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earthvitalsignimpact · 5 months ago

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Episode 21: Chrono-Sabotage Quiz

by University of Earth Vital Signs (UEVS)

Important Notice:

By taking this quiz, you agree to the following:

No Time Travel Involved: This quiz is a fictional exploration of time travel. No actual manipulation of time has occurred or will occur.

Temporal Confusion May Occur: The concepts of time manipulation may cause brief moments of disorientation. Please proceed with curiosity and caution.

No Historical Alterations: Your answers will affect your score, but they will not change the course of history.

Ethical Reflections: The quiz explores philosophical and scientific ideas related to time travel. We encourage thoughtful reflection on these concepts.

Educational Purposes Only: This quiz is for engaging with time travel theories and ethical dilemmas, not for practical use.

Proceed at Your Own Risk: Enjoy the journey through time—within the bounds of this quiz, of course!

Chrono-Sabotage Quiz with Philosophical and Scientific References in the Answer Key:

1. What year does the story of "Chrono-Sabotage" take place?

a) 2185

b) 2085

c) 2150

d) 2000

Answer Key:

b) 2085: *The year 2085 reflects a future shaped by significant environmental collapse, which is consistent with *climate change models* predicting widespread global disruption by the end of the 21st century (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). This echoes dystopian themes explored in 1984 and Brave New World, where political regimes control populations in the face of environmental decay.*

2. What is the primary mission of Dr. Anika and her team?

a) To prevent a global disaster caused by the Chronostorm

b) To stop the Ministry of Balance from locking the timeline

c) To return to their home timeline

d) To eliminate Director Lucius

Answer Key:

b) To stop the Ministry of Balance from locking the timeline: *The mission to prevent the Ministry from locking the timeline is rooted in philosophical *determinism*, where time manipulation threatens free will. This also resonates with *general relativity*, where time can be manipulated, but the consequences might be unpredictable or irreversible. Philosophically, it aligns with *Kant’s ethics, which caution against manipulating time for control.

3. Who is the mastermind behind the Ministry of Balance's manipulation of time?

a) Harlan

b) Dr. Anika

c) Director Lucius

d) Dr. Erik

Answer Key:

c) Director Lucius: *Lucius represents authoritarian control, echoing *Foucault’s power dynamics* where those who control knowledge (or in this case, time) dictate reality. His actions also draw on historical figures who manipulate events for political gain, invoking the grandfather paradox in time travel theory, where small changes to the past alter the present irrevocably.*

4. What is the Chronostorm?

a) A destructive storm in the sky

b) A time-warping anomaly that can alter history

c) A weather control system

d) A device used to control people's memories

Answer Key:

b) A time-warping anomaly that can alter history: *The Chronostorm acts like a time loop, echoing theories of *causal loops* and closed timelike curves in physics, where time can curve back upon itself. In philosophy, this mirrors eternalism, which asserts that all moments in time are fixed and immutable, leading to questions about the consequences of altering history.*

5. What does Dr. Anika’s team use to manipulate time inside the Chrono-Vault?

a) Temporal devices

b) Time crystals

c) Holographic projections

d) Quantum computers

Answer Key:

a) Temporal devices: *Temporal devices are inspired by speculative technologies like *quantum computers* and time crystals (which are hypothetical constructs in quantum mechanics). Philosophically, these devices touch on the concept of free will versus determinism, where technological interventions may allow individuals to change predetermined events or trajectories of time.*

6. What is the Chrono-Vault?

a) A time machine

b) A secure prison for time criminals

c) The place where the Ministry of Balance harnesses the Chronostorm’s power

d) A futuristic time capsule

Answer Key:

c) The place where the Ministry of Balance harnesses the Chronostorm’s power: *The Chrono-Vault is a metaphor for centralized control over history, similar to *Foucault’s concept of the panopticon*, where power over knowledge (or time, in this case) means total control. This also draws on the idea of *closed-loop systems* in physics, where events influence each other in a self-contained system.*

7. Which character helps Dr. Anika by providing critical information about the Ministry of Balance’s plans?

a) Lucius

b) Harlan

c) Juno

d) Elias

Answer Key:

b) Harlan: *Harlan’s role as a whistleblower reflects *John Rawls’ Theory of Justice*, where the moral obligation is to expose unjust systems for the benefit of society. His actions echo the *ethics of dissent, where individuals are morally compelled to act when witnessing injustice, as seen in historical political whistleblowers.

8. What key element is at the center of the Chrono-Vault that Dr. Anika and her team must manipulate to stop the Ministry?

a) A massive computer network

b) A blue energy core linked to the Chronostorm

c) A time-travel device

d) A memory-altering machine

Answer Key:

b) A blue energy core linked to the Chronostorm: *The blue energy core symbolizes the *bootstrap paradox*, where the cause and effect of an event are self-contained, creating a cycle that exists without an origin. This echoes *closed timelike curves* in general relativity, where time loops on itself, and nothing changes because it always was the way it is.*

9. What is the fate of the timeline if the Ministry of Balance succeeds in their mission?

a) The timeline will remain chaotic and unstable

b) The timeline will be locked, and their control over history will become absolute

c) The timeline will collapse entirely

d) The timeline will revert to the past

Answer Key:

b) The timeline will be locked, and their control over history will become absolute: *This is similar to *block universe theory, which argues that time is a fixed dimension, where the past, present, and future coexist and are unchangeable. If the Ministry locks the timeline, all future events become predetermined, removing the potential for change and rendering free will an illusion.

10. What key theme is explored in "Chrono-Sabotage"?

a) Love and betrayal

b) The manipulation of time and the power to control the future

c) Advanced technology and its ethical implications

d) Space exploration and intergalactic travel

Answer Key:

b) The manipulation of time and the power to control the future: *This theme connects to *determinism* versus free will, which is a central debate in both philosophy and science. In physics, it is reflected in discussions about closed timelike curves and time loops. Philosophers such as Leibniz and Einstein questioned how time could influence reality and whether time could be manipulated for good or evil.*

11. Do you believe that manipulating time to achieve a better future is justified, even if it means changing past events?

a) Yes, if it ensures a better future for humanity.

b) No, altering the past can have unintended consequences.

c) It depends on the specific circumstances and consequences.

d) Time should be left unaltered at all costs.

Answer Key:

b) No, altering the past can have unintended consequences: *This refers to the *butterfly effect*, a concept in *chaos theory* that posits that small changes in the past can lead to significant, unpredictable effects. From a philosophical standpoint, this touches on the ethics of intervention—whether it's morally acceptable to alter events, as explored by philosophers like Thomas Hobbes.*

12. If the Ministry of Balance succeeded in locking the timeline, do you think humanity would have been better off with their control, or does true freedom lie in uncertainty?

a) Humanity would have been better off under the Ministry’s control to ensure stability.

b) True freedom lies in uncertainty and the ability to change course.

c) It would depend on the society’s ability to adapt and evolve over time.

d) Neither option is desirable; a balance between freedom and order is ideal.

Answer Key:

b) True freedom lies in uncertainty and the ability to change course: *This perspective aligns with existentialist philosophy, especially *Sartre’s notion of radical freedom, which argues that uncertainty is essential for true human freedom. In quantum mechanics, uncertainty (as seen in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle) is a natural part of the universe that cannot be avoided, fostering innovation and progress.

13. In a world where the future is already determined by advanced technology, is there still room for human agency and individual choice?

a) Yes, human agency can still exist within a controlled future.

b) No, if technology controls the future, individual choice is an illusion.

c) It depends on how technology is used to shape society.

d) Human agency becomes more important when the future is uncertain.

Answer Key:

a) Yes, human agency can still exist within a controlled future: *This is a core idea in *compatibilism*, a school of thought in philosophy (e.g., *Daniel Dennett*) that argues free will can coexist with determinism, especially in a world shaped by technology. In physics, quantum mechanics also suggests that *randomness* can coexist with laws of physics, allowing for human agency even in a seemingly deterministic universe.*

14. Should time travel be used as a tool for controlling the environment and reversing climate change, or should nature be allowed to take its course?

a) Time travel should be used to fix environmental mistakes and reverse climate change.

b) Nature should be allowed to take its course, even if the consequences are harsh.

c) It’s a delicate balance—time travel should be used carefully and responsibly.

d) The environment should be addressed in the present, not through manipulation of the past.

Answer Key:

c) It’s a delicate balance—time travel should be used carefully and responsibly: *This concept reflects the *Precautionary Principle* in environmental ethics, which advocates for caution when intervening in natural systems due to the uncertainty of outcomes. From a philosophical perspective, this is tied to John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism, which requires considering both the immediate benefits and long-term consequences of any action.*

15. If you had the ability to change one moment in history to prevent a global disaster, would you do it, knowing that it could potentially cause unknown repercussions?

a) Yes, preventing disaster is worth the risk of unknown consequences.

b) No, changing history could lead to a worse future.

c) It would depend on the magnitude of the disaster and the risks involved.

d) History should not be tampered with, no matter the potential benefit.

Answer Key:

b) No, changing history could lead to a worse future: *This answer aligns with the *butterfly effect*, a concept from *chaos theory*, suggesting that small changes in the past can lead to unpredictable, potentially disastrous consequences. Philosophically, this question explores the ethics of *intervention*, as discussed by *Immanuel Kant, who argued that we should not treat the future as a means to an end, even for a noble cause.

16. Can the ends justify the means when trying to achieve a future that benefits all of humanity, especially when it involves altering the timeline?

a) Yes, if it leads to a better world, any action can be justified.

b) No, ethical boundaries must never be crossed, even for a noble cause.

c) The situation should be evaluated case by case—sometimes the ends do justify the means.

d) The future should be built by living in the present, not by manipulating time.

Answer Key:

c) The situation should be evaluated case by case—sometimes the ends do justify the means: *This reflects a utilitarian perspective (e.g., *John Stuart Mill*) where the morality of an action is judged by its outcomes. This is also akin to *consequentialism, where actions are evaluated by the benefits they bring, but it still requires careful moral assessment of the trade-offs involved. In time travel, this becomes complicated, as even the best-intended actions could backfire.

17. What role does uncertainty play in shaping the future? Is a predictable future preferable to one full of surprises and challenges?

a) A predictable future is preferable—it allows for stability and progress.

b) Uncertainty is vital—it fosters innovation and personal growth.

c) A balance between predictability and uncertainty creates the best future.

d) Neither is ideal; a future without surprises could lead to stagnation.

Answer Key:

b) Uncertainty is vital—it fosters innovation and personal growth: *This concept is rooted in *philosophical existentialism*, which celebrates uncertainty as the foundation of human freedom. As *Jean-Paul Sartre* argued, uncertainty allows individuals to define themselves and their future. Scientifically, uncertainty is also a key feature of quantum mechanics, where uncertainty in particle behavior leads to potential innovation in science and technology.*

18. If humanity could achieve a utopian society through time manipulation, would it still be considered a genuine victory, or would it be a false reality?

a) It would be a genuine victory, as long as humanity is thriving.

b) It would be a false reality, as the means to achieve it were dishonest.

c) The journey to a utopia is more important than the final result.

d) Utopia is an illusion—humanity must struggle to make progress.

Answer Key:

b) It would be a false reality, as the means to achieve it were dishonest: *This answer reflects *Plato’s Allegory of the Cave*, which suggests that true knowledge and freedom come from facing reality, not creating an artificial one. In time travel, artificially created utopias can be seen as false, as the control of time limits human autonomy and growth. Philosophically, this also aligns with *John Stuart Mill’s* critique of paternalism.*

19. As a time traveler, how do you decide which events in history are worth altering to create a better future, and which should remain unchanged?

a) I would alter any event that prevents a better future, regardless of the consequences.

b) I would only alter events if they directly impact the survival or well-being of humanity.

c) I would avoid altering history altogether to preserve the natural course of events.

d) I would assess each situation individually, weighing potential outcomes carefully.

