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Anarchist AI: The Last Invention Of Man
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

http://nautil.us/issue/53/monsters/the-last-invention-of-man https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15419619 Nautil.us Issue 053: Monsters The Last Invention of Man How AI might take over the world. By Max Tegmark The Omega Team was the soul of the company. Whereas the rest of the enterprise brought in the money to keep things going, by various commercial applications of narrow AI, the Omega Team pushed ahead in their quest for what had always been the CEO’s dream: building general artificial intelligence. Most other employees viewed “the Omegas,” as they affectionately called them, as a bunch of pie-in-the-sky dreamers, perpetually decades away from their goal. They happily indulged them, however, because they liked the prestige that the cutting-edge work of the Omegas gave their company, and they also appreciated the improved algorithms that the Omegas occasionally gave them. What they didn’t realize was that the Omegas had carefully crafted their image to hide a secret: They were extremely close to pulling off the most audacious plan in human history. Their charismatic CEO had handpicked them not only for being brilliant researchers, but also for ambition, idealism, and a strong commitment to helping humanity. He reminded them that their plan was extremely dangerous, and that if powerful governments found out, they would do virtually anything—including kidnapping—to shut them down or, preferably, to steal their code. But they were all in, 100 percent, for much the same reason that many of the world’s top physicists joined the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons: They were convinced that if they didn’t do it first, someone less idealistic would. The AI they had built, nicknamed Prometheus, kept getting more capable. Although its cognitive abilities still lagged far behind those of humans in many areas, for example, social skills, the Omegas had pushed hard to make it extraordinary at one particular task: programming AI systems. They’d deliberately chosen this strategy because they had bought the intelligence explosion argument made by the British mathematician Irving Good back in 1965: “Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man, however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion,’ and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make, provided that the machine is docile enough to tell us how to keep it under control.” They figured that if they could get this recursive self-improvement going, the machine would soon get smart enough that it could also teach itself all other human skills that would be useful. The First Millions.....

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Huxley on Soma
by juan 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

"Most highly publicized of these [new drugs] are the three new tranquillizers, reserpine, chlorpromazine and meprobamate. None of these drugs is perfectly harmless; but their cost, in terms of physical health and mental efficiency, is extraordinarily low. In a world where nobody gets anything for nothing tranquillizers offer a great deal for very little. Miltown and chlorpromazine are not yet soma; but they come fairly near to being one of the aspects of that mythical drug. A more promising candidate for the role of soma in its third aspect is Iproniazid Still more promising, according to a distinguished pharmacologist of my acquaintance, is a new compound, still in the testing stage, to be known as Deaner" We see then that, though soma does not yet exist (and will probably never exist), fairly good substitutes for the various aspects of soma have already been discovered. There are now physiologically cheap tranquillizers, physiologically cheap vision-producers and physiologically cheap stimulants"

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Bypassing Intel Boot Guard, EdDSA
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://embedi.com/blog/bypassing-intel-boot-guard https://github.com/flothrone/bootguard https://github.com/REhints/BlackHat_2017 https://github.com/tianocore/edk2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Platform_Module https://embedi.com/blog Killchain of IoT Devices Betraying the BIOS: Where the Guardians of the BIOS are Failing In recent years, there is an increasing attention to the UEFI BIOS security. As a result, there are more advanced technologies created to protect UEFI BIOS from illegal modifications. One of such technologies is Intel Boot Guard (BG) – a hardware-assisted BIOS integrity verification mechanism available since Haswell microarchitecture (2013). So-called «UEFI rootkits killer» this technology is designed to create a trusted boot chain (where a current boot component cryptographically measures/verifies the integrity of the next one) with Root-of-Trust locked into hardware. How is that possible? Let’s take a look... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15414760 https://research.kudelskisecurity.com/2017/10/04/defeating-eddsa-with-fault… How to defeat Ed25519 and EdDSA using faults This work was performed with my colleague Sylvain Pelissier, we demonstrated that the EdDSA signature scheme is vulnerable to single fault attacks, and mounted such an attack against the Ed25519 scheme running on an Arduino Nano board. We presented a paper on the topic at FDTC 2017, last week in Taipei. https://www.openbsd.org/62.html Release iminent.

