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CIA 'Siren Servers' Can Predict Social Uprisings Several Days Before They Happen (sociable.co)
Through a combination of machine learning and deep learning, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is using powerful supercomputers, dubbed "Siren Servers" by computer philosophy writer Jaron Lanier, to predict social unrest days before it happens. The Sociable reports: CIA Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Andrew Hallman announced that the agency has beefed-up its "anticipatory intelligence" through the use of deep learning and machine learning servers that can process an incredible amount of data. "We have, in some instances, been able to improve our forecast to the point of being able to anticipate the development of social unrest and societal instability some I think as near as three to five days out," said Hallman on Tuesday at the Federal Tech event, Fedstival. The CIA deputy director said that it was "much harder to convey confidence for the policymaker who may make an important decision from advanced analytics with deep learning algorithms." Now that the CIA claims to be able to predict social unrest days in advance, there are some interesting theoretical possibilities that can come of this. One is that the CIA's siren servers will become so efficient that they will predict all social uprising and will be able to prevent it. If they are successful in doing that, there would be no need for the CIA as their technology could predict and prevent any societal upheavals, and the agency would be obsolete. Another potential outcome would be that the CIA could use the data and not tell anyone, just like the finance sector did, and then make calculated decisions on whether or not to intervene in any socially distressing situation.
They can't predict shit. Not social unrest, not the weather, and not Pokemon Go.
It's easy to predict things you are the cause of.
Assumes that you can -- in fact -- rapidly prevent societal upheavals with anything but force, which still leaves the root cause unresolved.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
If they are successful in doing that, there would be no need for the CIA as their technology could predict and prevent any societal upheavals...
The authors are utterly naive if they think that the CIA's primary role is intelligence gathering, or that they even care overly much about quelling "societal upheavals". The spooks are at least as much about manipulating situations and people, and about spreading disinformation, (not to mention ensuring the Agency's continued existence), as they are about preventing any grief except their own. "Anticipatory Intelligence" is just a tool that allows them to carry on a faster, more efficient, more effective, more lucrative version of 'business as usual'.
I'd be very interested to hear Edward Snowden weigh in on this.
'The Economy' is a giant Ponzi scheme whose most pitiable suckers are the youngest among us and the yet-unborn.
What if the 'social upheaval' is justified? What if it is technically allowed by the 1st amendment? What if they tell the president that riots are due to start in xyz town and move in the National Guard, even though those riots are due to true injustice that needs to be addressed?
Can the government stop speech before it happens? What does that leave for the already shattered remnants of democracy?
Silence is a state of mime.
Asimoz first wrote about in Foundation close to 50 years ago. Perhaps some should read it. it's still applicable.
First they take 1984 and treat it like a user manual and now they are attempting to go full on minority report pre-crime? It's getting harder and harder to just laugh off that dystopian future.
honest question: how does this help general society? the way i see it, if people are so pissed off all the time that you can't tell if you are about to fubar things then you have no business being in any position of authority.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Sounds like our government is starting to fear the citizens and wants to know as early as possible
OR... it's the prudent and reasonable duty of every government to try and foresee any sort of societal trouble (at home and abroad).
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
They wouldn't prevent the uprisings, but maybe they could just short a bunch of stocks and make a lot of money.
After analysis of the AI system it was found that the impressive predictive results were to a large extent explained by the input parameter: Police officer shoots unarmed man and the police tries to cover it up with lies.
Bert
Most "social uprisings" result from unforeseeable impulsive events (like a shooting). How are you going to predict those?
Maybe, just maybe, you could give a weather report like "chance of uprising is X%," but I would want to see some verification of these probabilities (are they better, for example, that just saying that riots are more probable in hot, humid weather than immediately after a snowstorm?).
The human race has already developed cheap, portable supercomputers, many time more powerful than the CIA's 'supercomputer' that are expert at predicting social unrest. I have one in my possession right now.
By simply 'walking' around the target district and simply 'talking' to people, you'll get a pretty good sense of whether social unrest is going to happen.
Why does everything need to be done by remote control using computers?
It is a bit like the output from the Enigma machine, if you used the knowledge too much, the Germans would have worked out that they were being 'Hacked' and then start doing something else that could not be 'hacked' in the same way.
however, you can be better placed to pick up the pieces.
US citizens may be able to correct me, but I thought that the CIA was only allowed to snoop outside the US
- Agents sent to the field might be swayed by emotional or logical appeals.
- Remote surveillance means a permanent record and centralized control of both the data and the people using it.
- Social unrest is a threat to a police state and the status quo so "they" are doing everything to quell those things before they become popular enough to affect change.
- To paraphrase Alan Watts, all big institutions exist for themselves and their own continued existence and not the people they purport to serve. Remote everything plays to the military industrial complex's strengths. The machine intends to stay in power.