Answer Key:

d) I would assess each situation individually, weighing potential outcomes carefully: *This answer is informed by *consequentialism* and pragmatism, philosophical approaches that emphasize evaluating actions based on their outcomes. It also connects to the concept of moral responsibility in decision-making, a key idea in modern ethics, where one must weigh the risks and rewards of intervention.*

20. Do you believe time travelers should be held accountable for the changes they make in history?

a) Yes, they should be held accountable for every alteration they make.

b) No, because the past can be shaped for the greater good of humanity.

c) Only if the changes they make lead to harmful consequences.

d) Time travel is too complicated for accountability to be straightforward.

Answer Key:

c) Only if the changes they make lead to harmful consequences: *This answer connects to *the ethics of responsibility*, as discussed in *David Hume’s moral philosophy*, which argues that accountability should focus on outcomes, particularly harmful ones. In the realm of time travel, the *precautionary principle—used in environmental ethics—suggests caution in altering history, with accountability required when the results are detrimental.

Summary of Key Philosophical and Scientific Concepts:

Determinism vs. Free Will: Time travel inherently challenges the question of whether human actions are predetermined or if we can change the future. Philosophers like David Hume and Jean-Paul Sartre debate whether free will exists in a world where time may be manipulated.

Causal Loops and Bootstrap Paradoxes: In physics, time loops and causal loops suggest that events in time may influence each other in ways that create paradoxes. This is explored scientifically in general relativity and in thought experiments like the grandfather paradox.

Uncertainty Principle: In both quantum mechanics (as per Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle) and existential philosophy, uncertainty is essential for growth, freedom, and the development of new ideas and technology.

The Ethics of Intervention: The moral responsibility of altering history is debated in utilitarianism, where the consequences of actions must be weighed, and in deontological ethics (e.g., Kant’s Categorical Imperative), which argues against using people as mere means to an end, even in the service of a "better" future.

Utopian vs. Dystopian Visions: The creation of a perfect society through time manipulation is explored through the lens of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and the precautionary principle, which advises careful intervention in natural processes and systems.

checked by AI for copy-right issues

#climate adventure #make science fun again #science fiction #climate action #climate change #time machine #climate science #time travel #climate science fiction

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pamelakaweske1 · 2 years ago

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Deepfake Technology: Exploring The Potential Risks Of AI-Generated Videos

Recent advances in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) have led to the emergence of a concerning technology called DeepFake. DeepFake refers to the use of AI algorithms to produce highly real-looking fake videos and photos that appear to be genuine. DeepFake is a technique which can be entertaining and amusing. But there are substantial risk and dangers. This article delves into the potential risks associated with AI-generated videos and images by shedding light on adverse effects that they may affect individuals, the society, and even national security.

The rise of DeepFake Technology

Deep fakes and AI technology is gaining popularity due to its ability produce convincing and false content. AI employing advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques allows the creation of videos that have facial expressions and voice that appear authentic. AI generated videos could be used to depict people doing or saying things that aren't actually happening that could have grave implications. Look at https://ca.linkedin.com/in/pamkaweske web site if you need to have details information concerning Deep fakes and AI.

Security threats to privacy

The privacy implications of DeepFake are one of its greatest dangers. Its ability to make fake videos, or to superimpose various faces on bodies of other individuals can lead to individuals being victimized for harm. DeepFake can be used as a tool to defame people, or to blackmail them in order to make it appear they're involved in criminal activities. The victims can suffer lasting psychological and emotional traumas.

False Information and Misinformation

Deep fakes and AI is a method of technology that exacerbates the issue of false news and misleading information. Artificially-generated videos and images are used by the public to deceive the public, influence their perceptions and create false narratives. The high level of authenticity offered by DeepFake is difficult to distinguish the difference between fake and real videos. The result is the loss of trust among media. A loss of trust in media sources can lead to serious consequences for the values of democracy and harmony in society.

Political Manipulation

DeepFake has the ability to manipulate and disrupt political processes. Through the creation of fake, realistic photos and videos of politicians, it becomes possible to show them engaged with criminal conduct or committing unethical acts and influence public opinion and causing instability in government institutions. The use of deep fakes and AI during political campaigns could cause the spreading of false information. It can also alter the process for making decisions democratically which undermines the foundations of a fair and equitable society.

Security threats to National Security

Beyond personal and societal implications, DeepFake technology also poses dangers to security of the nation. DeepFake videos can be used to impersonate officials of high rank or military personnel, potentially leading to confusion, misinformation, or even initiating conflicts. It is possible to compromise national security by creating convincing videos of sensitive intelligence or military operations.

Impacts on the Financial and Economic System

The risk of DeepFake technology can be found in the financial and economic sectors too. Artificially-generated video can be used to create fraudulent content, for example, fake interviews of prominent executives, false stock market predictions, or manipulated corporate announcements. This can result in financial losses, market instability and a decline in confidence in the world of business. In order to protect investors and ensure integrity in the financial system, it is crucial to detect and mitigate the risk associated with DeepFake.

DeepFake Technology: How to combat it

To address the threats posed by DeepFake, a multifaceted approach is needed. Technology advancements focused on the creation of reliable detection strategies and authentication tools are essential. Also, it is important to raise awareness about DeepFake and its implications amongst the public. Education and media literacy initiatives are important to help people improve their use of digital information, and less prone to the false information provided by DeepFake.

Bottom Line

DeepFake is a serious threat to privacy and security. It can affect societal stability, as well as the politics. Being able to make highly realistic fake videos and images can cause serious harm that can result in reputational harm, altering public opinion and disruption to democratic processes. Individuals, technologists as well as policymakers need to collaborate to devise effective countermeasures as well as strategies to combat the DeepFake risks.

#Deepfake Technology #Technology #Deepfake #AI-Generated Videos

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whatsyourcolor · 4 years ago

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Dragnet - Chapter 9 - Kingdom of Thieves.

Read on Ao3

Thank you to those of you that are still reading Dragnet! In previous chapters Kogami and Akane conducted a mission that resulted in technology malfunctioning, suspicions arising and Akane almost getting killed. Kogami broke up their short-lived (or so he thinks) association for reasons and emotions still confusing to him. Here’s Chapter 9:

KINGDOM OF THIEVES

Pliable, suspiciously warm, the sofa's leather cushions in the analysis lab sank underneath Kogami's weight, comfort suffusing his tense limbs like an anxiolytic. Undoubtedly, Kunizuka had made a routine pitstop here prior to heading to the interrogation room with Ginoza for another round of fruitless grilling. Which would explain the mellow, secret melody Shion was humming as she typed away on her keyboard. At least someone in Division 1 was having fun. Banished from the interrogation room and having severed the only connection he had to that other world, lulls of silent anticipation such as this had become nearly intolerable for him because, like a stray dog, his mind would go—insistently, shamelessly—back to her.

If only his ruminations had been centered in the pragmatic aspects of their relationship (what was her exact link to the syndicates? When did it start? And why?), he could have forgiven himself more easily. But it was the way his name sprung from her direct mouth, and how it meant she was not cross with him (as opposed to Inspector), and that furrowed brow each time she sermonized about things not unlike those he’d spend hours perusing in books—things he had strictly forbidden himself to linger on; things he’d never dream to speak about out loud. It was her scrutiny, never sub rosa. Not when she looked at him with unabashed eyes, not searching for a weakness or a fault—he suspected—but for something like a virtue, something that would warrant their unlikely partnership in her eyes.

So what did it mean for him to be sitting here while she was still out there, meandering in the dark? Stubbornly continuing this, insisting on this, and she would lose more than her hue. Kogami palmed the cellphone inside his pocket and then thought better of it because—what right did he have to care? To ask anything from her? Who was he in her life but an accident of chance? Or, perhaps, had his threats managed to compel her, and had she gone back to an ordinary life where she didn’t want to change the world? No, he thought sullenly. Even I know that about you. But it’s not like you’re alone either, is it, Tsunemori? Not that it makes you any safer.

On a large screen, a corner-side vantage of the dark interrogation room. Light spilled from a lamp above onto a table as a cuffed man swaggered in like a circus bear that's figured out the master's whip is made of hay. A braggart's smirk splashed across his face as he flumped on a chair. Kogami perched his elbows on his legs, interlaced hands under his nose to summon all his objective focus on the screen, but all he could think about was how much he'd love to pummel that sneer off again.

"A different species of inspector today," proclaimed the Arumajiro man, all affected bravado to Gino's bespectacled, sober professionalism. Still bearing the marks Tsunemori had gouged on his tattooed skin, he slammed his arms on the table, presumably to stir a wince from Ginoza, who only blinked with imperturbable disdain. "And you even brought a woman to protect you. That a habit of Sibyl's dogs?"

"The type of technology found in the interior of the truck you and your comrades were riding on is not something that can be built with metal scraps scavenged from Ougishima,” Gino said with no inflection in his voice. "Who is funding your association?"

The man acknowledged the question with a caustic snort for answer, a sort of growl. His eyes slithering over the less illuminated corners of the room—methodically, as if searching for something.

“He’s watching, ain’t he?” he eventually muttered. “He wouldn’t miss this.”

"You'll have enough time to look at walls when you go to the isolation facility. No need to strain your eyes so hard on these,” Gino spat back. “Answer the question. Your syndicate knew about the crackdowns by the MWPSB. How did you acquire a signal jammer? Who programmed it?"

"Inspectors in the blocks," the man began in a low voice. "You lot stick out like a pack of wild hens running around with your dominators. Of course, everyone always knows when you're there, with your holos and your drones. You’re not exactly low-key, you know? The eyes of Sibyl might see us only when they want to, but we’re always watching.”

"And so your syndicate figured they'd try to go undetected and invest on an illegal piece of technology impossible to acquire within the abolition blocks.”

"Impossible,” the man echoed as if mulling the meaning of the word. As if, Kogami thought, what a Sibyl detective would deem impossible, even preposterous in his world, was something that acquired a different value where he came from. A perverse grimace spread on the man’s face, a sort of smiling frown full of certitude. "Nothing is impossible in the abolition blocks. Not anymore.”

“Not exactly a charmer when he finally decides to talk, is he?” Shion drawled with a slow plume of smoke, her profile silhouetted by blue light in the haze. “What could he possibly mean?”

"At least he's taunting us now,” Kogami murmured dryly. “But I don’t perceive urgency in his behavior. No negotiation or surrender. If he’s decided to talk it must be for more than dull temporizing, though I don’t think his objective is to necessarily give us what we want.”

“Hmm. Who knows.” Shion gave an affected gasp. “Could it be he likes Ginoza better?”

Kogami chuckled softly, and Shion smiled, proud of herself. He figured he probably had been looking as dismal as he felt.

“Definitely,” he acknowledged with a cool sigh, lifting himself up from the softness of the sofa, and starting to hanker for a smoke. He shoved the flaps of his navy windbreaker aside and thrust his hands in the pockets of his pants. “Gino can be a darling when he wants to. But I should head over there now. Might as well put some pressure now he’s talking.”

“I thought Ginoza said—”

“I know. I know he instructed all of you to keep me at bay. But this case might be bigger than we think and I can’t just wait idly by.”

Shion exhaled coolly, swiveling her chair toward her station again. “Very well. Just be careful.”

Freely, brashly for an interrogation, the man went on blathering on the screen. “But impossible things have been happening. People disappearing. Tunnels hidden behind holo. Miracles, even. The last of which involved a woman intercepting a truck in the tunnels, armed with nothing but a bat—so what I’ve been wondering is, how did the excellent and competent MWPSB get a double-crossing bitch to do their job for them?”

Doors glided open in front of him as Kogami’s step came to a standstill. Jaw clenching, he whirled round to face the grainy image of the man again.

“You’d do well to remember I’m the one asking questions here,” Ginoza retorted impatiently, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “This isn’t an exchange of particulars between two commensurate parties. This is an interrogation, and your time is running out.”

