maebmij’s blog

The current anonymous-vs-scientology stuff has been reminding me of an idea from Ghost in the Shell: A “stand alone complex” which can result in people spontaneously engaging in copycat-like behaviour, but without an original. The director said he was trying “to underscore the dilemmas and concerns that people would face if they relied too heavily on the new communications infrastructure”. In the story, the complex manifests in many people claiming to be a famous hacker known as the “laughing man”, who hides his identity using a digital mask which looks like this:

Meanwhile, in reality, lots of people called “anonymous” have been protesting Scientology, wearing masks:

I’m not the first to notice a similarity, of course:

On a side note, if you like the idea of the laughing man, you may like this website, which automatically applies laughing man masks to detected faces in images:

Eco-friendly electromagnetic superbikes, miniskirts, and hi-gloss white boots:

(TreeHugger article, manufacturer’s website)

Poster on George Street during APEC week:

Selected details:

[Title from Agrippa (a Book of the Dead), by William Gibson.]

Some pictures and news stories I collected in 2003/4:

Brain in virtual reality; body soaking in nutrient-filled vat

(2004-02-24): “Dr Hoffman believes pain contains a significant psychological element which is why distracting thoughts by virtual reality lends itself so well to pain control.
‘Pain requires conscious attention. Humans have a limited amount of this and it’s hard to do two things at once,’ he said.”

link, more detail

Korean students learning important skills

(2004-05-11): I love this pic, but unfortunately I’ve lost the source for it. I saved it as “Seoul student training 040511″, but I must leave any further interpretation to your imaginations…

Iraqi soldiers capture US military drone

(2003-03-25): “Iraqi television broadcast these pictures of a coalition drone aircraft shot down and then paraded through the streets of Basra.”

link

Mostly grim stories of cyberpunk interest that I’ve collected, from the last year or so:

Cyborgs to do battle with police

“Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says.”

link

Police spy-drones to monitor urban areas

“The machines, which are flown by remote control or using pre-programmed GPS navigation systems, are silent and can be fitted with night-vision cameras.

The images they record are sent back to a police support vehicle or control room.”

link

Police to wear head-mounted surveillance cameras

“Police say the Cylon camera will be used mainly while officers patrol potential hotspots such as Union Street, Mutley and the city centre … The message to the public is to enjoy yourselves but don’t misbehave because you don’t know when you may be caught on camera.”

link

Powered exoskeletons for stroke victims

“The robotic suit, which slips over a person’s upper body and arms, weighs only 1.8 kilograms (four pounds).

It was developed jointly by Activelink Co. — a venture of Matsushita Electric Industrial which is best known for the Panasonic brand — and Kobe Gakuin University.”

link

Taser knife-missiles

“If the subject tries to grab or disconnect the XREP projectile, the reflex engagement electrodes complete a circuit allowing TASER NMI to discharge from the Nose Electrodes, through the subject’s body, out to the hand that grabbed the XREP. … To maximize incapacitation, the XREP engine incorporates a microprocessor controlled optimal electrode selection technology.”

link

This Guardian article talks about Oscar Pistorius, a Paralympic sprinter with speeds that would currently place him 8th-fastest among able-bodied sprinters in Britain. He runs with Össur custom sprint feet (pictured). He’s asking to be allowed to compete in the Olympics, and there’s some debate over whether the feet constitute an unfair advantage. But I think the more interesting question is: As prosthetic technology improves, will we start seeing the best times coming from the Paralympics instead of the Olympics? Is it not at least theoretically possible that we could design a better sprinting leg than the human leg?
The article immediately reminded me of a great makes-you-think hidden detail from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, a sci-fi story where many of the characters are cybernetically enhanced, having had various muscles and joints replaced with stronger artificial ones:

One of these characters mentions he’s a former boxing medallist; but if you look closely, you discover that his medal is a Paralympic one. It took me a few moments to work this out (”but he isn’t disabled!”): One possible future for the Paralympics is as the competition where humans with elective (and superior) prosthetics are allowed to compete; in such a scenario, they could become the most interesting competition, with the Olympics relegated to special-interest for the purists…

“Korea has developed its own android capable of facial expressions on its humanoid face.”

“The face is a composite of two stars, and its torso on a singer.”

cf. William Gibson’s Idoru