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Cryptocurrency Privacy: Evolving... Zerocash (ZEC, ZCL, ZEN) vs All Other Coin
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

Rethreading these two former threads into a more General: Item... 1: Zerocash: Addressing Bitcoin's Privacy Problem GoogleTechTalks 2: Why I can't sleep soundly with blockchain, being the cypherpunk ########## https://zcoin.io/zcoins-privacy-technology-compares-competition/ > Blockchain privacy is a particularly difficult thing to achieve as a public blockchain is designed so that all transactions are transparent and the supply of coins can be publicly verified. Privacy mechanisms have to ensure that these elements are preserved so it’s a conflicting mix of protecting privacy while maintaining public verifiability. That's obsolete thinking. And to open coin comparisons with such statements misleads the reader into believing that supposedly "private" coins that retain elements of that thinking are an ok thing. The point of a cryptographically private coin is to hide everything that might permit traceability under the shield of strong crypto (including support for transport over anonymous networks). Unlike mix coins, crypto shielding is its privacy mechanism. One doesn't need to have, see, and verify for such a coin all the old traditional bits of a public ledger blockchain... transactions, utxo balances, addresses, coin supply... because the crypto should enforce those parts are working, and make them immune from attack. Provided the crypto is solid, the coins below may be better at privacy than all other in-production, non zerocash based, coins to date. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zerocash https://z.cash/ - Zcash ZEC http://zclassic.org/ - Zclassic ZCL https://zensystem.io/ - Zencash ZEN Further old and misleading arguments against them... > Private transactions take a while to generate (almost a minute on a decently powerful computer) Old news is old... https://z.cash/blog/cultivating-sapling-faster-zksnarks.html > Complicated trusted setup / traceable / backdoored Don't like it? Take more time in understanding and peer reviewing it, preparing and injecting openness, reproducibility, philosophy, documentation and auditability into the process in advance... and restart. The first Zerocash ceremony is not the only such ceremony the world will ever see in the crypto space. And the first one might be as good. Add this new post to the list of links on the list / net about ceremony... https://z.cash/blog/ceremony-audit-results.html > setup that has to be done by the developers. False. It can be done by any group having any number of participants in an opensource reproducible and public fashion. The design, process, and results can all be posted and then imported by new projects as needed. Further, is it true that, in software release for current production Z coins, that new parameters can be dropped in place of old parameters for new transactions on their chains going forward? https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2247 > Supply cannot be audited therefore forgery can be very difficult to detect. Bogus Arg. If setup is secure, and crypto enforces against forgery, then requiring blockchain be "public" about supply for auditability is moot. And even if the blockchain is not auditable, forging coin creation can still be detected by the community knowing its own real world size throwing funds into the coin, yet the price and walls aren't moving as they should over time. And a whole lot of Lambos rolling around till it gets leaked / rediscovered and fixed. > Uses relatively new cryptography Crypto was new. Bitcoin was new. Cryptocurrency is still new. Regulation is still new and is a nearly equivalent goes-to-zero threat. Get cryptocurrency out there, get it peer reviewed, get it in production. Don't put in more than you want to lose. Here are some corporate reviewers and users that are either traps and/or investing huge sums they cannot afford to allow to lose... https://www.americanbanker.com/news/worlds-collide-jpm-works-with-team-behi… https://github.com/jpmorganchase/quorum http://entethalliance.org/ >> https://steemitimages.com/DQmSzRp3XQCXwQ1Y14jTNLcBw1XQ9rZ6oNz1XbnZxHomME3/i… > Bitcoin Core Version Both ZEC and ZEN should merge back into each other some of their own improvements and fixes, including importing any recent useful stuff from original parent codebase of BTC. Normal opensource process. > Hides tx amount / Optional privacy defaults Mix vs Transparent and Shielded... Well then don't use mixes or transparent, get it migrated and committed out of the code forever... https://imgur.com/gallery/MWdwh https://github.com/zcash/zcash/issues/2248 > Compute time Outdated info. See sapling tech above. > Incentivised Nodes / Pruneable / Scaling These issues affect all cryptocurrencies in some way. Zencash ZEN has some work potentially evolving incentive structures https://zcoin.io/zcoin-development-update-znodes-and-scaling-zerocoin/ > Trusted setup Sly word choice. Call it "DASTp - distributed any single trust prevails" or something more technically representative like that. Here's another long debate... https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/737is9/charlie_lee_tells_s… This note isn't really meant to compare coins versus each other (they could all be shit), but to hint that the amount of FUD and outdated arguments being used out there to compare them... especially by their very own developers and communities who should know better... should be of concern and needs improved. Even an armchair reviewer could get rich starting up a site devoted solely to more objective comparisons and tracking development news and roadmaps. https://www.americanbanker.com/news/cheat-sheet-the-trade-offs-of-blockchai… "Each of these technologies solves a fraction of the puzzle, but we are beginning to see how they can be stitched together to deliver more complete privacy. A lot of the implementations take multiple different technologies and combine them together to achieve an additive result. It may well be that a combination of different technologies emerges as being a better solution." Prediction: Crypto-private coins will eventually outpace and surpass mix-private coins as knowledge of crypto continues to increase around the world. Send your wagers and comments here... btc:199WA27L4tVazpg2Bqzas2cX7nomqP4ZEp It's early days, keep your eyes open and your cryptocurrency ready.