The man leaned in over the table and Kunizuka’s back went upright, her hand circling around her waist as a warning. “You see,” he said. “I can’t help but be intrigued as to how a single woman gained the trust of the underground resistance and helped them against the syndicates, all while working with the police.”

Kogami stiffened. Was that the reason behind Tsunemori’s ironclad secrecy? Did the man not kill her only because he was working information out of her? Even if Kogami had entertained a similar notion before—with her overt spurning of the system and her criminal consorts—something in him refused to admit that she could be, for lack of a better word, his enemy. But if what was being said was true, then the accusations he’d hurled at her—the same ones that had been tormenting him since he’d said them—may have been wholly understating.

“Justice for traitors and informers, know what that is? That wretched girl hanging from a wire in the ports of Ougishima where anyone else with funny ideas can see. Or worse—No. Better—her chained to a bed in the filth of a brothel. See that pretty hue turn black.” The man spoke slowly but without pause, in his visage a pained expression that evoked menace in lieu of sorrow. “Imagine, if you can, in a place crawling with people both desperate to cleanse their sins and itching for something unsullied to defile, just what coveted merchandise a clear-hued Sib would be. Not just any Sib, no. A plant by the MWPSB. A traitor. Hell, for all we know it might be her own people that get her first.”

With clenched fists, Kogami made his way back toward the screen. It wasn’t that the man’s tirade didn’t incense him greatly, considering to whom his poisoned darts were being aimed. But there was something else: the fact that he spoke as if he wasn’t in Sibyl’s claws. In his claws.

“That brat is too smart for her own good. Messing with things she don’t understand. Stealing things that don’t belong to her. Out of all the crummy chumps the so-called resistance has produced, this one might be the trickiest one. Should’ve snuffed her out when I had the chance.”

“This resistance,” Ginoza cleared his throat, “is it an anti-governmental group?”

The man stared superciliously, almost amused. “You Sibs think the blocks are seedbeds of chaos where the scum of society oozes like a weeping blister in your clean world. It’s not for me to deny it. I’ve seen men rip out each other’s guts over a cigarette. I’ve slain many more myself, men and women, for less than that. Why? You worried the pus might spill onto your streets? You afraid hearing these things will make you catch that disease?” A spark of relish in his eye. “What if I told you there’s a cure for that?”

“A—a cure? A cure for what?”

“The illness of evil—the illness the Sibyl system diagnosed for the rest of us. In fact, I’ll prove it to you right now,” the man invited with an almost affable tone. “Point your dominator at me.”

“What? What are you talking abou—H-Hound 2! No one ordered you to withdraw your dominator!”

Kunizuka, arm fully extended next to Ginoza’s face, had her sights aimed directly at the space between the eyebrows of the Arumajiro man. “I’m sorry, Inspector. This is the only language men like these speak.” A heavy mute second was filled with Ginoza’s eyes flitting from the dominator, to the man, back to Kunizuka until at last, haltingly, she lowered her arm and her jaw dropped with shock. “Th-There has to be a mistake. We checked his hue this morning and it was—a-and besides, he just said—”

Kogami didn’t wait to hear the rest. He bolted out of the analysis lab and down the corridor in the direction of the emergency stairs. His mind raced. One victim found dead in a factory. A second victim mauling herself to death in Nona Tower. Disparate timelines and intervals in both casualties, as if the pill’s dual mechanism could be detonated at a distance, at will. It made no sense. He hurtled down endless flights of stairs many floors below, gnawing despair lodged deep in his stomach. He’d seen him strangling her. He’d tried to drown him. No doubt he was a murderer. It couldn’t be. Nausea and doom had overtaken him by the time he tore past the doors of the last hallway and turned the last corner, silvered walls bouncing all around him as he caught sight of his mark leaving the interrogation room behind Ginoza and Kunizuka. He couldn’t see or hear until his hands were on the man. Until he felt other hands trying to pull him away.

“Shepherd 2! Get a hold of yourself!” Ginoza thundered, forcefully jostling against him. “Stop this right now! Kogami!”

“You fucking bastard,” Kogami growled, both hands yanking the manacled Arumajiro man by his threadbare shirt. “You know about the pill. You know what it is. You’re gonna tell me everything even if I have to kick it outta you!”

“Seems like someone’s found the antidote to Sibyl,” the tottering man hissed back, reveling in Kogami’s stunned expression. “Whatever it is you want to call it.”

“Yeah?” Kogami’s grip was taut on the collar around the man’s neck. “Then you must know about its side effects. Does that make you smile also?”

“I’d be more worried about that hue of yours, Inspector. I’d even go as far as advising you to choose your friends and allies wisely. Before she ruins you.”

A sobering shudder ran through Kogami.

“Search for her,” he rasped with bared teeth, “touch her again, and I swear I’ll find you and kill you with my own hands!”

“That’s enough of that!” Masaoka shouted from somewhere. Next thing he knew, Sasayama was there too, shouldering his way between them, tearing Kogami off as Kunizuka and Gino pulled the man away. Still, Kogami shoved and kicked and cursed as the man crossed the threshold of a door shutting closed, and then his vision went askew as a sharp pain had him hunching down and looking at the ground, immobilized.

“You need to cool down, son.” Masaoka tightened his armlock and Kogami heard himself pant helplessly, his forehead beading with sweat.

“Don’t you realize,” Kogami grunted through the pain, “that’s the one lead we have in this case?”

“And what good will it do if you end up in a rehabilitation facility?” Sasayama’s shoes came into view and Kogami was just able to shift his head up to shoot a glare at him. “How is pulling this bullshit gonna help you catch him then?”

There was the slow squeak and hush of a door opening and closing again.

“I hope you know this is all your influence, Sasayama,” Ginoza roared. “And if you think I won’t have a few words to say about you in the report of this incident, then you’re awfully misguided.” Masaoka loosened the grip of his metallic arm, and Kogami yanked his own free. He straightened up to meet the withering, unforgiving gaze of his partner. “Masaoka, go assist Kunizuka in the discharge of the witness. Kogami, you and I need to talk.”

“Gino, we can’t let him go,” Kogami protested with a gruff voice. “You saw what just happ—”

“Would you rather we do this in the presence of the Chief?”

Kogami squeezed his eyes shut, attempting to steady himself, but rage still boiled inside of him. “Fine,” he grumbled with frustration. “Fine.”

---------

Outside of Nona Tower the sun had set but the city was blazing like it was the middle of the day. A shine as artificial as that of the abolition blocks, though sleeker, clearer, new. Not the dizzying red and yellow twilights that led the way through the narrower, angular alleys of the abolition blocks, nor the darkened hollows and crannies where eyes and knives glinted. From a holographic billboard the large face of a woman donned in traditional garb gazed at him, her pale face dissolving into a pink forest, carpeted with what looked like pink snow. The next thing he noticed was that there was no distinct smell.

He walked the stretch of the plaza. Guardedly. Drawing near to where another hologram had attracted a multitude, but still keeping a cautious distance, he stood to watch. Three large fish swam in a hoop, floating in sync until one of them broke the formation to playfully pursue the others, making a squealing sound similar to that of rats, but louder and full of delight. Something like a fog, a vague sensation taking form, disturbed him. A nebulous recollection from years ago, of childhood in the blocks. A discoloured picture of animals like these nailed to a cracking wall. A wrinkled old lady calling him evil before falling with a thud. He remembered her body being warm even after he’d withdrawn his knife more times than he could count. The eyes in the eyes of his first kill looking deep into him and then…nothing. It’s cold, he thought, and that’s why I’m shivering. He peered at the crowd. Oblivious onlookers and their marveled profiles. His gaze drifted upwards and behind the surrounding skyscrapers. They didn’t know a few kilometers from here people burned. Soon they would.

He pivoted to two pairs of gawking eyes pegged on him. Youngsters. They approached him with slimy passivity, before gushing admiringly.

“Woah, mister, you really went out of your way with that cosplay! See? I told you the tattoos weren’t holo!”

“Of course they’re holo! How do you think he’d show to work with those tattoos? But isn’t the convention until next February though? If it was today I’m sure he’d win first prize!”

He snarled at the two pests, which only seemed to excite them more. A flashing light blinded him for a second, and before he could curse them out, they were scuttling away. It was then he took notice of the woman wearing a red long coat standing beside him.

“Do you actually know where you’re going, Igarashi-san?”

Unblemished skin. Long, silky hair. Almond eyes evenly shaped with a strange green sheen to them, and a thin, pointy nose. An enigmatic smile that could’ve been wider but wasn’t.

“Choe Gu-sung?”

“I knew Makishima-san was right to put his trust in the Arumajiro.”

“Your holo is too perfect,” Igarashi answered with blunt disdain. “No one looks like that.”

“That may be true in the abolition blocks, but as you can see, people love illusions here.”

Minutes later they were driving through the elevated highways of Tokyo. A light rain fell aslant, pins of purple and pink hitting on the windshield of the driverless vehicle. Igarashi kept a wary side-eye on Makishima’s lackey sitting beside him, though underneath that stupid holo he was more unreadable than usual. Not that he didn’t understand how such concealment was necessary for serious matters, but it pissed him off that important work should fall on the lap of a foreigner out of all people.

“I hope your doubts about our plan are settled now, Igarashi-san,” said Choe Gu-sung as if reading his mind, the faintest hint of mockery in his voice.

“Our plan requires certain arrangements we’ll overlook for the moment, but I know the Arumajiro won’t be so sparing afterwards.”

“It’s precisely that ruthlessness that Makishima found so compelling for this project to start with. In this brave new world of Sibyl, few men are willing to go where the Arumajiro go, and so your clan is instrumental for what needs to be done.”

All the sickly ass-licking made Igarashi turn his face toward the city flashing past. “To think you’re the first person to

address me by my name since I was arrested,” he muttered with disgust.

Once they had arrived at the high-rise hotel, an elegant wooden door embellished with the metal knocker of a spider admitted them into a vast suite decked out with fine furnishings. A low gray sofa with plush cushions half-mooned around a glass table where a steaming cup of tea had been set. An open book rested onto the lid of a black piano, and above it, a strange light fixture glittered from the ceiling like a dancing bride. Igarashi was becoming acutely aware of the thick, green rug underneath his tatty boots, but unlike him, the silver-haired man contemplating Tokyo out of the ceiling-to-floor windows fit into the room perfectly. Deceptively.

“I’m glad you made it out safely, Igarashi-san.”

Obscured on the reflection, Makishima’s features betrayed his otherwise harmless semblance as a truer, more sinister face smiled at Igarashi from the glass. Long gone was his first impression of a wealthy, over-spoilt child uttering words of revolution because, where the pointless, clumsy violence of the blocks rose and fell with no consequence or significance, Makishima had given them the means to overthrow an evil bigger than all the gangsters of the underground.

“The MWPSB has an informer in the blocks. That’s how they were able to get us. It’s Lemonade Candy.”

Piqued by his words, Makishima looked briefly over his shoulder. “The mastermind of the resistance works with the MWPSB,” he said, turning again toward the city. “How interesting. It only makes it the more impressive for you to have survived such a predicament, being attacked, as you were, by both sides.”

“It was one of their own group who gave them away. An unregistered who’d worked for Bunzo.” Igarashi’s fingers trailed the soft fabric on the arm of the sofa without daring to sit. “Wanted to settle a score or somethin’. Went mad, and for a moment there I really thought we’d turned the tables on her.”

“Her, you said?”

“Lemonade Candy is a twenty-something woman. Small and thin as a reed. And still the bitch was able to take out our lights singlehandedly and then escape through one of their hidden tunnels. We followed, and for a moment I had her, until an inspector showed up.”

“She ensnared you,” murmured Makishima. “She used herself as bait knowing you’d follow her. What appeared like recklessness at a cursory glance, was a calculated gamble.” He turned around and ambled across the room, feathery and lithe, with hands in his pockets. “We’re not the only ones with the will to choose to bet, it seems.”

