"There's nothing new in this world, there's only the truth you're not aware of"
Harry Truman
I'm obsessed with the truth. I'm not particularly fond of liars and hypocrites. Am still not sure why.
The truth...
This week saw the arrest of Wikileaks spokesperson and editor-in-chief Julian Assange (a Time's Person of The Year shoo-in, if you ask me) in connection with a sexual assault case in Sweden. The feeling, however, seems to be that this is in connection with the whistleblower site's release of secret US diplomatic cables. Wikileaks has been in existence since 2006 and has served as a venue for the release of secret materials. Highlights:
- Protocol of Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp: Published a copy of the standard operating procedures by the US Army which, among others, revealed the designation of a number of prisoners as "off-limits" to the Red Cross. Prior accusations of this very conduct was denied by the military.
- Peru Oil Scandal: Released transcription of conversations between a government official and a lobbyist working on securing a contract on behalf of a firm. This 2008 scandal led to street protests and the subsequent resignation of the Prime Minister.
- The Minton Report: An internal report commissioned by the multinational corporation Trafigura in connection with the dumping of toxic waste around Ivory Coast brought in by a ship chartered by that firm. The resulting gas released by the chemicals resulted in the deaths of 17 and the injury of 30,000.00
- Kaupthing Bank: Published internal document showing that, prior to its collapse during the Icelandic financial crisis, the bank loaned large amounts to owners of the bank and had some debts written off.
- Iraq Helicopter Airstrike: Graphic video contradicting a report filed by the US military in connection with the deaths of 18 people including two Reuters news staff. You may watch the video by clicking here: Airstrike Video. Be forewarned that it is graphic.
- Afghan War Documents
- Iraq War Documents
- US Diplomatic Cables: The release in November of communication between the US State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world. It offers a glimpse into the inner workings of the State Department including, among others, the encouragement to obtain personal info on their counterparts.
Why does Wikileaks do what it does? Assange, who is also one of its founders, explains that, "To radically shift regime behavior we must think clearly and boldly for if we have learned anything, it is that regimes do not want to be changed. We must think beyond those who have gone before us and discover technological changes that embolden us with ways to act in which our forebears could not."
And that, "the more secretive or unjust an organisation is, the more leaks induce fear and paranoia in its leadership and planning coterie. ... Since unjust systems, by their nature induce opponents, and in many places barely have the upper hand, mass leaking leaves them exquisitely vulnerable to those who seek to replace them with more open forms of governance."
Bradley Manning is the US Army intelligence analyst who leaked the last four entries. His reason for doing it? Partly to explain "how the first world exploits the third, in detail, from an internal perspective."
The attack...
The vehicle carrying Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, and his wife Camilla Bowles were recently attacked by students - some of whom were chanting, "Off with their heads!" and "Tory (conservative UK political party) scum!" - protesting the three-fold increase in tuition fees approved by Parliament.
This week's Time Magazine features an interview with the futurist Ray Kurzweil. Highlights:
- His explanation of "singularity": "By the time we get to the 2040s, we'll be able to multiply human intelligence a billionfold...Computers are going to keep getting smaller and smaller. Ultimately, they will go inside our bodies and brains and make us healthier, make us smarter. We'll be online all the time. Search engines won't wait to be asked."
- Technology and health: "We will reprogram our biology. My cell phone's probably updating itself as we speak, but I'm walking around with 1,000-year-old software that was for a different era. One gene, the fat insulin receptor gene, says, "Hold on to every calorie, because the next hunting season may not work out so well." I'd like to be able to tell my fat insulin receptor gene, "You don't need to do that. I'm confident I'll have food tomorrow."
- Eating: "We'll grow in vitro cloned meats in factories that are computerized and run by artificial intelligence. You can just grow the part of the animal that you're eating. Some people say, 'Oh, that sounds yucky.' I say, 'Well, why don't you go visit a factory-farming installation? You'll find that getting meat from living animals is yucky.'"
- Science, religion and ethnic differences: "I think we are evolving rapidly into one world culture. It's certainly one world economy. With billions of people online, I think we'll appreciate the wisdom in many different traditions as we learn more about them. People were very isolated and didn't know anything about other religions 100 years ago."
- God: "I believe our civilization is going to be vastly more intelligent and more spiritual in the decades ahead. You can argue how we got here, but we are the species that goes beyond our limitations. We didn't stay on the ground. We didn't stay on the planet. Our species always transcends."
Kurzweil is a respected author and inventor who has had several predictions come true. Notably, he foresaw the demise of the Soviet Union due to new technology (cellphones, fax machines) taking information power away from the centralized authoritarian regime.
More about the future...
