Meet the People Falling for Scripted Robots
September 26th, 2018Is this actually contributing to Japan’s declining population?
I had assumed that work related stress in Japan was simply too much to handle for a growing number of people, and that the bizarre digital escapism was a symptom of that. Would the otaku-as-pathology phenomenon be happening if work-life balance existed in Japan?
In my opinion, the fact that this sickness is spreading beyond Japan demonstrates declining work-life balance issues in other countries.
And if you think that falling in love with some NPC in a video game is bad, be sitting down for phase 2: Robot Brothels:
A Toronto company’s plan to open a sex service in Houston offering “adult love dolls” available “to rent before you buy” has sparked opposition from city leaders and an online campaign to keep so-called robot brothels out of the city.
Via: Guardian:
This genre of game – often referred to as dating simulations or dating sims for short – emerged in the 1980s in Japan, where they were popular with a predominantly male audience. But since the rise of mobile and online gaming, dating sims have become popular outside Japan and with more diverse demographics.
…
These games were seen as an escape, a last resort for nerdy men who needed virtual girls to substitute for real, healthy heterosexual relationships. Along with anime and manga, dating sims were blamed for the low fertility rates in Japan, and the young men who played these games were sometimes described as “herbivores”, as if lacking in carnal desire. This attitude was shared by western media, too, where Japanese dating sims were seen as a curious, almost alien pathology. Following the widely reported story of Nene Anegasaki – the man who married his favorite character from the dating sim Love Plus – an article in the New York Times Magazine described these games as a last resort for men who needed virtual women as a “substitute for real, monogamous romance”.
With the popularity of dating sims now growing outside Japan, similar concerns have once again emerged. In China, where a dating sim called Love and Producer was downloaded more than 7m times in its first month, media reports about the game have been mostly negative, if not alarmist. One Chinese commentator argued that the only reason young people were drawn to dating sims was because their real lives are “brutally lacking” in real love. “The simplicity, consumerism, and hypocrisy of romantic simulation games,” he wrote, “reflect the love-free disease that belongs to this era.”
Steve1989MREInfo
September 26th, 2018I thought, “I’ll just watch one…”
Via: Steve1989MREInfo:
W. Virginia’s Decision to Allow Smartphone Voting for Midterms Raises Serious Security Concerns
September 25th, 2018Give me a fucking break.
Via: PJ Media:
For the first time in our nation’s history, voters in 24 counties in W. Virginia will be able to vote using their mobile phones. While some are hailing the decision because it will make voting easier for members of the military deployed overseas, experts are warning of possible security breaches.
“After researching previously available options, the Secretary’s team identified that most electronic ballot delivery technology required access to a desktop computer, printer and scanner, all of which present significant barriers to overseas voters, especially those in combat zones or engaged in covert operations,” the W. Virginia Secretary of State’s office explained in a press release this week. The state is partnering with a Boston, Massachusetts-based company called Voatz, Inc.
“Voatz has developed a secure mobile voting application that allows voters to receive, vote, and return their ballots electronically,” the press release claims. “The application also utilizes blockchain technology to store electronically submitted ballots until election night, and requires a heightened standard of identity verification for users than traditional absentee ballot processes. This project is unprecedented in United States history, being the first mobile voting application and first use of blockchain technology in a federal election.”
Toyota Agrees to Add Android Auto in Its Cars
September 25th, 2018Via: Bloomberg:
Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to add Android Auto to its vehicles, according to a person familiar with the matter, ending years of resistance to the Google infotainment software due to safety and security concerns.
For the first time, Toyota will allow Android Auto devices to connect directly to its cars, after announcing compatibility with Apple Inc.’s CarPlay in January. Previously both platforms could only connect with Toyota vehicles using SmartDeviceLink, a telematics system developed by Ford Motor Co. that controls how Android Auto and CarPlay look on the dash and limits their access to car data.
Danske Bank Moved $235 Billion in “Suspicious” Payments Through Estonian Branch
September 25th, 2018Via: Reuters:
Denmark has bolstered defenses against shocks to its financial system after a risk-assessment body said the sector’s stability could be threatened by the Danske Bank money laundering scandal.
Danske Bank’s CEO resigned last week after an inquiry revealed that 200 billion euros ($235 billion) of payments had been moved through its Estonian branch over a period of eight years, many of which the bank said were suspicious.