Again there was that mysterious smile on Makishima’s lips and, like an obedient disciple, Igarashi felt the irresistible urge to supply more. “The resistance is not our biggest problem. Getting the syndicate to get rid of her now that I’ve seen her should be easy. But there’s also the police. That detective, especially. He don’t seem the type to let go of things.” An ear-to-ear grin spread on his face. “And he’s a hot head for that woman. Nearly slugged me when I mentioned her to him. Threatened to kill me, even.”

“Are they not merely enforcers?”

“No,” Igarashi assured with a sharp shake of his head. “He’s the one who’s been interrogating me. Or trying to, at least. Today I heard his partner refer to him as Kogami. As for the woman…haven’t seen her since that night.”

“Kogami,” Makishima echoed with flash of eagerness in his amber eyes. “Are there still humans in this city who are not afraid of themselves, I wonder? And, if so, is it a coincidence that we happened to lure two of them out of hiding? Is this what the sentimentalist calls ‘destiny’?”

Across from him, Choe Gu-sung ambled over and sat on the other side of the sofa where he opened a laptop. He’d remained so quiet, Igarashi had but completely forgotten about his presence, and his appearance, now devoid of holo, glared like a sour reminder. He began typing something hurriedly.

“They’re vermin—that’s what they are,” crossing his arms, Igarashi commented while looming over Choe. “All those who can’t rise by their own strength deserve to be squashed like roaches. It’s the rule of the world. Eat or be eaten.”

“You know, Igarashi-san,” Makishima lingered by the piano, slowly turning over the pages of the book. “I’ve always admired men like you. The ones who agitate the whole world through the sheer strength of your desire. If the world sings blue, you’ll force it to sing red until it matches your vision. A common man in an uncommon world. Please,” his eyes rose from the page to watch him intently. “Understand that this is the deepest of compliments. You see, in this sterile, plastic world, that type of primal life force has been forgotten. The human animal domesticated, his soul depurated, sterilized, until he became nothing more than the ruins of what he once was—and ruins are only beautiful after a great war. Anything else is…mockery.”

“Well, that’s the way of the blocks. The only way we know. And now, thanks to you, these things will be ours too.” Not until he said it did it seem true to Igarashi—that they would rule over this world just like they ruled over the underground. Dominators, cymatic scanners and drones could not stop them anymore, and the weak children of Sibyl would succumb just like their evil mother. “And even the enemies of the Arumajiro won’t mind it if it means destroying this system.”

“You are correct. Anger has an interesting way of vitalizing people in ways no other need or cause does, notwithstanding how pure or lofty. That vein those spurned by the system share is what the Sibyl system has cut off and anesthetized, to the extent where the masses can’t even recall it ever being there. Their senses lay dormant as if they could truly exist as humans without them. Others even claim to want to live forever. But what value does a life have when it’s benumbed and protected from the knowledge of its own mortality? When it loses all primitive instincts in a beautiful cage where there’s no danger? As in the yesteryear, we need men like you to remind us what it means to be alive.”

In more ways than he could understand, Makishima’s words made Igarashi feel strangely satisfied. Comforted, even. Never before had he thought of his life in any aspect beyond, well, living. What for was a question that hadn’t occurred to him. But for all the things he’d seen and done, he never would have guessed it’d be this man the one to weave meaning into his life.

“Do you know what intrahistory is, Igarashi-san?”

Choe Gu-sung’s annoying typing made it difficult for him to hear the question. “Huh?”

“Intrahistory,” Makishima continued as he ran his finger down a yellowed page in the book, “Is the history that’s left outside of the books. Think of it as the blank margins on the paper. It’s the story of the nameless people who made history but who are never mentioned. Without them, History with a capital H is unconceivable.”

Igarashi gave a sly smile. “Is that the people from the blocks?”

“Indeed. The men who wrought the world and thrust it forward through blood and fire. You can see why the system made sure we never hear about them. Those who dare to be the actors of their own existence have no need for Sibyl.”

“Like the Arumajiro in the blocks.”

Makishima closed the book carefully. “Like the gladiators who died devoured by the lions under the impassive eyes of an Emperor. Or the soldiers in the vanguard bringing us closer to victory with their sacrifices. The anonymous martyrs who enrage the survivors. The strongest within the strong.”

It was quiet now. Choe Gu-sung had abruptly stopped his noise. A bizarre, undeniable aura of expectation hung in the air. Igarashi swallowed something he’d not felt in years down his parched throat, his mind scrambling to decipher what Makishima was getting at with his incessant blabber.

“Violence can be captivating, even beautiful. But like any art, when it’s empty, it’s hopelessly corrupted and vulgar. You do not need to worry about that, Igarashi-san. I’ll be sure to make your sacrifice meaningful.”

Dread surged in Igarashi like a freezing chill. “What the hell are you talking about?” he murmured. He’d kill the two of them. He could take them both easily, rip them apart with his hands, bludgeon them to death.

With a flourish, Choe Gu-sung made a single clicking sound on his keyboard, and Igarashi felt his body drop and crash into the glass table. A hail storm of white particles infested his vision, followed by a green crooked line and a tea cup rolling on the floor. Beyond that, Makishima’s feet trod toward him with the precision of a ropewalker, and he felt fear.

“I know you don’t like this gruesome part, Choe. You may go.”

Igarashi’s wild eyes tried to meet the mechanical eyes of the hacker, but he couldn’t move because a rumbling began inside his body; his blood boiling and searing and cauterizing from the inside. He clenched his teeth and grunted, his body growing rigid as pain travelled through his veins like a jagged marble—excruciating pain that made it impossible to think on anything except on it being over. With what little mind he had, he started wide-eyed at a slice of a window visible between Makishima’s legs, wishing with all his rotten heart he could jump from it. Then he heard himself howl a beast-like howl over and over again.

“’Alas, what is good and what is evil?’” Makishima said looking down on him. “’Are they both one single thing with which we furiously attest our impotence and passion to attain the infinite by even the maddest means? Or are they two different things? Yes…they had sooner be one and the same…for if not, what will become of me on Judgement Day?’”

#psycho-pass #dragnet #my fanfic #Akane Tsunemori #kogami shinya #makishima shogo #original character

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ill-will-editions · 5 years ago

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THE THREAT OF CONTAGION - Massimo De Carolis

Published on the Quodlibet website, March 12, 2020. Translated by Ill Will Editions.

***

Now that the media storm over the Coronavirus is beginning to calm down, allowing at least some reasonably certain data to emerge, and whilst the entire national territory is subjected to a regime of exception never before experienced, we may perhaps venture some remarks on the interweaving of the biological and political in the current emergency, without fear of mixing the two levels and thus contributing to the general confusion.

The first data that does not seem to be controversial is the exponential rate of increase of hospitalizations and deaths, which are doubling every two or three days. The epidemic contagion is not an illusion but a real fact, which could saturate the capacity of our hospital system within a couple of weeks, with dramatic social consequences in regions such as Campania or Sicily where the assault on health facilities is already a frequent phenomenon, for much more futile causes.

What is more reassuring, though not entirely certain, is the number of people who have contracted the virus with mild symptoms, which may be much higher than the current figures. In short, it is possible that the virus is less lethal than anticipated, and that the "peak" of infection reduction is closer than we might fear, as confirmed by the positive data from China. It is therefore to be hoped that the epidemic will eventually die away without first reaping millions of deaths in Spain or Asia.

Obviously, such hopes are bolstered by the greater efficiency of health care technologies and systems, as compared to the past. It is more difficult, however, to measure the actual usefulness of the policy measures adopted. The impression, however, is that they are inspired by a principle that is not without common sense. In the abstract, if, in the next three weeks, no one in Italy ever came close to anyone else (if, absurdly enough, wives and husbands stopped sleeping together, parents no longer caressed their children and doctors did not approach patients), the contagion would become impossible and the emergency would disappear. Government measures seem to aim to get as close as possible to this ideal. Their aim is, if not to cancel social life, at least to suspend it until further notice, channelling communication into the remote mechanisms of social networks and smart working. Right or wrong, this reasoning appears to be shared by the vast majority of the population, who are adapting to the new rules with surprising zeal. Perhaps not everyone goes so far as to consider "criminal" and "irresponsible" any young people who, despite everything, might gather to celebrate a birthday, or the elderly who insist on having a coffee at a cafe. But certainly, at the moment, obedience to the rules is reinforced by the social disapproval that severely affects offenders. Demanding a mitigation or even a revocation of measures would, therefore, at the moment, be a futile and unpopular exercise, especially as no one seems to have alternative solutions. The fact remains, however, that these are disturbing measures, which pulverize the social bond and impose on the entire population a regime of solitude and police control all too similar to the darkest experiences of the recent political past. The crucial question, therefore, is whether this is really and only a simple parenthesis, or whether we are witnessing a dress rehearsal of what could become the ordinary state of life in society in the near future.

Such suspicions are justified by the fact that the destruction of social ties and obsessive control in the name of "public health" certainly does not originate with the coronavirus. For at least a century, modern social mechanisms have tended to generate a society based on isolation, in which the spontaneity of social life is perceived as a hindrance or even a threat to the stability of the system. The point is that, in the past, the productive system could not do without bodies, voices and hands working together: it could limit and control promiscuity but not eliminate it completely. Today, however, we can, thanks to the wonders of technology. As paradoxical as it may sound, for the first time the machine that reproduces society is able to completely rid itself of that all-too-human sociality, without paying all that high of a price. How can we guarantee, then, that it is not preparing itself for this step?

In order to avoid misunderstandings, let's make it clear right away that in no case will a conspiracy, a Spectre, or some more or less hidden personification of Power dissolve our doubt. Social phenomena do not have a director [regia], but are the result of an indeterminate number of independent forces and drives. There are no puppeteers, but only puppets that push the theatre, each in his own way, with more or less force, in one direction or another, often in spite of their own conscious intentions. When the epidemic is over, there will certainly be a festive return to sociality, which no democratic government will dream of banning. What is certain, however, is that many companies will decide that the use of smart working is basically convenient, and they will ask employees not to dismantle the emergency workstations that are best suited in the bedroom. Many well-meaning people will notice that the closure of nightlife venues is an advantage for public safety, as long as it does not harm the interests of restaurateurs and tourism. And certainly many National "identitarian" political forces will remind us that contagions, in general, are particularly prevalent among tramps and immigrants (although unfortunately not in this case) and that public health requires inflexible hygiene. More generally, we will all discover that, in the final analysis, there is no social life that does not involve a risk of contagion, just as there is no organic life that does not risk illness and death. And so we will find ourselves faced with a basic political question: to what extent are we willing to jeopardize, albeit in a minimal form, our biological security in order to have dinner with a friend, to hug a child or simply to chat with the brash people who are out late in the streets? At what point can our social happiness be prioritized over the protection of our health? And is our political existence more important than our biological survival?

It's a good thing that the coronavirus forces us from one day to the next to ask ourselves similar questions, because the answer we will give in practice (and not only in speech) could determine the structure of our future society.

#italy #coronavirus #state of exception #europe #work

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hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 6 years ago

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You've mentioned that you think Superior Spider-Man should be put in his own dimension where he is the only Spider-Man and bring back the OG Doc Ock. I'm curious, what would you do if you were to write a story like this? I always find your plot ideas very interesting.

I’d have it revealed that Otto, ever cautious, not only created a back up of his mind during Spider-Verse but in fact during that story set up a secondary backup system that was constantly backing up his mind, sort of like a data cloud. It cut off though once he deleted his mind in Superior #30.

Carolyn Trainer and Stunner then abduct Superior Spider-Man regarding him as some kind of experiment gone wrong with Otto as they can plainly tell he is some version of the man they loved. He insists he is the real Doc Ock and expains the situation.

