Posts tagged mark of the beast
NBC Warns Of Coming Singularity Explosion
May 8th
Are you prepared to meet your robot overlords?
The idea of super-intelligent machines may sound like the plot of “The Terminator” or “The Matrix,” but many experts say the idea isn’t far-fetched. Some even think the singularity — the point at which artificial intelligence can match, and then overtake, human smarts — might happen in just 16 years. But nearly every computer scientist will have a different prediction for when and how the singularity will happen.
Some believe in a Utopian future, in which humans can transcend their physical limitations with the aid of machines. But others think humans will eventually relinquish most of their abilities and gradually become absorbed into artificial intelligence (AI)-based organisms, much like the energy-making machinery in our own cells. [5 Reasons to Fear Robots]
Singularity near?
In his book “The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology” (Viking, 2005), futurist Ray Kurzweil predicted that computers will be as smart as humans by 2029, and that by 2045, “computers will be billions of times more powerful than unaided human intelligence,” Kurzweil wrote in an email to LiveScience.
“My estimates have not changed, but the consensus view of AI scientists has been changing to be much closer to my view,” Kurzweil wrote.
Bill Hibbard, a computer scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, doesn’t make quite as bold a prediction, but he’s nevertheless confident AI will have human-level intelligence some time in the 21st century.
“Even if my most pessimistic guess is true, it means it’s going to happen during the lifetime of people who are already born,” Hibbard said.
But other AI researchers are skeptical.
“I don’t see any sign that we’re close to a singularity,” said Ernest Davis, a computer scientist at New York University.
While AI can trounce the best chess or Jeopardy player and do other specialized tasks, it’s still light-years behind the average 7-year-old in terms of common sense, vision, language and intuition about how the physical world works, Davis said.
For instance, because of that physical intuition, humans can watch a person overturn a cup of coffee and just know that the end result will be a puddle on the floor. A computer program, on the other hand, would have to do a laborious simulation and know the exact size of the cup, the height of the cup from the surface and various other parameters to understand the outcome, Davis said.
Infinite abilities
Once the singularity occurs, people won’t necessarily die (they can simply upgrade with cybernetic parts), and they could do just about anything they wanted to — provided it were physically possible and didn’t require too much energy, Hibbard said.
The past two singularities — the Agricultural and Industrial revolutions — led to a doubling in economic productivity every 1,000 and 15 years, respectively, said Robin Hanson, an economist at George Mason University in Washington, D.C., who is writing a book about the future singularity. But once machines become as smart as man, the economy will double every week or month.
This rapid pace of productivity would be possible because the main “actors” in the economy, namely people, could simply be replicated for whatever it costs to copy an intelligent-machine software into another computer.
Earth’s destruction?
That productivity spike may not be a good thing. For one, robots could probably survive apocalyptic scenarios that would wipe out humans.
“A society or economy made primarily of robots will not fear destroying nature in the same way that we should fear destroying nature,” Hanson said.
And others worry that we’re barreling toward a future that doesn’t take people into account. For instance, self-driving cars could improve safety, but also put millions of truck drivers out of work, Hibbard said. So far, no one is planning for those possibilities.
“There are such strong financial incentives in using technology in ways that aren’t necessarily in everyone’s interest,” Hibbard said. “That’s going to be a very difficult problem, possibly an unsolvable problem.”
Human devolution?
Some scientists think we are already in the midst of the singularity.
Humans have already relinquished many intelligent tasks, such as the ability to write, navigate, memorize facts or do calculations, Joan Slonczewski, a microbiologist at Kenyon college and the author of a science-fiction book called “The Highest Frontier,” (Tor Books, 2011). Since Gutenberg invented the printing press, humans have continuously redefined intelligence and transferred those tasks to machines. Now, even tasks considered at the core of humanity, such as caring for the elderly or the sick, are being outsourced to empathetic robots, she said.
“The question is, could we evolve ourselves out of existence, being gradually replaced by the machines?” Slonczewski said. “I think that’s an open question.”
In fact, the future of humanity may be similar to that of mitochondria, the energy powerhouses of cells. Mitochondria were once independent organisms, but at some point, an ancestral cell engulfed those primitive bacteria, and over evolutionary history, mitochondria let cells gradually take over all the functions they used to perform
, until they only produced energy.
“We’re becoming like the mitochondria. We provide the energy — we turn on the machines,” Slonczewski told LiveScience. “But increasingly, they do everything else.” source – NBC News
Google Glass To Advance Mark Of The Beast World System
Mar 18th
RELATED STORY: The Mark of the Beast
We believe that the mark of the beast spoken of in the bible is an actual mark, and more than that, it will part of a worldwide system. It will be a system in which every person is under constant, 24 hour surveillance, and it will as the bible says, either grant or deny you the abilty to conduct financial transactions -
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16,17
Google and countless other technology companies are working overtime at a pace never seen before in world history to create this coming system that the Antichrist will takeover when he arrives on the scene. Don’t believe it? Just look into the camera and smile…you’ll get the picture soon enough.
From Daily Mail UK: They look like something you’d see at a Star Trek convention, perhaps worn with a pair of fake pointy ears. And that’s entirely fitting, given that these high-tech specs are about to propel us into a sci-fi future few could have envisaged a decade ago.
Google Glass has had the tech world giddy with excitement since it was unveiled nearly a year ago. Last week, at the South By Southwest technology convention in Austin, Texas, a Google designer gave the first demonstration to a rapt audience.
This remarkable new innovation represents the advance guard of what Silicon Valley is banking on being the next great step in our addiction to the internet: ‘wearable computing’.
Apple and Samsung are working on smart watches, Google is developing talking shoes, but nothing compares to these head-mounted ‘glasses’ that can shoot video footage, search the internet or send an email, all at the command of their wearer’s voice.
To look at, they are nothing special, certainly rather nerdy, but put them on and you are immersed in what the experts like to call ‘augmented reality’.
But what exactly is augmented reality?
Each pair of glasses is fitted with a miniaturised camera and web browser which displays digital information on a tiny screen — a clear plastic block the width of a pencil — just in front and slightly above a wearer’s eye.
Private: Co-founder of Google, Sergey Brin models Google glasses before the Diane Von Furstenberg fashion show during Mercedes-Benz Spring Fashion Week in New York
The arm of the headset, which sits near the wearer’s temple, acts as a touch pad. By sliding your finger up and down it, you can scroll through the text visible in your eyepiece. To select something on the screen, the user simply taps the headset.
The device is also fitted with a tiny speaker, microphone and motion sensors which interpret commands based on the wearer’s head movements.
Google Glass does everything a smartphone does without the bother of having to pull it out of your pocket and fiddle with the controls. Text messages and emails can be dictated by voice command and then read back on the screen to check that the computer has heard — and spelt — everything correctly.
Want to catch up on the news? Wearers can see headlines and pictures and have full stories read back to them simply by tapping the frame of their glasses.
Wear them while driving and the glasses’ in-built GPS system will identify your location and give you turn-by-turn directions via Google Maps. Ask the glasses a question and the answer will pop up on screen.
At the Texas convention, the Google representative gave an in-depth demonstration showing how, in addition to voice commands, simple eye movements can also be used to control the device. Looking up activates the screen and gentle head motions allow you to scroll through various different programmes.
The technician took a photo of the packed audience and then asked his glasses how to say ‘thank you’ in Japanese.
Google Glass is expected to go on sale by the end of this year at an estimated price of $1,500 (£995). Already, tech junkies have shown themselves willing to pay even more.
When someone claiming to be testing Google Glass offered their device for sale on eBay this month, bidding went as high as $16,000 (£10,610). The auction was cancelled only when it became clear that the opportunistic vendor didn’t yet have the device.
Google has allowed only a trusted few volunteer guinea pigs to try out the glasses, which they insist are still in development. Those who have put these early prototypes through their paces have generally been impressed — with a few caveats.
The screen, they say, is distracting because, when you are trying to get on with other tasks, you are always tempted to look up at it.
Those who normally wear glasses have also reported difficulties in reading the screen. Google says it is working on a spectacles-compatible version and Google Glass contact lenses are surely only years away.
Wearers also report feeling self-conscious while wearing them. They certainly are not the most chic of options. Google says it is working on that, too — by collaborating with trendy spectacles manufacturers to make later Google Glass designs more attractive.
Some reported that the glasses made friends and family feel uncomfortable. How can you be sure the Google Glass wearer you are talking to is actually paying attention — and not checking the sports results popping up on his screen?
But of all the promised features of these spectacular specs, it is the glasses’ ability to take pictures and shoot video footage and upload it instantly to the internet that is proving most disturbing.
Some fear candid camera snooping will become all too easy when no one realises that the person simply looking in their direction is actually filming them.
And it gets worse
According to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, the company plans to have Google Glass fitted with an automatic picture-taking mode, snapping photos at pre-set intervals. This could be as often as every five seconds.
While people may rightly worry about being photographed without their knowledge or permission, such fears pale into insignificance when you consider the true extent of the insidious reach of Google Glass.
Time and again, Google has proved that it has no time for that quaint old concept called ‘privacy’
You may already have been filmed unknowingly by someone with Google Glass — one of those lucky guinea pigs hand-picked to try out the developing technology. If not, rest assured you soon will be. A growing number of industry insiders say we should all be very worried.
Scott Cleland, an internet analyst, told me ‘creepy’ Google Glass technology represented the ‘ultimate escalation of Google’s privacy invasion’.
He says: ‘Say you’re huddled in Starbucks with your spouse and someone next to you is recording your conversation on Google Glass. Remember, the glasses have no storage capacity so all the information goes directly back to Google’s huge data centres.’
Nick Pickles, of the UK privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, says Google Glass ‘makes CCTV cameras look trivial . . . the person next to you isn’t just a commuter any more, they’re a Google agent’. source – Daily Mail UK
Biocryptology Is The Future Of Cashless Transactions
Feb 25th
RELATED STORY: The Mark of the Beast
RAPID CITY, S.D. — Futurists have long proclaimed the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners smart enough to distinguish a living, breathing account holder from an identity thief.
What they probably didn’t see coming was that one such technology would make its debut not in Silicon Valley or MIT but at a small state college in remote western South Dakota, 25 miles from Mount Rushmore.
Two shops on the School of Mines and Technology campus are performing one of the world’s first experiments in Biocryptology — a mix of biometrics (using physical traits for identification) and cryptology (the study of encoding private information). Students at the Rapid City school can buy a bag of potato chips with a machine that non-intrusively detects their hemoglobin to make sure the transaction is legitimate.
Researchers figure their technology would provide a critical safeguard against a morbid scenario sometimes found in spy movies in which a thief removes someone else’s finger to fool the scanner.
On a recent Friday, mechanical engineering major Bernard Keeler handed a Red Bull to a cashier in the Miner’s Shack campus shop, typed his birthdate into a pay pad and swiped his finger. Within seconds, the machine had identified his print and checked that blood was pulsing beneath it, allowing him to make the buy. Afterward, Keeler proudly showed off the receipt he was sent via email on his smartphone.
Fingerprint technology isn’t new, nor is the general concept of using biometrics as a way to pay for goods. But it’s the extra layer of protection — that deeper check to ensure the finger has a pulse — that researchers say sets this technology apart from already-existing digital fingerprint scans, which are used mostly for criminal background checks.
Al Maas, president of Nexus USA — a subsidiary of Spanish-based Hanscan Indentity Management, which patented the technology — acknowledged South Dakota might seem an unlikely locale to test it, but to him, it was a perfect fit.
“I said, if it flies here in the conservative Midwest, it’s going to go anywhere,” Maas said.
Maas grew up near Madison, S.D., and wanted his home state to be the technology’s guinea pig. He convinced Hanscan owner Klaas Zwart that the 2,400-student Mines campus should be used as the starter location.
The students all major in mechanical engineering or hard sciences, which means they’re naturally technologically inclined, said Joseph Wright, the school’s associate vice president for research-economic development.
“South Dakota is a place where people take risks. We’re very entrepreneurial,” Wright said. After Maas and Zwart introduced the idea to students this winter, about 50 stepped forward to take part in the pilot.
“I really wanted to be part of what’s new and see if I could help improve what they already have,” said Phillip Clemen, 19, a mechanical engineering student.
Robert Siciliano, a security expert with McAfee, Inc., minimized potential privacy concerns. ”We are hell bent on privacy issues here in the U.S. We get all up in arms when someone talks about scanning us or recording our information, but then we’ll throw up everything about us on Facebook and give up all of our personal information for 10 percent off at a shoe store for instant credit,” he said.
Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil Liberties Union, said fingerprint technology on its own raises security issues, but he called “liveness detection” a step in the right direction.
“Any security measure can be defeated; it’s a question of making it harder,” he said. The key to keeping biometric identification from becoming Big Brother-like is to make it voluntary and ensure that the information scanned is used exactly as promised, Stanley said.
Brian Wiles, a Miles mechanical engineering major, said it’s exciting to be beta testing technology that could soon be worldwide. ”There was some hesitation, but the fact that it’s the first in the world — that’s the whole point of this school,” said Wiles, 22. “We’re innovators.” source – NY Daily News
Preparing You To Receive The Mark Of The Beast
Feb 10th
“And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:17
Have you ever wondered where our current “tattoo culture” came from? Time was that tattoo’s were considered dirty and associated mostly with bikers and convicts, and not something that our society today seems to glory in. The New World Order has made sure that everywhere you look, you see news and stories that present tattoos in a favorable light. And why? To get your mind to accept the ultimate tattoo – the Mark of the Beast.
From Daily Mail UK: A new high tech tattoo may soon be your saving grace the next time you fall ill. Woven of gold and silk, this temporary skin embossing could detect things like bacterial infections and let others know you’re sick.
The tech-savvy tats come embedded with antennae that would wirelessly alert nearby computers to your malady and help you receive prompt help.
This is the brainchild of Princeton professor Michael McAlpine, who recently received a grant through his university to expedite his research and make antenna tattoos a reality. The engineering professor says he got the idea while reading about a woman who suddenly had an asthma attack at a grocery store.
‘She couldn’t breathe enough to tell first-responders what was wrong, but she had a tattoo on her arm that said she had asthma,’ McAlpine told Times of Trenton. ‘I thought, if she can have a passive tattoo that says “I have asthma,” why not have an active tattoo that can continuously track your health?’
McAlpine’s hope is that, now that he has grant funding, he will soon be testing his invention in hospitals.
He also hopes to lengthen the time the tattoo’s antenna, which can wash off with water, will stay on the body. And this isn’t the first time McAlpine has thought up novel ways to detect disease in the body.
Last year, he and his team of researchers reported they’d found a way to test’s one’s breath for evidence of disease.
By placing a super thin form of carbon called graphene along with disease sensing peptides on a strip and ‘tattooing’ it onto teeth, they were able to detect infection and transit the data it to medical personnel. It seems that McAlpine and his team have now taken their ‘tooth tattoo’ a step further and are exploring new and more innovative ways to put their research to use. source – Daily Mail UK
‘Extra Sensory’ Droid DNA Verizon Commercial Prepares People For Being Chipped
Jan 8th
Preparing people to receive the mark of the beast
Let me start right off by saying that, while the bible teaches about the coming mark of the beast, it also teaches that the Body of Christ – the church – will be removed in the Rapture before any of the judgments of God are poured out in the Tribulation. The Pretribulation Rapture is also known as the blessed hope from Paul’s letter to Titus, and here it is:
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” Titus 2:13
This commercial makes it seem so very cool and appealing to have a smart phone implanted and merged with your body. You are being prepared and mentally conditioned to receive the mark of the beast. Don’t take it.
The blood-bought believer in Jesus Christ never has to worry about the mark of the beast because we have been saved and sealed unto the day of redemption. But for those left behind, it will be a whole different story altogether. For those people will go through the Great Tribulation and will have to make the choice to receive or reject the mark of the beast under the rule of the Antichrist.
RELATED AUDIO: Watching The Mark Of The Beast World System Unfold
So with all this in mind, we would like to to take a look at the latest Droid commercial from Verizon, the smartphone is called the ‘DNA’ and the title of the commercial is ‘Extra Sensory’.
Droid DNA Commercial tagline: “It’s not an upgrade to your phone, it’s an upgrade to yourself…”
In this commercial as you will see, a man is being implanted, chipped, with various smartphone parts, so that his body and the phone merge to become one.
If you think about these things from the bible’s perspective, it will gradually become clear to you why there is such a push towards social media, web, and the unstoppable onslaught of new technology. The world is being prepared for the Man of Sin to take the stage, and when he does, he will force you to take his mark. This entire commercial is a hard-sell pitch to move your mind in that direction.
“And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16,17
Be honest, how many of you, seeing this for the first time, said ” wow, check it out…this is really cool!”
Did you?
Get Text Messages Sent Directly To Your Contact Lens
Dec 8th
Technology and humanity are physically beginning to merge
RELATED STORY: The Mark of the Beast…
Ghent University’s centre of microsystems technology has developed a spherical curved LCD display which can be embedded in contact lenses and handle projected images using wireless technology.
“Now that we have established the basic technology, we can start working towards real applications, possibly available in only a few years,” said Professor Herbert De Smet.
Unlike previous contact lens displays, which are limited to a few small pixels to make up an image, the new technology allows the whole curved surface of the lens to be used.
One application suggested by the researchers is a “one pixel, fully covered contact lens acting as adaptable sunglasses”.
“This is not science fiction,” said Jelle De Smet, the chief researcher on the project, who believes commercial applications for the lenses will be available within five years.
“This will never replace the cinema screen for films. But for specific applications it may be interesting to show images such as road directions or projecting text messages from our smart phones straight to our eye.”
The innovation is the first step towards “fully pixelated contact lens displays” with the same detail as a television screen.
The lenses could also be used for medical purposes, for example to control the light transmission toward the eye’s retina in case of a damaged iris.
For cosmetic purposes, the lens could be used the iris of the eye a tuneable colour, allowing the user to change it to suit their mood. source – Telegraph UK
Saudi Women Tracked With RFID Chips By Their Male Masters
Nov 24th
The Mark of the Beast is already at work in the Middle East
From AFP: - Denied the right to travel without consent from their male guardians and banned from driving, women in Saudi Arabia are now monitored by an electronic system that tracks any cross-border movements.
“This is technology used to serve backwardness in order to keep women imprisoned,” said Bishr, the columnist.
Since last week, Saudi women’s male guardians began receiving text messages on their phones informing them when women under their custody leave the country, even if they are travelling together.
Manal al-Sherif, who became the symbol of a campaign launched last year urging Saudi women to defy a driving ban, began spreading the information on Twitter, after she was alerted by a couple.
The husband, who was travelling with his wife, received a text message from the immigration authorities informing him that his wife had left the international airport in Riyadh.
“The authorities are using technology to monitor women,” said columnist Badriya al-Bishr, who criticised the “state of slavery under which women are held” in the ultra-conservative kingdom.
Women are not allowed to leave the kingdom without permission from their male guardian, who must give his consent by signing what is known as the “yellow sheet” at the airport or border.
The move by the Saudi authorities was swiftly condemned on social network Twitter — a rare bubble of freedom for millions in the kingdom — with critics mocking the decision.
“Hello Taliban, herewith some tips from the Saudi e-government!” read one post.
“Why don’t you cuff your women with tracking ankle bracelets too?” wrote Israa.
“Why don’t we just install a microchip into our women to track them around?” joked another.
“If I need an SMS to let me know my wife is leaving Saudi Arabia, then I’m either married to the wrong woman or need a psychiatrist,” tweeted Hisham.
“This is technology used to serve backwardness in order to keep women imprisoned,” said Bishr, the columnist.
“It would have been better for the government to busy itself with finding a solution for women subjected to domestic violence” than track their movements into and out of the country.
Saudi Arabia applies a strict interpretation of sharia, or Islamic law, and is the only country in the world where women are not allowed to drive.
In June 2011, female activists launched a campaign to defy the ban, with many arrested for doing so and forced to sign a pledge they will never drive again.
No law specifically forbids women in Saudi Arabia from driving, but the interior minister formally banned them after 47 women were arrested and punished after demonstrating in cars in November 1990.
Last year, King Abdullah — a cautious reformer — granted women the right to vote and run in the 2015 municipal elections, a historic first for the country.
In January, the 89-year-old monarch appointed Sheikh Abdullatif Abdel Aziz al-Sheikh, a moderate, to head the notorious religious police commission, which enforces the kingdom’s severe version of sharia law.
Following his appointment, Sheikh banned members of the commission from harassing Saudi women over their behaviour and attire, raising hopes a more lenient force will ease draconian social constraints in the country.
But the kingdom’s “religious establishment” is still to blame for the discrimination of women in Saudi Arabia, says liberal activist Suad Shemmari.
“Saudi women are treated as minors throughout their lives even if they hold high positions,” said Shemmari, who believes “there can never be reform in the kingdom without changing the status of women and treating them” as equals to men.
But that seems a very long way off
The kingdom enforces strict rules governing mixing between the sexes, while women are forced to wear a veil and a black cloak, or abaya, that covers them from head to toe except for their hands and faces.
The many restrictions on women have led to high rates of female unemployment, officially estimated at around 30 percent.
In October, local media published a justice ministry directive allowing all women lawyers who have a law degree and who have spent at least three years working in a lawyer’s office to plead cases in court.
But the ruling, which was to take effect this month, has not been implemented. source- France 24