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Audio wcn interview
by jim bell 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://m.soundcloud.com/worldcryptonet/tones-ma-93-the-bitcoin-breakout-is… Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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Amir Taaki @HCPP2017 Hackers Congress Parallel Polis 2017
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MpJO-vlF8 https://www.coindesk.com/radical-academy-amir-taakis-new-hacker-team-spread…

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Watch "Interview with Jim Bell, Author of Assassination Politics" on YouTube
by jim bell 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://youtu.be/4KLqi1v2zSE Czech it out! Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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Chelsea Manning Snubbed via Harvard by CIA, Speaking Out
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://www.hks.harvard.edu/announcements/statement-dean-elmendorf-regardin… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/18/i-did-the-best-i-could-chel… https://www.thedailybeast.com/chelsea-manning-im-not-going-to-be-intimidate… https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/15/chelsea-manning-harvard-ken… https://www.eff.org/press/releases/whistleblower-chelsea-manning-techdirt-f… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWE6YSquJ3g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIbpjsqk8eo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSx1VG8UnF8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGitzTGqA5s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQ-00dy6yD4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENjMCfqQDn8 ‘An Historic Embarrassment for American Academia’ In a confusing statement following the CIA pressure, Harvard’s Douglas Elmendorf called extending the fellowship to Manning “a mistake.” Elmendorf said the initial invitation to her was defensible but neglected the impact of the “perceived honor that it implies to some people,” which opened up Harvard to criticism for hypocrisy in honoring, among others, Sean Spicer, who repeatedly lied from the White House podium as President Trump’s press secretary. Manning’s invitation to address students of the school’s Institute of Politics was denounced by Mike Pompeo, the CIA director who cancelled an appearance at Harvard on Thursday, and by former deputy director of the agency Mike Morell, who resigned his own visiting fellowship in protest at what the two men described as the honoring of a “traitor”. Details of the phone call were shared with the Guardian by a source who was present at the time of the conversation. Manning had just stepped off stage in San Francisco where she was receiving a global freedom of information award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). When Elmendorf reached Manning on the phone he sounded audibly nervous, the source said. He argued that Harvard had to “weigh” what each visiting fellow “brought to the table”. They noted what they suggested was the absurdity of honouring two prominent members of a presidential campaign notorious for its bending of the truth and controversial stances on race issues in America. Elmendorf further alienated the Manning team by responding that Spicer and Lewandowski “brought something to the table” and could teach the Harvard audience something. That, for the recipients of the phone conversation, implied that the whistleblower by contrast had nothing to contribute. Elmendorf’s decision to roll over just hours after the two CIA figures protested has put the dean in a tight corner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q488IYqfohQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6-3SxHV_z8

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[WAR] - final possibility of WW3 → the USA Israel lobby
by Zenaan Harkness 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

Well with Putin the new “Don” of the middle east with everyone from Turkey, Germany, Iran and Iraq to the Israel + Saudi twin peaks of ME stability and human rights, all racing a line to the Kremlin's front door for deals and begging rights, what we’re now left with is simply the death throws of the dying dragon of the USA's debt-funded war machine, the Mad Dog, being wagged by its tail, the Israel lobby (USA). Thus demonstrated is that Trump is completely unfit to by the USA president: “If it really is a matter of Israel ‘wagging the dog’ in respect of Donald Trump, this is proof positive that Trump is not fit to be the US President as he is no longer putting the interests of his own country, nor the collective interests of world peace, before the war mongering desires of the rogue Israeli regime.” Enjoy: >From Mad Man Theory to “Moron Theory” 3 reasons why Donald Trump is defying world opinion over Iran Whether the chaos of the Trump administration is organised or otherwise, there is a real risk of danger if the US withdraws from the JCPOA. by Adam Garrie October 7, 2017, 21:27 http://theduran.com/trump-vs-jcpoa-really-trupm-vs-world/ Those with conscience, and beholden to the whims of Israel, ought do the world a favour and unilaterally resign from their positions of demoncratic power in the USA, as a favour to the world, thus allowing a peaceful reconcilliation of the USA's excessively leveraged financial position to be balanced with a 1929 reset, WITHOUT the insisting on World War 3. That's chaos. The alternatives are Jim Bell's Assassination Politics, a truly anarchistic approach to the problem of the despotism of the world's "elites" (which may bring peace and order, or may also descend into chaos), civil war or martial war or both (certainly chaotic, and probably why we're seeing Port-Arthur style "lone gunman" shooting attack psy-ops), or perhaps a genuine direct democracy/ liberal anarchy where those in power simply resign themselves to a respect for the will of every individual in the world (unlikely). Good luck fellow humans,

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Distributed Tweet
by grarpamp 08 Oct '17

08 Oct '17

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twister_(software) https://github.com/yep/eth-tweet

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