SciTechTip

Body of Secrets, author James Bamford

2007-12-11T13:34:00.001-08:00

According to James Bamford's "Body of Secrets: anatomy of the ultra-secret national security agency" p. 608;

The ultimate goal of Blue Gene is to solve a puzzle of a different sort from those at NSA -- although NSA may also secretly be a customer. Blue Gene's singular objective is to try and model the way a human protein folds into a particular shape. Because proteins are the molecular workhorses of the human body, it is essential to discover their molecular properties. In a sense, Blue Gene is like NSA's old RAMs, which were designed to attack a specific encryption system.

When completed, Blue Gene will consist of sixty-four computing towers standing six feet high and covering an area forty feet by forty feet. Inside will be a mind-boggling one million processors. The target speed is a petaflop.

When NSA crosses the petaflop threshold, if it hasn't already, it is unlikely that the rest of the world will know. By 2005 the SRC, with years of secret, highly specialized development accululated, will likely be working with computers operating at exaflop speeds - a quintillion operations a second - and pushing for zettaflop and even yottaflop machines, capable of a septillion (10 [to the 24th power]) operations every time a second hand jumps. Beyond yottaflop, numbers have not yet been named. "It is the greatest play box in the world," marveled one agency veteran of the NSA's technology capability. "They've got one of everything." ...

Brain Waves

2007-12-04T22:10:00.000-08:00

Technology can change a heart beat to save someone's life
https://www-eng.llnl.gov/mir/mir_search_rescue.html

Read the brain wave science pages: www.brainwavescience.com

Wired Magazine: How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq,...

2007-12-01T03:54:00.000-08:00

WIRED MAGAZINE: Wired Issue 15.12
Politics : Security
How Technology Almost Lost the War: In Iraq, the Critical Networks Are Social — Not Electronic
By Noah Shachtman 11.27.07 6:00 PM

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-12/ff_futurewar

"... Warehouses were networked, but so were individual cash registers. So were the guys who sold Wal-Mart the bulbs. If that company could wire everyone together and become more efficient, then US forces could, too. "Nations make war the same way they make wealth," Cebrowski and Garstka wrote. Computer networks and the efficient flow of information would turn America's chain saw of a war machine into a scalpel.
The US military could use battlefield sensors to swiftly identify targets and bomb them. Tens of thousands of warfighters would act as a single, self-aware, coordinated organism. ..."

What is "Zettatechnology"?

2007-11-29T21:06:00.000-08:00

Nanotechnology Introduction
"Nanotechnology is also known as ‘Molecular manufacturing’ or molecular construction. Each article processed using nanotechnology has certain characteristic features by itself. Nanotechnology deals with these properties taking one molecule of the material at a time and building them to the desired object" ... "Technically speaking nanotechnology deals with building molecule by molecule one of the following – a) incredibly small and highly advanced processors and chips of computers and machines or b) ordinary materials using highly advanced and extremely machines which are usually known as assemblers or fabricators.
Nanotechnology uses the molecular properties of an object to build a desired structure" http://www.nanotechnology-2007.com/nanotechnology-introduction.html

"Since the emphasis is on large-scale atomic precision, it is natural to seek a name that refers not to the nanometer scale of the parts, but to the number of distinct, designed parts in a macroscopic product, typically on the rough order of a sextillion (1021). Since the prefix "zetta-" denotes this number, the term "zettatechnology" naturally describes molecular manufacturing and its products (for comparison, the total world output of transistors has not yet reached one sextillion). One can thus speak of advanced nanotechnologies as eventually enabling zettatechnology,..." http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=1349

Looking 'out' for you...

2007-11-29T20:47:00.000-08:00

I found this today:

In Pictures: How They're Watching You Read the full story Robert Ellis Smith

http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2007/11/21/privacy-surveillance-technology-oped-cx_res_1126privacy_slide.html?partner=yahoofp

Location-Based Technology
Deployment of computers and cameras not just to collect personal information but to collect images and keep track of individuals' locations. Closed-circuit TV, ATMs, global positioning systems, wireless telephones and Google "Street View" are examples.

Nanotechnology
Referring to miniature but highly sophisticated creations that permit "unprecedented control of the material world" on a nanoscale. Also called "molecular mechanics."

Ubiquitous Computing
The presence of computers everywhere we go, to collect and dispense information, to monitor, to capture images. A term to replace last year's "Internet of Things," which describes all-encompassing, constant connectivity of inanimate objects--meaning that computers connect billions more things than persons.

Uberveillance
The pervasive presence of covert computers in all aspects of human life, leading perhaps to more cases of paranoia. The German word "über" means "over" or "super."

Zettatechnology
The next generation of nanotechnology? "Zetta" connotes sextillion. The capacity for taking over human functions is virtually limitless. my comment: do you know the power of someone changing your heart beat?

see the technology at https://www-eng.llnl.gov/mir/mir_search_rescue.html

LLNL UWB radars have demonstrated applications for noncontact and long distance vital-sign monitoring. The mechanical motion of the human heart can be observed noncontact at close range and respiration can be observed over long distances through barriers.