I have no mouth, and I must scream: computers will kill us all.

[monkey!]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-21546_3-57328594-10253464/what-if-you-could-collect-all-of-the-worlds-data-into-one-place/?part=rss&subj=latest-news&tag=title

The world is fast becoming a Harlan Ellison or Philip K. Dick nightmare.

What if you could collect all of the world's data into one place?

Seriously folks, even if you think that the number is 789.332 yottabyes on some given day--let's say today--the number is bigger tomorrow. And it gets bigger the next day. Even the rate of growth of the world's collective data is meaningless. Who would ever try to collect it all in one place and do something with it?

Oops. Someone actually is trying to collect all the data in the world and use it to peer into the future. Seriously. What's more, an organization called the European Commission is even willing to pump 1 billion euros into this dream.

The project is called the FutureICT Knowledge Accelerator and Crisis-Relief System, or FuturICT for short. FuturITC is building a Living Earth Platform. In the words of the FutureICT founders, the Living Earth Platform will be "a simulation, visualization, and participation platform to support decision making of policymakers, business people, and citizens."

Funnily enough, David Icke wrote about this being an objective of the lizards some years ago.

And, what exactly do the founders of FuturICT want to do? Again in their words: "The ultimate goal of the FuturICT flagship project is to understand and manage complex global, socially interactive systems, with a focus on sustainability and resilience."

Here's a practical example of what I think they're up to. Back in September, the journal "nature" reported a study that showed how applying data analytics to news stories over the last 10 years could have predicted the Arab Spring. It noted that the "tone" of news stories in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia was trending progressively more negative in these countries where leaders are historically deposed by public uprisings.

[nacho]

That's less Ellison/Dick and more Asimov.

[monkey!]

It's leading up to an Ellison style story were computers take over the world, or a Dick story of computers controlling our future decisions.

[nacho]

This is very much Foundation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_series

Which, of course, Ellison (and Dick, much more blatantly) stole liberally from. But this (the catalog of all recorded knowledge) wasn't really part of their computer paranoia stuff.

[monkey!]

I think those will be the first iBooks purchases on my iPad 2, when I get it.

[nacho]

They're great. Severely dated, though. That 1940's sci-fi stuff can be real hokey. But the concept kind of wins out from the now laughable elements.

[RottingCorpse]

This is the second time in two months Foundation has come up in a "This is where we're headed" kind of way.

I loved Asimov's robot stuff in high school, but couldn't get into Foundation. Maybe time to try again?

[nacho]

This is the second time in two month Foundation has come up in a "This is where we're headed" kind of way.

I loved Asimov's robot stuff in high school, but couldn't get into Foundation. Maybe time to try again?

What you'll find now, 20 years after your first attempt, is that the series is oddly prescient of the internet age and the general decline of the US. So now you should see that Foundation = Google and the Empire = the US. And The Mule is Romney.

No, no... Maybe not that far...

[RottingCorpse]

Right. Time to stop reading FB.

More info and video at the link.

http://io9.com/stuxnet-has-infected-a-russian-nuclear-plant-and-the-sp-1462375259

Stuxnet has infected a Russian nuclear plant and the space station

The problem with creating Stuxnet, the world's most sophisticated malware worm, is that it could eventually go rogue. Which is precisely what has happened. The US- and Israeli-built virus has spread to a Russian nuclear plant — and even the International Space Station.

Stuxnet is an incredibly powerful computer worm that was created by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It initially spreads through Microsoft Windows and targets Siemens industrial control systems. It's considered the first malware that both spies and subverts industrial systems. It's even got a programmable logic controller rootkit for the automation of electromechanical processes.

Let that last point sink in for just a second. This thing, with a little bit of coaxing, can actually control the operation of machines and computers it infects.

[monkey!]

SkyNET is coming.

[nacho]

I'm taking this over as the tech service thread!

I need someone who's running Windows Xp (or, LOL, an earlier version) so I can rip shit off of my old zip discs...

Alternatively, I need help convincing either Vista or Windows 7 that it can, without hurting itself, rip shit off my Zip discs...

I've done some basic searching and found a few options that I'm sort of afraid to try... Any tech savvy people able to help me out? I have 10 Zip discs full of terrible writing, Purple Publications plates, and 1993 gif porn.

[RottingCorpse]

I'll call John Titor and see if he can go back to 1998 and get you one.

[nacho]

I'll call John Titor and see if he can go back to 1998 and get you one.

That appears to be my only option...

[Reginald McGraw]

Do you have a zip drive reader?

[nacho]

Do you have a zip drive reader?

I have the Zip drive proper... Parallel port, but I got the USB converter.