But the ladies in hearing the tale summise that something has gone wrong, that the copies of Otto’s mind created prior to Dying Wish and then in Spider-Verse must’ve been faulty, like corrupted data files. Maybe this was due to the state of Otto’s mind when he tried backing it up. Maybe it was because his mind prior to Dying wish was already a copy of his original mind* so he’d created a copy of a copy and then in Spider-Verse a copy of that, and like a photocopy each copy was lesser than the last one.

The point is they see him as ‘wrong’ and endeavour to repeat what they did in the 1990s and bring back the real Doc Ock by resurrecting his original body. To this end they seek out the Hand, a telepath and the mutant Facade who reshapes Otto’s flesh, restoring it to youthful vitality, free of sickness. On their orders though they restore his body to how it was prior to his illness because, whilst they know he’d want to be cured of that, being restored to his 20s or turning his fat into muscle was a decision they felt Otto should make for himself.

So they resurrect Otto and attempt to transfer Superior Spider-Man’s mind into his body as he awakens via telepathy rather than technology, whilst simultaneously uploading the copy of Otto’s mind that contained his memories up until he deleted himself in Superior #30

Spider-Man shows up and interrupts the process leaving Stunner, Trainer and the unconcious body of Otto to escape.

Only in safety does Doc Ock wake up.

Being resurrected and having Superior’s mind connect with his own has left Otto’s mind confused.

He remembers four different lives. One that ended when Kaine snapped his neck. Another when he overwrote his own mind with Peter Parker’s. Another when he deleted himself from Peter’s body and another where he became the protector of San Francisco.

He has something of an identity crisis on his hands but the thing is...what Stunner and Carolyn said about the copies of his mind that became Superior Spider-Man/Octopus...they were right, they were faulty. This is why Otto was so out of character during those incarnations.

And Otto knows this, because unlike those copies he knows himself.

In his now healthy body, with his mind working properly (by his standards) he disowns his copies’ actions as the Superior Spider-Man.

He asserts that his attempts to prove himself superior to Spider-Man by becoming him were born of the utter desperation of death for to beat Spider-man by becoming him is in tantamount to admitting he was inferior to him all along. His actions in Peter’s body and as Superior Octopus were degenerate at worst, a sign of weakness at best, his wilful destruction of himself in Superior #30 being the prime example, as was his desire to reform.

He recruits a new Sinister Six, and takes the battle to his pretender, the Superior Spider-Man.

The battle is fierce but in the end Otto gains the upper hand because the one opponent Superior Spidey had never battled or bothered accessing Peter’s memories about was in fact Doc Ock himself. As such Superior was used to facing such an opponent but Otto had years of knowledge fighting a Spider powered foe.

Superior desperately requests help and the Web Warriors show up. But Otto, knowing his copy as well as he does, accounted for this and manages to incapacitate them. He then invades the Web Warrior’s HQ intent on using the Web of Life and Destiny for his own purposes, abducting Otto’s supporting cast as hostages.

Spider-Man enters the fray and when all is said and done Otto traps Superior and his supporting cast in a universe essentially identical to Earth 616, albeit a universe that exists slightly in the future and doesn’t contain Anna Maria, Doc Ock, Superior or the other supporting cast. He even entangles the Web of Life and Destiny to the point where accessing that universe from inside or out will take years.

From Superior’s POV though he and his supporting cast simply travelled into the future again just like when he met Spidey 2099 and went on a side quest in Spider-Verse. The time skip allows for them to presume any changes they encounter occurred during said time skip. The biggest example being that recently Spider-Man and Doc Ock died fighting one another in a big battle following an encounter that occurred in San Francisco.

This was Doc Ock’s contingency plan.

He wasn’t 100% sure he could bring himself to in a sense kill ‘himself’ in the form of Superior Spider-Man. And he certainly didn’t want to kill Anna Maria or the other people connected to Superior’s life. For the most part his life as Superior Spider-Man/Octopus were things he remembered as matters of fact but held little-no emotional connection with, asserting his life before Dying Wish is who he truly is. But on some level he still cared about those people, that new life he had. But he also knew he couldn’t move on and be his true self with those people around. Superior would always be a huge threat to him (let alone an insult) and so long as Anna Maria was around, his lingering affection for her could compromise his pursuit of science and criminal activities.

So he’d searched the multiverse until he found the ideal universe to entrap his other self and the new people in his life in, a universe where they could be tricked into thinking it was in fact their home universe. Even if his other ever deduced he was living in a different universe the temptation of being the one and only Spider-Man AND Doc Ock in that universe, of reigning as superior there unchallenged would be too tempting for him to leave.

So Superior’s adventures would continue on in that universe uninterrupted and Doc Ock would go back to business as usual, but only after he confronted Spider-Man, revealed he remembered who he was from the Clone Saga, Civil War and so on but that he’d never use this knowledge to hurt his family or friends (provided they individually never crossed him).**

To do that would be sinking to Osborn’s level and worse would throw Spider-Man off his game.

He does want to prove himself superior to Spider-Man but he’ll do it without sinking to Osborn’s level, without becoming Spider-Man himself and fighting Spider-Man when he’s on his a-game, not concerned for his loved ones.

*He created a copy before he died in the Clone Saga, this was then uploaded into his mind wen he returned to life in 1997ish

**He’d also apologize for his other self’s actions regarding MJ explaining that was due to a fault in the copy he created.

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macchiatomingi · 6 years ago

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dysnomia.exe (ATEEZ Cyberpunk!AU) Chapter 2

Chaos//Order

After the news report, the house was sent into a flurry of activity. Yunho and San were setting up the firewall to prevent trackers from getting to it, Jongho and Yeosang were hooking up the microphone and making sure the surrounding area would be silent. Mingi hadn’t left his room since the report, but everyone knew better than to try and speak to him. You, Seonghwa, and Wooyoung sat with Hongjoong, discussing the group's next move.

“We have to leave,” Seonghwa starts, his voice cutting through a thick veil of tension.

“Where can we go.” Hongjoong replies, voice so certain that you couldn’t register his statement as a question or just a general sentence, the tension in his shoulders suggested a question, but the certainty of his voice suggested statement. Humans were confusing.

“We can scout,” Wooyoung starts, using a scarred hand to push silver hair out of his face, “the normal team can go out and look for a new place to live. We need to go hunting anyways, so we can kill two birds with one stone.” He finishes, leaning forward and resting his hands on Hongjoong’s desk.

Confusion sets in; why would Wooyoung want to throw stones at birds? Now isn’t the time for that.

“Wooyoung,” you start, turning to face him, “what is the purpose of killing birds with stones? There are more pressing matters at hand,” you say.

“Well, y’see Calixte-”

“As well as now not being an appropriate time,” you cut in, green numbers and charts flashing in front of your vision, “it is statistically impossible for anyone outside of Mingi to hit a bird with a bullet, let alone a stone. Attempting to kill birds with stones at this point in time would result in an approximate four hours and thirty-seven minutes wasted, and an approximate two hours and twenty-three minutes wasted by Mingi.” you conclude, the green haze leaving your eyes as you focused once again on Wooyoung’s features.

The room was silent, aside from Seonghwa’s muffled laughter at your literal acceptance of Wooyoung’s words.

“Anyways…” Hongjoong begins, you notice some of the tension has left his body and were relieved until another jolt of electricity shocked your system. Human emotions are stupid and cause nothing but pain, that’s the conclusion you’ve come to due to San’s faulty codes, “I’ll send the normal squad out for scouting after the transmission is completed, deal?” he finishes, pushing himself up from his seat.

Your eyes glow blue in affirmation while Wooyoung nods. Seonghwa took this as a chance to exit the room, and he did, followed by Hongjoong. Wooyoung followed shortly after which left you alone.

Your systems were malfunctioning, especially your sight receptors. You should probably notify someone of that, but now isn’t the time. Stress levels were much higher than what they normally were at the time of transmissions, and you knew to request an update to your hardware would add on to the already stressful situation.

The house was silent upon your exit from the room, realizing that everyone was standing outside the recording room as Hongjoong made another address, you quietly made your way over. Not a single floorboard creaked under your weight, and nobody knew you even left the room as you took a place standing behind Yunho, too short to see over his shoulders but not needing to.

“In light of the recent news report,” Hongjoong begins, his voice as smooth as silk as he spoke, “We feel as if it is necessary to re-explain our goals. Dysnomia is, in short, the Greek goddess of lawlessness. Disorder. Rebellion. Anarchy. Whatever word you’d like to use. Our goal? Answers. We seek answers for the crimes committed against us and the 15,892 others that lost their lives in the forced Wiping of Sector 00913. We seek the truth, we seek closure, and we will stop at nothing to get it.” He drawls, voice sharpening as his words take on more emotion, “Whether that be murder, or starting riots, we will get what it is we ask for.” He says.

The air stills, and you can see everyone get tense once more. Hongjoong speaks again but this time his voice is...darker...harsher than what it was.

“The answers we seek come from IDAT, from the Integrated Defense of Automated Technology. The president finds it in himself to call us the criminals when he is responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths. We will bring his crimes to light, and we will bring peace and solace to those affected by him and his men’s regime.” He says, every word laced with a poison of which you’ve never heard.

The transmission ends shortly after; it was a success.

There were no attempted breachings, and it was broadcasted on every major news network and website in Nuseoul. As quickly as everything was brought out, it was packed back up. Hongjoong exited the recording room and instructed everyone to go with him into the city to buy new clothes and hair dyes as well as materials for your new physical suit.

“Calixte,” Seonghwa says, stopping in front of you as he puts on his coat, “stay here and make sure Mingi doesn’t do anything stupid.”

Your eye flashed a shade of yellow, “Command received,” you say.

Seonghwa nods and follows everyone else out the house, leaving you alone with Mingi.

This wasn’t a problem, it’s not that you disliked the boy, you were incapable of disliking anyone after all. You took a seat on the couch once more and the TV automatically cut on in response. Every news network in Nuseoul was talking about the recent transmission, and after conducting a quick search of the Internet, you realized that every forum was talking about it as well. Eventually settling on a random TV station playing a mindless cartoon, you set your systems to Hibernate to try and alleviate some of the stress your sensors had been under for practically the entire day.

You were brought out of your hibernation when a body was sensed nearby, turning to face the direction of the body, you took note of the figure in front of the fridge.

Mused brown hair fell in front of sharp features, the boy stood unmoving until he noticed you staring at him.

“What,” he starts, gravely voice cutting through the air, “what do you want?”

“My sensors tell me that you are distressed,” you say as you run an emotional diagnostics exam, “the main emotion you seem to be feeling now is the one titled Stress. According to the WPA, one way to alleviate Stress would be to discuss your problems with someone around you.” you finish.

“I don’t need to-”

“My sensors also indicate that you are experiencing the emotion titled Anger.”

“Well yeah because when you-”

“My sensors indicate that you-”

“Can you shut up?” The door to the fridge slams shut, rattling the entire appliance and knocking down some of the boxes of cereal on top of it.

Your already scrambled sensors are scrambling even more at this point, a variety of emotions swirl in front of you ranging from Confusion to Rage to Distress and you don’t know what any of them are, you only have Excitement and Confusion. San hasn’t created any new emotions for you yet.

“I do not understand,” you say, head tilting to the side, “it is clear that you are experiencing a variety of negative emotions yet you refuse to acknowledge the solutions that have been provided to attempt to resolve them, Song Mingi.”

“I can’t believe I’m arguing with a robot,” he says, laughing at the pure stupidity of the situation, “I don’t need your advice, I don’t need advice from a talking piece of metal.”

“I am an android, an android made of a copper-titanium alloy.”

“Like that makes it any better.”

You stay silent, you couldn’t understand why he wasn’t taking the advice you gave. Your primary purpose was to serve ATZ and ensure that they are well and that their missions are a success, that is what you were reprogrammed for. That is what you were repurposed for. The fact that you were so blatantly ignored when the person obviously needed help was...as Jongho would say, baffling.