Chrome Is a Google Service that Happens to Include a Browser Engine
September 24th, 2018In other news, Google tells Congress how write data privacy laws. haha
Via: Bálint’s Extended Musings:
Starting with Chrome 69, logging into a Google Site is tied to logging into Chrome.
This is typically the topic where things are complex enough that tweets or 500 character Mastodon toots don’t do it justice. I’d also mention that I prefer to avoid directly linking people’s posts on this, because I dislike the practice of taking discussions out of their original audience and treating them as official or semi-official communications from a given company.
So what changed with Chrome 69? From that version, any time someone using Chrome logs into a Google service or site, they are also logged into Chrome-as-a-browser with that user account. Any time someone logs out of a Google service, they are also logged out of the browser. Before Chrome 69, Chrome users could decline to be logged into Chrome entirely, skipping the use of Sync and other features that require a login and they could use Chrome in a logged-out state while still making use of GMail for example.
Just to spell it out: this means Google logins for Chrome are now de-facto mandatory if you ever login to a Google site. (Clarification: Sync/browser history/password sharing still requires user confirmation to happen, this is purely about the login itself.)
Walmart Deploys 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets to Train Its Employees
September 23rd, 2018Via: Cnet:
Walmart said on Wednesday that it is providing Oculus Go virtual reality headsets to all of its US stores as part of a nationwide expansion of a VR-based employee training program. The big box retailer first experimented with VR in its training academies a year ago and now says the program has proved its worth, with employees reporting boosts to confidence and technology familiarity after training on the headsets.
…
Walmart said it is using the headsets to train within three key areas: new technology, compliance, and soft skills like empathy and customer service. With the technology training, Walmart is aiming to prepare employees for the wave of in-store technology it’s rolling out as part of its overall digital strategy.
Trump Planning Martial Law for War Against Deep State [???]
September 23rd, 2018I doubt it.
However, I also doubt my ability to predict much with regard to Trump. I thought that the Clinton criminal enterprise would be back in the White House after the 2016 election…
With all of the bans on alternative perspectives currently sweeping through the big tech/social networking companies, it does seem like something big could be coming down. The crackpot, Soviet Left does appear to be trying to establish information dominance in order to control the narrative on something. Maybe it’s the next election cycle, as some believe, maybe it’s something else.
That said, I have seen people pointing to Executive Orders as evidence that martial law was imminent since the 1980s. (I might even be guilty of this at some point on here!) While we have seen martial law used in specific areas for rioting and natural disasters, and airports are essentially Constitution free zones, the BIG ONE hasn’t happened.
I’d argue that the current situation with total surveillance is worse than overt martial law, because hardly anyone even knows or cares that it’s happening. While troops on the street might cause some discomfort, people line up to buy the latest smartphones and festoon their homes with surveillance equipment from the likes of Google and Amazon. (Looking in the mirror, I rely on you guys buying things from Amazon, a massive CIA and soon to be DoD contractor, to eke out a bum level existence…)
In any event, what I find absolutely bizarre is that some people who have been warning about this martial law BIG ONE (like Mike Adams below) now want Trump to carry it out!
I don’t buy the argument that the entire county needs to be locked down any further to make these arrests. No way. If Trump actually wants to go after the Clintons etc., he should also make sure that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. get knocks on their doors at 3am. (Doubtful, since the ghastly Neocon John Bolton is in the White House.)
Never forget: The Clinton criminal enterprise is the same organization as the Bush criminal enterprise.
In other words, if Trump goes after Frick, without going after Frack, there’s a serious problem.
Also, while we’re at it, Trump had better announce what actually happened on 9/11.
Yep. That’s right.
Any “draining of the swamp” needs to include 9/11, or it’s just Hope and Change V.2, Now with More Martial Law.
Via: Natural News:
As the documents cited here clearly show, President Trump is planning to carry out mass arrests of deep state traitors, including Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, James Comey and even Barack Obama. This is fully covered, with accompanying documentation from the U.S. Federal Register, in the links and video below. (This author is fully supportive of this effort to save America and arrest the traitors.)
The confirmation of Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court is the key to getting this done in a timely manner, which explains why the deranged Left is going to such outrageous extremes to fabricate false allegations against Kavanaugh and stage coordinated, well-funded protests to try to block the U.S. Senate from confirming him.
