Lifeboat Foundation

US Military’s new toys to show off in front of China and Russia.

Little noticed amid the daily news bulletins about the Islamic State and Syria, the Pentagon has begun a push for exotic new weapons that can deter Russia and China.

Pentagon officials have started talking openly about using the latest tools of artificial intelligence and machine learning to create robot weapons, “human-machine teams” and enhanced, super-powered soldiers.

Continue reading “The exotic new weapons the Pentagon wants to deter Russia and China” »

I must admit that appears that almost anything in tech is being called out as a threat. FB, Twitter, Smartphones, CRISPR, AI, etc. Tech advancements do bring greater freedoms & opportunities to express one’s ideas and beliefs as well as enable a greater access to people, information, and geographical locations; however, and that does pose some level of risk in small pockets of the greater poulation. Nonetheless, I hope that the government spying pendullum swing doesn’t go overboard.

Who tweets at you, what you tweet back, and why can predict your next protest act on social media.

On Monday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mark Zuckerberg partook in what he thought would be a “fireside chat” with Wired’s Jessi Hempel but which was verifiably not fireside, and was, actually, a keynote.

Inverse picked out the best nine moments of this interview.

1.) Zuck doesn’t know that Aquila will meet regulations but is just confident that it’ll work out

Continue reading “Mark Zuckerberg Offers These Predictions for the Future of the Internet” »

Russia isn’t messing around.

It’s for a good cause — but you have good reason to be scared.

Russia’s NextGen Robots are coming.

Russian military institutions are working on a program of robotization of the army that will introduce combat robots able to act independently on the battlefield, deputy head of the Defense Ministry Pavel Popov said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper.

Special military units of robots will be operated by a united control system, Popov said, adding that many robotic and pilotless vehicles are already employed in the Russian military.

Continue reading “Russian Army to Introduce New ‘Robot Warriors’” »

This article is amusing on killer robots and how governments should address the threat of killer robots on a national level. On a national level if (in my case the US) we were invaded or a whole army of robots landed on the shores of Florida, NY, or CA; then yes Congress would need to approve war, etc. Which is what this article highlights. However, attacking robots will most likely not be the result of an invasion from another country; attacking robot/s will be the result of criminals; etc. that hacked/or reprogrammed the robotics.

Cartels, terrorists, etc. will pay well to have self driving cars, humanoid robots, etc. re-engineered and re-programmed for their own benefits and become a weapon against individuals and the population.

The United Nations’ effort to ban killer robots will fail, but there are three important steps the United States can take to help slow the rise of lethal autonomous weapons systems, one of the most prominent voices in the robotics debate said this week.

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Once strictly an extremely expensive tool used only by law enforcement and the military, thermal cameras are now accessible to anyone with a smartphone and a $250 accessory. But starting with Caterpillar’s new rugged S60, thermal imaging sensors are starting to be built right into smartphones.

The FLIR ONE thermal camera started life as a bulky case for the iPhone 5, but was eventually streamlined into a compact dongle that connected to the microUSB or Apple Lightning port on the bottom of iOS or Android smartphones. With the new CAT S60 smartphone, however, the Lepton sensor that allows FLIR cameras to see in total darkness has finally been integrated into the device itself, alongside its standard rear camera.

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Russia’s cyber war in Syria.

Russia is mounting a far-reaching cyber espionage campaign against Syrian opposition groups and NGOs, as Moscow seeks to influence the flow of information on the country’s humanitarian crisis and obscure the full extent of its military operations.

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US Navy fighting the real war that is ramping up by unpluging from certain networks. Well, that is an option; but also very limiting to “sneaker net” information file transfers. Definitely not uncommon across other areas of government.

SAN DIEGO — For the Navy, the best defense against a high-tech enemy may be a low-tech strategy.

After decades of building equipment, aircraft and ships designed to communicate with each other and back to shore, the Navy is now looking to “selectively disconnect” its systems to minimize vulnerability to cyberattacks, said Rear Adm. Lorin Selby, commander of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.

Continue reading “Navy Wants to Unplug From Some Networks to Stay Ahead of Cyberattacks” »