“I apologize if my lack of Empathy renders me a nuisance to you,” you hear a scoff, “I have requested that San program the emotion so that I can better understand complex human emotions. I hope that I will be more understanding once I receive that program.”

“You sound like a fucking IDAT robot.” He groans, your vision flashes an ERROR message once again.

Silence consumes the room as you turn back towards the TV, slowing down your systems once again to accommodate the influx of error messages you receive. You eventually fall into another Hibernation state, only waking out of it when Wooyoung restarts your systems to notify you that you, him, and Mingi will be leaving to both scout the surrounding area for a new home and hunt for dinner for at least the next week.

The three of you left in silence, you trailing behind Mingi, who followed behind Wooyoung. All of you dressed in black to blend in with the darkness around you. Wooyoung has a small pouch of throwing knives tied around his thigh, while Mingi has at least three guns on his person. You’re left with nothing, but that’s okay as you’re able to be repaired and are thus, as Mingi says, disposable.

“There is a heat signature about fifty-four feet in front of us, near a water source, most likely a stream.” You say.

“Got it,” Mingi replies as he passes in front of Wooyoung, taking the gun that was slung over his shoulder and flipping it around, he crouches down and brings his eye up to the scope, powering the weapon on. He adjusts his position a bit before he holds his breath, you take note of how his heart rate slows and his body relaxes. He pulls the trigger and is knocked back a bit due to the rebound from the weapon, but you still see that the animal was indeed hit by the bullet.

“The target has been knocked down.”

“No need to state the obvious.”

“Be nice.”

The three of you walk forward to the animal, you take note of it’s twitching form as it’s life slowly ebbs out of the bullet wound. Walking past Wooyoung and Mingi, you pick up the animal and sling it over your shoulder, turning back around to face them.

“We can continue searching for shelter now.” You say, walking back towards the path you all came down originally.

After about two hours of searching you all stumble across another house, further out than the one you were currently in. Wooyoung instructs you to notify the rest of the team via an encrypted message, and you do so. Receiving a reply roughly 30 seconds later instructing you three to set up home for the time being.

Wooyoung and Mingi enter the house as you go around the back to drop off the animal that was collected from the hunt, as you set it down you receive a file from San.

‘These are some emotions I made for you! Install them! All the programs save for Excitement are betas so let me know how they work!’ it reads.

The emotions are installed as you set up a fire to cook the animal, and by the time everything is finished you’ve acquired Empathy, Sadness, Joy, an updated Excitement, and Rage. Placing the animal over the fire you make your way into the house from the back entrance.

“Calixte!” Wooyoung shouts, a wide smile gracing his features sending a jolt of electricity through your systems, “how do you feel? San said before we left that he was gonna send you new emotions!”

“Yes,” you begin, “I have received the emotions and they have been installed. Upon you saying my name I believe I felt the emotion of Joy, but I am unsure.” You said monotonously, much to Wooyoung’s dismay.

“Well, there’s always time to teach you,” he sighs, grabbing you by the wrist and dragging you towards the home’s living room, “let’s wait for everyone in here. Mingi already claimed a room and slammed the door.”

