LINKS: Media Hacking, Synbio, Wisdom of Crowds, Geoengineering

Here's some things I found interesting (thanks to everyone that contributed):

• Media Hacking. Artists hack broadcast in Czechoslovakia. Video. BBC story.
• Synbio. Craig Venter on a "DNA Driven World." Video. Skip the fluff and start it at 30:00 in. Summary: He argues that we don't have worry about peak oil or global warming. His solution: radically decentralized biorefineries that consume carbon and produce fuel. My NOTE: The real challenge is dealing with how synbio can accelerate individual superempowerment within the context of open source warfare.
• Wisdom of crowds in real-time. Primary markets from the University of Iowa. Democrats & Republicans. Not sure how predictive these are.
• Geoengineering.David Keith presentation on the topic. Jamais Cascio on its implications for warfare. A private firm called Planktos is trying to use geoengineering to create an "ice age" using Martin's iron hypothesis.

Comments

[Duncan Kinder]

The discussion of geoengineering brings to mind Chuko Liang, the wizard warrior ( Merlin cum Machiavelli ) of Shu during China's Three Kingdom's period.

The great battle of that epoch, the Battle of Red Cliffs, occurred when a massive northern army attempting to cross the Yangtze River was destroyed by fire ships. According to legend, Chuko then deployed Taoist magic to drive the winds against the northern fleet.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Red_Cliffs

See also:
Fire and Water: The Art of Incendiary and Aquatic Warfare in China by Ralph D. Sawyer and Mei-Chun Lee
http://www.amazon.com/Fire-Water-Incendiary-Aquatic-Warfare/dp/0813340659/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199639622&sr=8-1

The Three Kingdoms period has been enshrined in the great Chinese novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which bears about as much historical truth as Shakespeare's histories, but which is very good reading and has influenced Chinese thought, including Chinese military thought.
http://www.amazon.com/Three-Kingdoms-Chinese-Classics-4-Volumes/dp/7119005901/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199639816&sr=1-1

[JHyde]

Well, one answer (to the synbio) might be radical decentralization - making cures is harder than making diseases but a hell of a lot more people don't want to be infected by weaponized Ebola than want to infect people with weaponized Ebola. And while Craig Venter doesn't want people cooking this stuff up in their garages others feel differently:
http://events.ccc.de/congress/2007/Fahrplan/events/2329.en.html

[Justin & Heidi Long]

Completely off the subject but a random comment here: I wish that Brave New War were available in Amazon Kindle edition... I am reducing my library to digital bits and this is one I would like to purchase. But I'm waiting for it to be in electronic form!

[Azr@el]

I just finished reading/skimming this intolerably long online book, "dragon's fury" or some such ridiculous name. Basic synopsis; the prc,india and iran team to gang bang the good old u.s. of a ww2 style. The result; the bad guys run wild on the world stage for awhile, until an epic battle protecting the state of israel turns the tide and the u.s. and her allies unleash wmds like bad candy near it's expiration date, the bad guys are too afraid to counter with wmds and yes, i believe the u.s. did manage somehow to drag an asteroid into orbit and eventually master ftl travel. Suffice it to say, this was a book best left unread.

Yet, it did get me thinking about such issues as the shape of a real world war 3, a big what if scenario devoid of it's political and economic context, but what if ww3 broke out. I personally doubt it would be a replay of the last major conflagration, rather we probably wouldn't even know it was being fought or who the antagonist were. I think ww3 would start out with a fes sniffles , here and there, and a few cases of small scale nuclear terrorism. Not to write my own crappy book, but my random thoughts of world war 3 go something like this: The release of biological weapons coupled with the targeting of the global economy with a few well placed nukes. While the world shudders at the horror of of a few isolated incidents the underlying foundation of the modern nation states melt away as tax revenue starts to decline. After a few years of isolated, but well thought strikes, no amount of borrowing will pay the civil servants, soldiers and security forces that keep order at that point world war three ends with a whimper, not a bang and then the barbarians come a knocking.

Just some random thoughts..anyone else?