a fact, the wholesale manipulation of the citizenry…[seems] applicable to today’s social-media-inflected [world]…in ‘the war against reality’…[as] digital tools…have been co-opted by autocrats….
Once authoritarian states concentrated on suppressing unwelcome news and opinions; now some also flood the zone with a million different takes. Once they pushed a monolithic ideology; now they shape-shift, so nobody knows what they stand for…..
‘If you can’t convince them, confuse them,’ is…political motto…[but] doing that so cheaply and widely are new. If politics in the television age had to feel like a movie, the trick now is to make it seem like…real life.” https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2019/08/03/dispatches-from-the-war-against-reality
FBI memo warns QAnon poses potential terror threat —
“[FBI] identifies conspiracy theories as potential domestic terrorism threats, specifically…QAnon, a group that believes there is a ‘deep state’ working against [Trump]….
[T]he modern information [market]…driving both groups and individual extremists to carry out criminal or violent acts…[and] that white supremacist violence was the motivator for the majority of domestic terrorism cases…in fiscal 2019….
FBI classifies domestic terror as either racially motivated, anti-government/anti-authority, environmental extremism, or abortion extremism, which he said encompasses both pro- and anti-abortion rights advocates….
New category for conspiracy theories closely related to anti-government extremism but distinct from racially motivated violence…[focuses] on views that ‘attempt to explain events or circumstances as the result of a group…working in secret to benefit themselves at the expense of others’ and…‘usually at odds with official or prevailing explanations of events.’” https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/fbi/455770-fbi-memo-warns-qanon-poses-a-potential-terror-threat-repor
The evolving airspace ecosystem —
“Potential drone applications are limited only by our imaginations… [with] ability to operate them safely…[as] the last obstacle to…market for autonomous drones soaring….
Aircraft, from Cessna 152s to Airbus 380s…all require a pilot’s eyes to operate…[with] a Mode C Transponder…[for] aircraft’s altitude…[and] communicate with Air Traffic Control (ATC)….[This] will have to change….
- [Drones] rely on several new systems, largely using artificial intelligence…[and] require that the current ecosystem operate digitally in real time…[like] Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM)…to seamlessly integrate with today’s version of ATC…sharing of each user’s planned flight details with the goal for each user (e.g. ‘pilot’) to have the same situational awareness of the airspace…[and] know whether or not they’re impeding any other traffic in the sky….
- There will always be non-cooperative aircraft…[so] the Mode C Transponder will be updated to an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) sensor…[that] transmits aircraft-to-aircraft and provides significant additional real-time precision to help both pilots and controllers achieve shared situational awareness….
- [Finally] the drone needs to have an equivalent to the pilot’s eyes to avoid another flying object…with a camera that feeds into a real-time, onboard computer vision and deep learning algorithm to detect, track, classify, and if needed, avoid, other objects in the airspace to keep the drone safe throughout its flight….
One day drones will ubiquitously operate in our airspace…[to] put out fires, deliver late night take out, and inspect our infrastructures…[using] this new digital technology and ecosystem.” https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/02/the-evolving-airspace-ecosystem/
Psychedelic Medicine Is Coming. The Law Isn’t Ready —
“[FDA] approved esketamine, a drug that produces psychedelic effects, to treat depression [and]… granted ‘breakthrough therapy’ status…[to] fast-tracked research…study MDMA (also called ‘ecstasy’) as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and psilocybin as a treatment for major depression….
FDA approval means doctors could also prescribe them for other, ‘off-label’ purposes…[like] enhancing the quality of life of people who do not suffer from any disorder….
[MDMA] enhances emotional empathy, increases feelings of closeness, and promotes thoughtfulness and contemplativeness... while psilocybin [used]…to promote the well-being of healthy individuals….
[The] medical practice has always included interventions aimed at promoting the well-being of healthy individuals. Doctors provide contraceptives and…stimulants to improve performance at school or minor tranquilizers to help cope with the ordinary stresses…[with] thinly-veiled excuses to prescribe drugs simply to enhance quality of life…
.If prescribing mind-altering drugs to help healthy people achieve desirable mental states falls within the bounds of legitimate medicine, what is left of the concept of recreational use?….
Multiple studies have found that both MDMA and psilocybin can be safely administered in well-supervised clinical settings like these, without harming patients or promoting drug dependence….
Psychedelic medicine may prove to be the thin end of a wedge that moves drug policy away from the elusive goal of eradication in favor of more nuanced strategies that harness the benefits of psychotropic drugs while minimizing their risks.” https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/psychedelic-medicine-is-coming-the-law-isnt-ready/
We must transform food production to save the world, says leaked report —
“Attempts to solve the climate crisis by cutting carbon emissions from only cars, factories and power plants are doomed to failure…[unless] transformation in the way the world produces food and manages land.
Humans now exploit 72% of the planet’s ice-free surface to feed, clothe and support [population]….At the same time, agriculture, forestry and other land use produces almost a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions….
[About] half of all emissions of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, come from cattle and rice fields, while deforestation and the removal of peat lands cause further significant levels of carbon emissions.
The impact of intensive agriculture…helped the world’s population soar from 1.9 billion a century ago to 7.7 billion…also increased soil erosion and reduced amounts of organic material in the ground….
[Now] close to some dangerous tipping points in the behavior of the climate…[and] going to be very difficult to achieve the cuts we need to make to prevent that happening’….
[So] land will have to be managed more sustainably so that it releases much less carbon…meat consumption will have to be cut to reduce methane production; while food waste will have to be reduced….. ‘Early warning systems for weather, crop yields, and seasonal climate events are also critical.’
[Odds] politicians and scientists achieving these goals are [ _________ ].” https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/03/ipcc-land-use-food-production-key-to-climate-crisis-leaked-report
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Doc Huston