You nod in acknowledgment of his words, and upon sitting down your systems once again get flooded with error messages.

~~~~~

Ooooh this kinda droned on too but !!! the next chapter should pick things up :’) fdaklj i’m so hype to get the next chapter up but its 12:30 AM as i finish and i still have to sort stuff out for school :’) ah education, i love it but i hate it.

#ateez #ateez au #ateez fanfic #ateez drabbles #ateez imagine #cyberpunk!au #cyberpunk!ateez #ateez san #ateez wooyoung #ateez jongho #ateez mingi #ateez yunho #ateez yeosang #ateez hongjoong #ateez seonghwa #i love calixte so much #theyre so cute #dont mind mingi #hes just an angry bub

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blackishmirror-blog · 6 years ago

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Nosey Neighbors - now in app form!

Ring is one of many companies that are part of the ongoing rise of cyber surveillance. Its technology has become incredibly popular in suburban neighborhoods, and company executives point to its affordability and inclusivity as the reason for its popularity. However, it can be argued that Ring is an extension of the neighborhood watch program, which accounts for its popularity - and controversy. There are concerns that this technology infringes on personal privacy and encourages racial profiling, which would magnify the issues of police brutality and federal interference. This technology has seamlessly spread throughout the United States and has been almost universally lauded for its social, streamlined approach to reducing crime rates, however, its existence also magnifies the racist relationship between people of color and the justice system; it can be argued that by crowdsourcing police work, Ring is enabling racial profiling and increasing potential for police brutality incidents.

Ring’s mission is to “reduce crime in neighborhoods by creating a Ring of Security around homes and communities with a suite of home security products”. Their social media platform, Neighbors, came about from the social media distribution of Ring videos, and was created in September 2017. With Neighbors and their home security line, Ring is able to offer affordable and proactive security for the home and neighborhood. In-house studies indicate that one Los Angeles neighborhood saw a 55 percent decrease in home break-ins after Ring Video Doorbells were installed in 10% of homes. Additionally, in an interview with CNET, Ring executives pointed to the spike in activity on the Neighbors app when the Hill Fire and Woolsey fire hit Southern California in November 2017, where post and comment volume surged over 1000 percent in the affected areas. They stated that Neighbors hosted video for “30,000, if you will, camera reporters in the field able to report things were where they were”. As of April 12th, 2018, Ring has been acquired by Amazon which strongly indicates further expansion and development of Ring products. As of the press release, with the assistance of Amazon, Ring doorbell has been discounted at $99.99. Ring had also already been an investment of the Alexa Fund, which allowed for Ring video feeds to be viewed through Echo Show and Fire TV. However, the most impactful takeaway from this collaboration is that Ring is only one part of a suite of home security devices acquired by Amazon, all of which will be able to exchange unprecedented amounts of personal data with other smart home appliances.

Ring first came out with a home security line, which includes its trademark video doorbell, spotlight cams, floodlight cams, and accessories. In September 2017, Ring launched Neighbors, an app and social media platform, that allows people to share, view, and comment on crime and security information in their communities.The app has over a million active users, and has quickly become one of the biggest aggregators of crime and safety data. 23 percent of information shared is suspicious behavior, 20 percent is alleged crimes, and 15 percent is safety issues. In response to Medium’s argument regarding the correlation between surveillance and profiling, Ring stated that Neighbors has strict community guidelines that are enforced and flagged by moderators. The vast majority of Neighbors posts meet guidelines, and those that are not are quickly dealt with. Neighbors is intended to facilitate real time communication between communities and law enforcement. This feature of Neighbors moderation was also mentioned in CNET’s review of the app.

Neighbors is one of many surveillance technologies meant to replace neighborhood watch programs. However, no one is sure that those programs even work. They have mixed results - some see no results, some see less crime and some see more. The origin of neighborhood watch can be attributed to Kitty Genovese's murder in 1964. Her public, gruesome attempted rape and murder was alleged to be viewed by 37 of Genovese’s neighbors. The report on her case led to widespread disdain and fury for the phenomenon of “bystander apathy”. Decades later, the NYT article that detailed this phenomenon had exaggerated many key details, but the impact had already been made. Several volunteer groups arose in the 1970s to serve as quasi-law enforcement. Casual surveillance groups to official neighborhood watch outposts became active during this time. These groups arose due a controversial study that indicated that cracking down on smaller scale crime can prevent more serious crime. Through the 80s and 90s, police and community support kept neighborhood watch alive while actual research was scant and unpersuasive.CCTV grew in conjunction with neighborhood watch. CCTV allowed cops to magnify surveillance by feeding video from several cameras to a bank of monitors. The promotion of funny clips from surveillance footage to America’s Funniest Home Videos mirrors the promotion of funny Ring videos. As surveillance continued to develop, people of color were arrested in disproportionate numbers for longer and longer sentences. Those underrepresented groups, typically of Black-American or Hispanic descent, extended to the Middle-Eastern community after 9/11. Past and present forms of neighborhood watch programs are shown violate civil rights and encourage racial profiling, and technology can only make it worse.

To learn more about the layman’s review, I looked to Reddit, a website that has been harshly criticized by progressive media for being racist, sexist, and at times abusive, but has also risen among the ranks as a social network yet the same. The videos posted to their /top page have been filtered both through Ring’s and Reddit’s algorithms reflecting the most lighthearted, generic content on the video feeds among the most passionate fans. Of the top 10 videos, 5 feature criminal activity, and upon a brief quantitative study of the top comments of each of those videos, I did not notice a significant amount of vulgar/bullying language, but upon further analysis I saw two patterns: the strong impetus to report incidents to law enforcement and the condemnation of the assailants. The existence of this community reflects Ring’s popularity, but its content only supports the arguments of Ring’s opponents.

Various new outlets have condemned Ring for its promotion of recreational surveillance and the consequences associated with it. A contributor for Medium OneZero, Bea Bischoff, believes that Ring contributes to the difficult relationship between surveillance and racism. Modern surveillance technologies demonstrated the integral relationship between surveillance technology and racism. In 2011, Nextdoor handled rampant racial profiling by setting of systems to exclude primarily racial content. Despite the controversy and confusion about the necessity of peer-to-peer policing, Canary and SimpliSafe followed in Nextdoor’s footsteps, and have had enormous financial success . Ring has developed a cult following around videos produced by its doorbell. However, the success of these technologies are a record of the abuses that arise from unlimited surveillance. The online neighborhood watch is a still a neighborhood watch, where neighborhood watch encourages racial profiling, violating civil rights, and infringing on civilian privacy. Caroline Haskins from Motherboard (a publication within the Vice network), explicitly argues why Ring’s protocol is insufficient in today’s alarmist and racist climate. Ring’s executives relish in the resurgence of the neighborhood watch, Chris Gillard, a tech policy expert, argues that black individuals in predominantly white neighborhoods (where neighborhood watches are particularly attractive) are already classified as foreign or suspicious and would be prime targets on the app. Motherboard’s own qualitative analysis of 100+ reports in the Williamsburg area area supported Gillard’s expert opinion, and also revealed the prevalence of bullying and abusive language, which goes against Neighbors’ guidelines. There is a strong social impetus to report crimes to law enforcement by Neighbors’ user base. Shahid Buttar, the Director of Grassroots Advocacy for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, indicates the potential lethality of that kind of community. In response to Ring’s intention to develop facial recognition technologies in partnership with Amazon, Haskins pointed to the inaccuracies of Amazon’s Rekognition technology, particularly with black individuals. In illustrating the negative implications of this technology with scientific data and expert testimony, these media outlets have provided a comprehensive and convincing takedown.

From both a sociological and technological standpoint, Ring has not proven to be an ethical technology. While they consider safety and risk with regards to their physical products and social media platform, the current implementation of both components of the technology do not satisfy basic ethical standards due to laissez-faire, socially inconsiderate leadership that does not have their user base best interests at heart. As a person of color, I feel threatened and uneasy by this technology. As a engineer and sociological expert in this technology, I believe that strict limitations must be set on the kinds of reports make by users and the amount of data collected. Ring needs to restructure their regulations and reconsider their business decisions before expanding further.

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keepyourpantsongohan · 7 years ago

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I’ve been really possessed of the idea of a post-Kaguya no chakra AU lately, so here’s an unnecessarily long ramble about what it might look like:

Since Kaguya is the originator of chakra in the Naruto universe, sealing her and Zetsu also subsequently affects the ability of all ninja to mould chakra. Kaguya wanted to take all chakra back, and inadvertently, her sealing does just that.

Perhaps the continued existence of Black Zetsu and the God Tree in the world was the only reason ninja could combine energies in the first place - a spiritual link between humanity and chakra.

This has a lot of immediate fallout. For one thing, Sasuke has no reason to fight Naruto any longer. If no one is able to use chakra, then Sasuke no longer has enough power to tilt the axis of the world, and the world itself has already tipped - the shinobi system he wanted to challenge is crumbling at its foundation.

So Team 7 doesn’t fight. Perhaps without that fight, Sasuke would be unable to have an epiphany about relying on others, but the outcome remains the same: Sasuke doesn’t attack his comrades.

It’s possible that, as jinchuuriki, Bee and Naruto would be exempt from this circumstance. But even then, they’d only have access to the power in a transformed state, where their bijuu can act as the link between them and chakra. On the day-to-day, they’re the same as the others around them. It’s likely that every other shinobi loses their chakra-based techniques entirely. Even doujutsu would require infusing chakra into the eyes, so regardless of an eye’s appearance, there are no longer any accompanying abilities.

Without moulding chakra, there’s no medical ninjutsu, so even in the days that follow, more people are lost as they succumb to their wounds. There are plenty that do survive though, albeit much weaker than they would’ve been if they could be healed.

Each shinobi is eager to return home, even the wake of all the confusion. There’s some uncertainty about leadership now. The Kage are most often chosen by their power. They no longer have access to their bloodline limits. Onoki and Tsunade, whose bodies have suffered the most, immediately feel its effects. (A reasonable explanation for why Tsunade would so hastily abandon her post.)

The villages still need leaders, so Kakashi still ends up becoming the Rokudaime Hokage. But for the first time, his strength is irrelevant - he’s chosen entirely because he has the trust of the village (particularly Tsunade) and a sharp mind. Konoha needs someone to lead them into a new age.

The daimyo are greatly concerned. Their military strength has relied almost entirely on the ability to infuse chakra. One thing agreed by both Kage and daimyo is that, for the sake of preventing further calamity, Bee and Naruto will be the last jinchuuriki.

They rebuild. By hand, this time, since Yamato’s mokuton is gone. It’s a slow and arduous process. They’ve organized themselves around being shinobi for so long, it’s hard to figure out where they’ll go from here. The academy is a defunct structure. Many people whose jobs relied on their abilities lack a clear source of income.

Kakashi appeals to the daimyo for this. He secures enough funding to open several new research facilities, not focused on ninja techniques, but on other things. Technological advancement. Agricultural production. Sustainable energy sources. Medicine.

It’s not just the sciences which advance. Now that the shinobi system has fallen apart, there’s a great interest in examining its history in detail. The other nations are less reluctant to share intel, since they’ve fought a war together, and all the secrecy behind their techniques is irrelevant now. So in Konoha, and every other village, historians gather, creating previously unexamined and wildly conflicting accounts of the world from chakra’s beginning to end.

There’s an interest in opening up a university, in the years that follow, so that the knowledge produced by these fields isn’t available to researchers alone. The money once used to maintain their supply of weapons is re-purposed, and there’s an opportunity for all citizens to be educated for free. The curriculum changes each year as new advances are made. There’s greater demand for teachers, because many people have wanted to spend more time learning, but never had a place to do so. There are all new kinds of cultural and technological production driving their economy now.

Clans become far less important, and far less politicized. There’s no point in worrying about keeping secrets if you no longer have a family technique. The Hyuga, especially, are forced to change. Even if the war hadn’t changed their perspective, there is little point in concerning themselves so heavily with main and branch families if they can no longer use the Byakugan.

Sakura focuses her energies on learning new medical techniques that don’t require chakra. She pulls research from any recorded history she can find about early medicine used when chakra wasn’t so common. She is at the forefront of her field, and Tsunade and Kakashi lend their support to her as she restructures the hospital.

Sasuke’s situation is unclear, for a while. The military he defected from technically no longer exists. He killed an acting Hokage, but on the edge of a war, and one who’d been responsible for the deaths of countless Konoha citizens. He’d never actually attacked the Leaf, but he’d certainly harmed a lot of people. People don’t know whether to jail him or call him a hero for his actions in the war. He himself isn’t sure how he feels about Konoha. Team 7 helps. They advocate strongly for Sasuke, and continuously pester him while he’s on house arrest. He feels a bit like he did when he was 13. Not exactly bound to the village, but bound to his team at least. He even ends up becoming better acquainted with Sai and Yamato, because Sai is wary of him hurting Sakura and Naruto, and Yamato will sometimes accompany the others on their visits.

When he’s pardoned again, he does still think about leaving. Sakura and Naruto tell him that he’s an idiot, and they physically hold onto him until he says he’ll think about staying, even when that takes a day and a half. “This hug is getting really sweaty,” he says, as they cling to him in his kitchen. “Don’t you have places to be?” They both shrug.

Kakashi offers him a job. He thinks part of the reason that Sasuke was so obsessed with vengeance is that he could never find any justice. So he asks Sasuke to think about what their new civil and criminal justice systems should look like. Less subjective to the whims of whichever Hokage or councilman is doling it out, and instead relying on due process. Systems where people like Danzo would be held accountable for their actions. And systems where people could arbitrate their problems, so that discrimination like that which spurred the Uchiha clan to coup could not happen. The appeal of being able to prevent another Itachi from occurring is too great, so Sasuke stays.

Naruto’s a little lost in the wake of all this too. Most of his plans for the future had always assumed that the shinobi system would still be in place. He’s not sure he knows what to strive for anymore in this new world. Kakashi asks him to help Sasuke work on the justice system reforms. He thinks Naruto would be a moderating influence, and that their combined pessimism and optimism might just create something functional. When it comes to the subject of the laws and procedures that affect children, Naruto finds himself particularly driven. He thinks he’d like to ensure that no child would ever grow up as lonely as him or Sasuke again. So, with Kakashi’s guidance, he helps to draft procedures which protect the children of their village from abandonment, endangerment or abuse.

Naruto doesn’t stop there. It’s one thing to put it in the law, but he’s always been more of a doer than a thinker, so he wants to create actual programs where children might have better resources available to them. A functional foster system. Social programs which allow for education and socialization even for children who haven’t found homes yet. Charities which specifically collect resources to make sure these kids are looked after, both physically and emotionally. He’s a force of change in a different way than he ever imagined.

There’s a recognition that the people who’ve been shinobi to date need different accommodations, and that job falls to Sai. Having grown up taught to separate himself from his emotions, he understands how hard it is in the aftermath to have to confront them. So with Sakura’s help, he becomes in charge of a counseling centre for veterans. He isn’t a counselor (he’s still got some healing to do, himself) but he administers the place so it functions effectively, and makes certain that anyone who needs a place to deal with their emotions has it.

Orochimaru would’ve been one of the first people held accountable to the new reforms on child protection, but as it is, it soon becomes irrelevant. Orochimaru’s body decays. The experiments he’s performed on his body cannot be sustained without the continuous moulding of chakra, and so he falls apart. They give his body to Otogakure, and one of his former subordinates buries him in an unmarked grave.

So, Yamato stays in the village too. He still feels guilty about what happened to him in the war, and is confused about who exactly he is without mokuton, but part of him is glad he can never be used as a weapon again. Even without his mokuton, he’s still the best at designing buildings in the village, so as the village not only rebuilds, but expands, he becomes the most sought-after architect in all of Konohagakure. Sometimes he’ll even receive requests from the other villages, but he always returns. He spends weeks building himself a home on the edge of the village, exactly to his liking, and with enough room to host all of the kids of Team 7, when they come by. He claims he lives alone, but Kakashi’s most often found there too, complaining that the Hokage residence is too stuffy for him to be comfortable.

As in the days of Hashirama, the other villages follow suit with the changes of Konohagakure. This time, it is less about maintaining a balance of power and mostly just because the reforms are working. People are happier. Fewer people die. Children are cared for. And while their system isn’t perfect - they’re under a feudal lord, after all, and there are concerns about the future of their military - it’s better. And that’s the optimistic world we’re left with when Naruto finally becomes Hokage.

#ayesha talks anime #wow this is a very long post #but yeah this is what i wanted thanks for coming to my tedtalk #team 7 #naruto series #au headcanons #headcanons #i guess???

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brandspace · 3 years ago

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How does Deepfake Voice Generator work?