Once Kavanaugh is on the court, it will add the necessary support for constitutional “emergency powers” that concentrate power in the executive branch of government (currently headed by President Trump) during times of war and national emergencies.
FACT: The United States has been operating under a state of declared war since September, 2001, following the 9/11 attacks.
FACT: The United States has been operating under a declared national emergency, signed by President Trump, since December 20, 2017 (see proof document, below).
In this detailed video analysis, I lay out the evidence for President Trump’s plan to issue mass arrests of deep state traitors, then try them for treason under military tribunals. This is justified and lawful because the acts being committed against the United States of America by deep state traitors are acts of treason during a time of declared war. It is no coincidence that President Trump has deliberately funded the U.S. Pentagon with its most massive budgets ever conceived. This is because the Pentagon has agreed to run the military arrests of deep state traitors, under the direction of the Commander-In-Chief, President Trump.
Google Suppresses Memo Revealing Plans to Closely Track Search Users in China
September 21st, 2018Via: The Intercept:
Google bosses have forced employees to delete a confidential memo circulating inside the company that revealed explosive details about a plan to launch a censored search engine in China, The Intercept has learned.
The memo, authored by a Google engineer who was asked to work on the project, disclosed that the search system, codenamed Dragonfly, would require users to log in to perform searches, track their location — and share the resulting history with a Chinese partner who would have “unilateral access” to the data.
The memo was shared earlier this month among a group of Google employees who have been organizing internal protests over the censored search system, which has been designed to remove content that China’s authoritarian Communist Party regime views as sensitive, such as information about democracy, human rights, and peaceful protest.
According to three sources familiar with the incident, Google leadership discovered the memo and were furious that secret details about the China censorship were being passed between employees who were not supposed to have any knowledge about it. Subsequently, Google human resources personnel emailed employees who were believed to have accessed or saved copies of the memo and ordered them to immediately delete it from their computers. Emails demanding deletion of the memo contained “pixel trackers” that notified human resource managers when their messages had been read, recipients determined.
The Dragonfly memo reveals that a prototype of the censored search engine was being developed as an app for both Android and iOS devices, and would force users to sign in so they could use the service. The memo confirms, as The Intercept first reported last week, that users’ searches would be associated with their personal phone number. The memo adds that Chinese users’ movements would also be stored, along with the IP address of their device and links they clicked on. It accuses developers working on the project of creating “spying tools” for the Chinese government to monitor its citizens.
People’s search histories, location information, and other private data would be sent out of China to a database in Taiwan, the memo states. But the data would also be provided to employees of a Chinese company who would be granted “unilateral access” to the system.
China’s Chilling ‘Social Credit System’ Is Straight Out of Dystopian Sci-Fi, And It’s Already Switched On
September 20th, 2018Via: Science Alert:
It’s been in the pipeline for years: a sprawling, technological mass surveillance network the likes of which the world has never seen. And it’s already been switched on.
China’s “Social Credit System” – which is expected to be fully operational by 2020 – doesn’t just monitor the nation’s almost 1.4 billion citizens. It’s also designed to control and coerce them, in a gigantic social engineering experiment that some have called the “gamification of trust”.
That’s because the massive project, which has been slowly coming together for over a decade, is about assigning an individual trust score to each and every citizen, and to businesses too.
According to China’s Communist Party, the system will “allow the trustworthy to roam freely under heaven while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step”.
To pull this off, the unprecedented scheme will harness the immense reach of China’s technological infrastructure: some 200 million CCTV cameras, according to a report by Australia’s Foreign Correspondent.
The idea is these ever-watchful eyes will be hooked up to facial recognition systems, and cross-checked with financial, medical records, and legal records – with the whole apparatus regulated and interpreted by advanced, big-data-crunching AI networks.
The sweeping dystopia of it all is uncannily reminiscent of the TV show Black Mirror – in particular the eerily prescient episode “Nosedive” – but while several outlets have pointed the similarities out, China’s ultimate goal goes even further.
“This is potentially a totally new way for the government to manage the economy and society,” economist Martin Chorzempa from the Peterson Institute for International Economics told The New York Times in July.
“The goal is algorithmic governance.”