Steve "The Woz" Wozniack co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. A recent interview with him found the following quotes:
“All of a sudden, we’ve lost a lot of control. We can’t turn off our internet, we can’t turn off our smartphones, we can’t turn off our computers.”
“You used to ask a smart person a question. Now, who do you ask? It starts with g-o, and it’s not God,”
“We’re dependent on it (technology) and eventually, we are going to have it doing every task we can in the world, so we can sit back and relax.”
Fast forwarding history...
Used to be, history was something we'd see in black and white pictures and grainy video footage. Not anymore. Consider that it took almost 6,000 years between the invention of the wheel and the advent of the automobile while it took only 66 years between the invention of the airplane and the landing on the moon. History is moving at an unprecedented clip. History is what we saw yesterday on TV, from the radio, the internet... All of a sudden, news from print seems like...well, ancient history.
Just as the Industrial Age had previously shifted the paradigm of how we lived (poverty was prevalent before it), the Information Age - be glad you're in it - is changing the way you act and think.
There is some sort of convergence with The War on Terror (notably, the Iraq War) the Financial Crisis and this Age that my still tech-free brain is trying to understand. What I can see, so far:
There are those who are becoming more intelligent, more informed, less gullible and...more importantly...starting to question more. What does a more enlightened human being mean: More people who'll question authority and the actions of leaders, governments and corporations. Who'll question the very traditions and ideas they've found themselves in. Consider the students in the UK suffering under the weight of the Financial Crisis realizing that there are those (the Royal Family) among them who require $64 million a year from their government plus security from their Police and Army.
What does this all mean for the Philippines? Firstly, we've got to understand that the future will belong to the most creative, inventive and informed. Not only should it be used for creating jobs, but also, as a path to better governance. Darkness is the ally of shady dealings and the corrupt. Part of the President's plan should include the openning of the insides of the government machine to the public. We should have real-time access to contracts and plans. It is time that we get to see what the local and national bodies are up to. That is one way to fight corruption.
I've always thought that a public official's life should be an open book while in office. Shouldn't there be a camera crew following them around? I submit myself: If elected, I'll allow my years in office to be under the microscope.
The German Parliament features a viewing gallery that allows the citizenry a view of their politicians at work from above. It symbolizes: The people are above them (as opposed to the Communist era) and can see what they are doing.
The Illustrados were the learned Filipino class during the Spanish colonial period. "The enlightened ones," they were intellectuals exposed to the outside world and to the ideals of liberalism and nationalism. They've been described as "key figures in the development of Filipino nationalism." Presently, exposure to the ideals of the outside world is no longer exclusive to those who travel, study or live abroad. Technology has allowed access to these by those who can afford time on the internet. We won't be witnesses to it, but empowered, intelligent and altruistic future Filipino generations will slowly be in control of the destiny of the nation. Let me stake my claim on this new term: The New Illustrados.
What does this all mean for the future of all mankind? Let me digress slightly. "Tron" was a film that came out in 1982. The Age of Information had not yet fully arrived and the account of a world existing inside computers was not accepted by the public. I watched it again a few years back and realized that it's actually groundbreaking work that's a precursor to later cinema like "The Matrix." Seminal - "highly influential in an original way" - is how to describe it.
Julian Assange - who's now being billed as a villain for his work with Wikileaks - will probably be seen by future generations as the precursor of humans forcing openness and accountability from those with authority and power. Seminal, indeed.
That is, also, what the future will bring: The power to control how we live and treat each other will wrested away from the few and will be distributed to enlightened and involved citizenry.
This new dawn of enlightenment will eventually bring about changes in the way we believe. Eventually, an exponential number of people will question basic principles. As an example: If Adam and Eve were the first, how come we're all different? Where did the Chinese, Malays, Africans, Caucasians, Aborigines, etc. come from?
Changes in the way we treat each other. As Ray Kurzweil noted, we will feel closer to each other. Will world peace be finally at hand? Not too fast. Maybe a million years.
This will, naturally, lay the groundwork for future conflict. It will not be among nations, but rather, between the traditionalists (more to lose) who'll subconsciously see knowledge as the enemy and the enlightened (more to gain) ones.
Esoteric. I think that's the word you're trying to search for to describe this latest entry. Maybe you're right. I'm probably alienating more of you guys ("Jay, you've gone too far"). What is this piece all about?
At the very end of it all, we'll probably evolve into beings that will, eventually, - free from the shackles we've found ourselves in - be more spiritual, be more open to each other, more trusting of each other, and, perhaps... finally...finally... start to start love one another "as you love yourself." That, I think, our creator will approve of. God, please be patient. Give us a million years.
We'd better love one another...we'll have to be ready to fight the coming invasion of the Vlysnxzoperiane aliens.
Thought this would be a lovely piece to close a post on truth, peace, the future and love:
