The Metaverse, Digital Twins, and Global Surveillance
This is an excerpt (with new information) from a piece Sebs & I wrote about the Metaverse, Digital Twins, IoT, higher G family towers, & the implications for full spectrum global surveillance.
Given the recent news about Facebook’s name change, we figured it would be helpful to provide further information on much of what we’re seeing play out in real-time. Our post was also about the future of healthcare and the history of research and development in nanotechnology. Anyway, with all of this recent talk about the metaverse, we figured a repost was necessary because the focus seems to be on Facebook, even though that is only one aspect of the metaverse. It extends beyond just one company being touted out in the mainstream media.
By: Sebs Solomon & Aly Alexandra—November 1, 2021
The Metaverse, Spatial Web, AI, and Edge Computing
The mass rollouts of the higher G family networks and their convergence with non-biological intelligence (AI) and 30+ billion connected devices around the world (called IoT) will generate large amounts of real-world data every second of every day. The spatial internet refers to a computing atmosphere that exists in a 3D space. It is also referred to as the AR Cloud and is, essentially, the ‘digital twin’ of the physical world. It is a pairing “of real and virtual realities, enabled via billions of connected devices, and accessed through the interface of Virtual and Augmented Reality.” The Spatial Web enables users to build a twin of the physical reality in a virtual realm and brings the digital world into the real one. By laying digital information on top of physical surroundings, developers can make any environment smart.
Interaction with wearable technology, voice, and IoT devices is computed using 5G, AI, and Edge then the information is recorded on a distributed ledger or blockchain. This will accelerate the development of Web 3.0 or the Spatial Web. Edge computing is advertised as distributed, decentralized computing, which helps reduce latency by decreasing the distance between the device and a cloud-based processor because with the emerging 5G networks, “mobile edge computing (MEC) promises to [deploy] applications at the network edge closer to users.” To put it simply, the more of the higher G family towers go up, the better for edge computing (an integral part of developing the Spatial Web).
Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) will also play pivotal roles in Spatial Web computation because they allow machines and devices to understand the non digital realm through computer vision and natural language processing. It will also drive “contextual, personalized experiences via AI’s ability to self-program, continuously learn, and make contextual decisions. This will be critical for Spatial Web maturity, and it will require immense amounts of processing power.” And since AR needs more computing power than most devices presently possess, blockchain technology is seen as a solution that can enable the computing power to be distributed. However, since cameras, sensors, and location data can integrate real-time data to create environments, Kevin Kelly of Wired has cautioned that:
Synchronizing the virtual twins of all places and all things with the real places and things, while rendering it visible to millions will require tracking people and things to a degree that can only be called a total surveillance state.
This should strike some fear in everyone because this is what some refer to as full spectrum dominance. This should also be understood as a militarized operation because most of this technology is coming straight out of defense departments around the world. Yes, the internet itself came out of the military and it is quite wonderful, but this is a little more personal than just being able to freely surf the web. Does anyone really want to be coerced into a hyper centralized structure designed by people who have little understanding of what it means to be human, let alone have respect for nature? Because that’s what the Spatial Web will be, a real-time digital duplicate of the physical world.
Digital Twins
Digital twinning is an integral part of the militarized surveillance that the ignorant and corrupt factions of the oligarchy and control freaks at Davos, The Trilateral Commission, Chatham House, and Council on Foreign Relations wish to bestow upon humanity and all of nature. Geospatial World describes Digital Twins as a:
Representation of a product or process that is built using real-time sensor data and algorithms. It can be used in product design, simulation, monitoring, optimization, and servicing. Digital twins can virtually predict everything that will happen in the physical world; thus providing valuable insights for future planning and development…digital twin technology is the future of designing and manufacturing.
Basically, a digital twin is a computer program that utilizes real world data to generate simulations (of the physical world) which can then speculate how a product or process will perform. Sounds a little bit like predictive policing, watch the movie Minority Report to see what the world could possibly resemble in the future. However, even some well-meaning individuals are advocating for this technology as a tool to liberate the masses by putting them in charge of their “identities” and allowing them to profit off of their own data, without mentioning the military roots and surveillance implications. How can people make informed decisions about opting into this if they are unaware of the potential dangers? For example, in Australia, there is an effort to create a digital twin of the city, Victoria. They claim the goal is to recreate the city online, so that the government can collaborate with the community and the private sector to share real-time, interoperable data to enhance outcomes.
Using the Digital Twin Victoria platform, one can monitor live data and have total access to the natural environment (using data points from the massive library of aerial imagery). It is being sold as a way to track natural disaster data, vegetation growth, and animal migration patterns to boost productivity and collaboration among the government, industry, academia, and community. The first part will require massive collection of data (making use of sensor technology and internet of things devices that will communicate with one another in real-time). Then all of that data will be used to create a model of the real world in the virtual world. Next, all of the digital twins in the virtual world will be able to interact with one another to build a virtual society (a metaverse). Lastly, the virtual world that is tracking the material world will be used to make predictions of the physical world. This technology probably sounds amazing, until you remember that it’s military technology that will be used to usher in a technocratic dystopia because the end goal is full spectrum dominance — tracking everyone and everything (in real time) at every moment of every day, and it won’t stop in Australia. The digital twin computer programs can “combine the Internet of Things or Industry 4.0, AI, and software analytics to enhance output.” Industry 4.0 will require the following:
By the way, “output” means the ability to put out more predictions based on the collected empirical data. If machines are predicting outcomes based on data gathered from observing human behavior and NOT taking into account people’s ability to change, even after making horrible mistakes, then this can have negative implications of epic proportions.
Remember the Domain Awareness System (DAS) that Michael Bloomberg set up in New York City almost ten years ago? It was a collaborative effort with Microsoft and NYPD (facilitated by Bloomberg). They created a surveillance apparatus that used information from cameras, license plate readers, and environmental sensors to feed the law enforcement database. It was piloted in NYC, but it soon expanded to Chicago, Baltimore, Abu Dhabi, Nairobi, and Johannesburg.
The metaverse will track your actions in the digital space, the same way the Domain Awareness System tracks people in the physical world (it is important to draw this parallel and think of the metaverse as a national security mechanism and not necessarily a gaming world to hang out with friends). Furthermore, the DAS headquarters in Manhattan is staffed with police officers and private stakeholders; such as, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of New York, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, and CitiGroup.
Why would the central banks, large private banks, and pharmaceutical companies be associated with a surveillance system designed by NYPD and Microsoft? The real goal seems to be the creation of a massive biosecurity state.
To Conclude:
Given the recent emphasis on the big business inspired value-based precision healthcare, the spooky characters involved in creating these structures, the dangers of AI algorithms in hospitals, interoperable data collected from wearable technology and smart appliances, the emergence of conductive 2D materials like graphene, and the United States “new” domestic terror laws that are now expanding to target more groups outside of the demographics who have always been targeted by these laws;
the convergence of nanotechnologies with information technology and connecting the complex networks of remote sensing devices, via nanosensors and IoT; coupled with rapid computational power and advanced geospatial technology — could be used for covert surveillance on a global scale.
You know that dystopian future you’ve always imagined but never thought could happen? Well, it’s here. It’s been in the works for decades. There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution to navigating any of this. The point is, if we can’t get to the roots of the problems — because there are multiple problems — we’ll never move forward. We owe it to not only ourselves, our loved ones, and our fellow human beings around the globe — but to everything in the natural world that will quickly seem like a relic of the past within the next decade. It’s all about how we approach these issues. Yes, there are plenty of gains to be made in the technological revolution we’re living through, but at what cost?
It’s important to bring attention to the people calling the shots, but ultimately, it’s on all of us to push back against the tyrannical world toward which we are being herded. We can’t just “wish” a solution into existence; it’s going to require some tough decisions in the years ahead. While the idea of “opting out” or developing a parallel society sounds nice, we have to be mindful of this simple fact: not everyone can afford to leave everything behind and start over in the wilderness. This is not to say that it’s unreasonable to do so (some of us regret not purchasing that plot of land in the Smokies years ago) but there are plenty of people who are going about their lives, completely unaware of this information and who do not have the means to opt out. Yes, the response can be, “well, inform them and show them how to do it,” but how viable is that for the average person living under crippling debt, working several jobs to stay afloat, and barely has time to take a nap (let alone learn how to build a parallel society).
It’s easy to assume that most people just “don’t get it,” but if we’re only operating in specific circles (or echo chambers), it’s easy to lose sight of what we’re up against. The further we can delve into the layers of this, the quicker we’ll develop solutions. Why? This might seem basic, but it still holds true: you cannot provide a solution if you have not peeled back all of the layers of the problem and exposed its structure—even if the information leads you to a place that challenges your current interpretation of how the world works, keep going.
Sure, we understand the “faces” of this Fourth Industrial Revolution, but what about the people working within that structure? Is the software engineer aware that his specific program will ultimately be used to track and surveil his fellow man or completely capture all of nature? What about the healthcare professional tasked with training her staff on a new AI-driven patient-management system? Is she aware that one day, her job will be done, entirely, by a machine? One could argue that parallel societies, to a certain degree, are a short-term fix (which isn’t inherently a bad thing); however, is that the best way forward for all of humanity, life, and nature—on a global scale? Perhaps, we should ponder some of these things before presenting any concrete solutions.
Peace and blessings,
Aly & Sebs
This post can also be found on Sebs Solomon’ s Medium - (gnomes4truth)- make sure you subscribe & like!