You all might remember that unfateful November evening back in 2013 when we got the news about Paul Walker passing away in a car accident. The world lost a precious gem that day. But as the people were mourning over his death, producers of the movie Fast & Furious were tensed as he had some unfinished scenes in the movie yet in 2015, his scenes had been miraculously stitched to perfection!

If you’re confused about this magic, chances are that you weren’t aware of the developing technology even back then. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that daily, technology keeps breeding newer, faster, and more productive means to endless ends and this technology–Deepfake Technology–that we’re being particular about here is one such means. They used this technology through machine learning and portrayed the character. Deepfake can be either developed for physical or auditory means and today we’re going to learn about how Deepfake works through AI text-to-speech.

Audio deepfakes, essentially, are the cloning of a person’s voice to generate synthetic audio. In most cases, this cloned voice is indistinguishable from the original voice. Audio deepfakes can be achieved using replay attacks, speech synthesis, voice conversion, and manipulation.

Besides audio deepfakes, some other forms of deepfakes, which aren’t exactly prominent but are nevertheless existent, should be considered and offered some degrees of legitimacy: text deepfakes which use exposed fabrication, humorous fakes, and hoax fakes; and image deepfakes such as AI avatar, face swap, synthesis, and editing–photoshop, essentially.

How Deepfake affects the society

While Deepfakes was the reason the movie was successful to include Paul Walker in it which saved billions of money or identified unrecognized tumors, it has its own very dangerous downfalls. Let’s look more into the matter to steer clear of the technology and how.

1. Revenge Porn

The very origin of the name “deepfakes”, as we’ve mentioned earlier in this post, springs from its use in the malicious creation of pornographic content and that’s why the list of ills that deepfakes bring can never be complete without mentioning it. To put this in perspective, research shows that pornographic content online in 2020 contained more than 96% of deepfake videos, which means videos were made to tarnish the image of their victims. This puts the reputation of many celebrities at risk of absolute damage.

2. Legal Evidence Compromise

Another danger of deepfake technology is its application to the legal system, where people can use it to alter, tamper with, and even deny criminal evidence. For example, between 2019 and 2020, during a child custody battle in a British courtroom, a woman presented doctored recordings of her husband being abusive. Thanks to the husband who could prove otherwise, justice would have probably been served wrong.

3. Phishing and Scamming

People can use Deepfake technology to create false videos of persons of financial authority to prise money from them. In 2020, Forrester predicted the cost of deepfakes scams to be $250 million.

4. Medical Infrastructural Compromise

The positives of deepfakes can also double as a demerit. Deepfakes could be used to create false brain scans to help study a patient’s tumor condition. When this application is broadened or thorough down, it can be used by persons with malicious intent to deceive medical facilities into believing the wrong radiographic information about a targeted patient.

Now that you’ve come to comprehend deepfake technology and the risks associated with its use, you should be better able to identify and respond to the risks of deepfake technology if combined with a voice generator, or other AI-based tools. It’s always better to be aware of potential dangers before they become a reality.

#ai text to speech #voice generator

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saviomsoftware · 4 years ago

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Why Resource Scheduling Solution Is Crucial For Consultancy Firms

Please Note: This article appeared in saviom and has been published here with permission. Over the years, the consulting industry has grown substantially. As per Business Wire,

“The global management consulting services market is expected to expand from $819.79 billion in 2020 to $1201.06 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 8%.”

With the growth of the sector, the value for its resources/consultants has also increased multifold. They are one of the most valuable assets in the consulting industry and contribute significantly to organizational success.

As most of the consultants work on an hourly basis, their overall billable time becomes very expensive for the clients. So firms must use them efficiently. However, most firms fall short when it comes to effective resource scheduling. They rely on spreadsheets or homegrown solutions for scheduling resources. These solutions can not prevent the idle time of these external resources and unnecessarily increase the cost.

In this blog, we discuss how consultancy firms can benefit from a robust resource scheduling solution.

But before digging deep into it, let’s understand everything about consulting firms and what they do.

1. What are consultancy firms?

Consulting firms are business entities that offer professional advice, ideas, and solutions to companies undergoing crises that their in-house resources cannot solve. In simple words, when a company requires a specialized skill to address an immediate problem, it contacts a relevant consulting firm to provide a quick solution. These firms play a crucial role in providing strategic direction to businesses across various departments such as manufacturing, sales, and marketing, or human resources.

Consulting firms provide industry-specific personals or subject-matter experts, known as consultants, to analyze a specific problem at hand and find multiple options to provide a solution. The following are some of the ways how consultants can help a business:

Construct business models.

Assist with problem-solving.

Provide cost-effective solutions.

Predict risk and innovate products

Strengthen talent management processes.

2. Types of consultancy firms and what they do

Consulting firms are present in more or less for every industry. Here are a few examples:

IT consultancy firms

IT Consulting companies help clients businesses to design and implement information technology (IT) systems and infrastructure. The objective of seeking IT consulting services is to provide guidance in simplifying various business and technology functions by introducing robust software and solutions.

Audit and Accounting consultancy firms

These consultancy firms help organize and manage the company’s cash flow to avoid issuing money into unfavorable ventures. They also conduct regular audits annually to investigate all financial aspects of a company’s business. Also, these firms advise on tax obligations, the implications of new tax legislation, and tax mitigation strategies.

Engineering consultancy firms

Engineering consultancy firms provide engineering services and expertise to companies in need of a specialized skill-set. Generally, they have experienced engineers to provide short-term technical advice for a fee. These firms have expertise across many sectors, including civil engineering, rail, telecommunications, energy, automotive, space, and defense.

Construction consultancy firms

Construction firms help companies construct a wide variety of buildings, developments, housing, path, pavement, roads, motorways, and other types of construction projects. They offer extensive analysis of the environmental factors to ensure that the structure is durable, sustainable, and functional.

Law firms

A few experienced lawyers come together and form a law firm to engage in the practice of law. Law firm consultants advise clients about their legal rights and responsibilities. These consultants even represent clients in civil or criminal cases, business transactions, and other matters in which legal advice is sought.

Now that we know the different consultancy types and functions, let’s understand how resource scheduling is necessary for consultancy firms.

3. How is resource scheduling different for consultancy firms?

Most consultancy projects are of short duration, and clients are billed on an hourly basis. Thus, the managers need to keep track of every resource and where they are spending their time. Otherwise, it will result in poor resource utilization.

For example, let’s assume a client hired a lawyer for a specific purpose. As per the agreement, the lawyer would work for 3 hours on the project. Now another client booked the same lawyer for a much larger project with a demand of 6 hours per day.

Now, the lawyer hired for the two projects spends much of his/her time on the larger project and does not provide attention to the smaller project. It results in poor utilization and client dissatisfaction. Moreover, it leads to poor productivity, and the firm loses its money and reputation.

A resource scheduling solution enables you to track resource utilization and optimize resources as per requirement. It also lets you see all the consultants with clear visibility of their skills, location, availability, cost, and other relevant information for competent resource allocation.

4. Significance of resource scheduling for consultancy firms

Consulting firms cater to multiple clients at once. They need to have transparency on their resource profiles, project demands, and more. This is why resource scheduling is critical.

A resource scheduling solution provides data-driven foresight into various resource metrics like resource availability, capacity vs. demand gap, utilization, and more. Based on this, managers can implement the proper resourcing measures and eliminate potential project challenges.

Besides, it shaves off large amounts of time wasted collecting, analyzing, and presenting the data. It reduces the stress that managers experience in dealing with large amounts of information that can often become confusing.

It also improves the overall communication of the company’s consulting staff by presenting resource plans and data in a way that is simple yet powerful to understand.

5. Benefits of resource scheduling solution for consultancy firms

Here is a rundown of the top benefits of a resource scheduling solution for a consultancy firm:

Gain complete visibility across the organization

As mentioned before, a consultancy firm may have competencies spanning numerous countries. Based on that, resources can have multiple reporting lines. For multidimensional scheduling capabilities, firms need overall visibility across the enterprise.

Resource scheduling solution integrates all resource-related information on a centralized system. It keeps one informed of all allocations and availabilities and manages the whole process effortlessly. Also, it captures the updates when employees take a vacation, family leaves, or public holidays.

Moreover, 360-degree visibility helps to identify and leverage cost-effective global resources across boundaries. You can access every data, be it project-related or non-project-related.

Deploy right resources to right tasks

As every resource data is available on a single platform, one can assign competent resources to practical tasks. You can find the right resource using advanced filters such as skills, qualifications, experience, location, availability, cost rate, and so on.

Moreover, it maintains real-time competency information to match skill set proficiency with the right task. Employees can even update their competencies themselves, and supervisors can validate the authenticity of the same.

You can distribute resources based on the requirement of the projects. Resource scheduling enables you to replace high-cost local resources with low-cost global resources. That way, you can facilitate the best resource allocation for maximum profitability.

Maximize billable and strategic utilization

Consultants charge their rates on an hourly basis. Thus, billable utilization is a critical KPI for a consultancy firm to ensure profitability and sustainability.

A resource scheduling solution can help track resource utilization. Managers can get a comprehensive view of the actual number of hours logged in by the employees against the planned ones. If there is an anomaly, they can take remedial measures to control the situation.

Furthermore, it can forecast billable and strategic utilization of the workforce ahead of time. You can also compare the actual utilization rates against forecasted ones and take remedial actions such as mobilizing resources from non-billable to billable work.

Moreover, resources can view their utilization and increase their productivity accordingly. The resource heatmaps provide them with a glimpse of their usage. Also, stakeholders can view utilization rates and make data-driven decisions to improve the organization’s health index.

Deliver projects within the deadline

Assigning the right person with the right skills is crucial for a project to finish within budgeted time without disrupting the quality. A resource scheduling solution lets you foresee the project demand. So, with enterprise-wide visibility, you have the chance to allocate a competent resource at the right time, ensuring timely delivery.

A resource scheduling software negates the chances of allocating under or overqualified resources on tasks. Underqualified resources feel frustrated and often delay delivery timelines. On the other hand, overqualified resources experience boredom and feel deprived. In both cases, employee engagement and, subsequently, productivity are adversely affected, resulting in project overruns.

The centralized solution enables managers to consider the employee’s skills and interests before task allocation. It maximizes the chances of successful delivery within the duration.

Optimize resources through leveling and smoothing

In a consultancy firm, you are unlikely to have resources all the time. But it would help if you made adjustments to cater to the numerous client demands. The client requirements also can change suddenly.

A resource scheduling solution can help you optimize resources based on the needs. For instance, when a project has a specific deadline, you can exercise resource smoothing. By assessing the resources’ workload, you will be able to know if they are overutilized. This way, you can redistribute their workload or pull in additional resources to balance it out.

Otherwise, if the project deadlines are flexible, you have the liberty to move around the timeline to match the resources’ schedule. That way, you can level the work as per the resources’ schedules and guarantee optimal utilization.

Minimize project costs with real-time reports

A resource scheduling solution can track critical financial indicators for a project like resourcing cost, revenue, profit margins, and overheads. You can take control of project costs ahead of time with forecasted cost reports, forecast vs. actual utilization reports, and so on. Also, you can assess current financial conditions and take corrective actions.

By implementing a resource scheduling solution, managers can drastically reduce project costs. Here’s how:

Eliminate under/over skilled resources on projects and reduce excess cost.

Utilize cost-effective global resources without compromising quality.

Reduce unplanned attrition with corrective schedules.

Improve productivity by multi skill-building through job rotation strategy

Minimize last-minute hiring costs with visibility into pipeline project demands

Frequent hiring/firing creates a negative image for the organization. It takes up a lot of money and also affects the existing employees’ morale. Forecasting enables proactive smoothening of project workload and reskilling employees. That way, you are saved from making last-minute hiring/firing decisions.

6. Conclusion

Resource scheduling can enhance the productivity of the consultancy firm’s resources through effective allocation. It helps in improving billable and effective resource utilization for the profitability and sustainability of these firms. Moreover, it helps in the successful delivery of projects, thereby enhancing client satisfaction and market reputation.

7. Saviom Solution

SAVIOM has over 20 years of experience helping multinational clients manage their resources efficiently and effectively. With over 20 years of experience, this Australian-based MNC has a global presence across 50 countries and has helped 100+ clients meet their specific business goals. Saviom also provides tools for project portfolio management, professional service automation, and workforce planning software. So, SAVIOM can help your business to establish an efficient system geared towards your specific business challenges.

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jamesstegall · 4 years ago

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How digital beauty filters perpetuate colorism

When Lise was a young teenager in Georgia, her classmates bullied her relentlessly. She had moved with her family from Haiti a few years earlier, and she didn’t fit in with the other students. They teased her about her accent, claimed she “smelled weird,” and criticized the food she ate. But most often they would attack her with remarks about her dark complexion. Sometimes teachers would send her home from school because she couldn’t stop crying. “I remember going home and I would take those copper wire things that you scrub dishes with,” she says. “I would go to the bathroom and I would take my mom’s bleach cream and scrub my skin with it.”

And it wasn’t just white classmates. Black students harassed her too—for being an outsider, for being too different. She remembers them asking, “Why is she so dark?”

Just when she thought it couldn’t get worse, the phone in her palm became an endless stream of pictures of beautiful, lighter-skinned women getting dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of likes and affirming comments. She slowly began to notice that the world wanted parts of her—like her curves and her lips—but not things like her dark skin or her hair. Not her whole self, all together.

As she struggled to cope with the abuse, Lise convinced herself that the darkness of her skin was to blame. And social media platforms and the visual culture of the internet suggested the same thing.

Even among those closest to her, the undesirability of her darkness was reinforced. She grew to realize that her mom, aunts, and friends all used the skin-lightening creams she’d borrowed after school, many of which contain toxins and even carcinogens. It was confusing: her community fought hard against racism, but some of the prejudice she experienced came from Black people themselves.

And social media was just making it worse.

The prejudice Lise experienced—colorism—has a long history, driven by European ideals of beauty that associate lighter skin with purity and wealth, darker tones with sin and poverty. Though related to racism, it’s distinct in that it can affect people regardless of their race, and can have different effects on people of the same background.

Colorism exists in many countries. In India, people with darker skin were traditionally ranked lower in the caste system. In China, light skin is linked to beauty and nobility. In the US, not only Black people face colorism; white Italian or Greek people with darker skin can experience it too. Historically, when African-Americans were enslaved, those with lighter skin were often given more domestic tasks where those with darker skin were more likely to work in the fields.

These prejudices have been part of the social and media landscape for a long time, but the advent of digital images and Photoshop created new ways for colorism to manifest. In June 1994, notoriously, Newsweek and Time both ran cover images of O.J. Simpson’s mug shot during his murder trial—but on Time’s cover, his skin was markedly darker. The difference sparked outrage: Time had darkened the image in what the magazine’s photo illustrator claimed was an attempt to evoke a more “dramatic tone”. But the editing reflected that the darker the man, the more criminal the American public assumes him to be.

This association has very real consequences. A 2011 study from Villanova University found a direct link between the severity of sentences for 12,000 incarcerated women and the darkness of their complexion.

And today, thanks to the prevalence of selfies and face filters, digital colorism has spread. With Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook a part of billions of people’s everyday lives, many of us find that people see far more pictures of us than ever before. But there are biases built into these systems. At a basic level, the imaging chips found in most personal cameras have pre-set ranges for skin tones, making it technically impossible to accurately capture the real variety of complexions.

Over 200 million people use Snapchat Lenses every day, some of them to lighten their skin tone. Other filters and automatic enhancing features can do the same on Instagram and TikTok.

And the images that do get taken are often subject to alteration. Snapchat reports that over 200 million people use its filter product, Lenses, every day. Some of them use it to lighten their skin tone; other filters and automatic enhancing features can do the same on Instagram and TikTok. Photo technologies and image filters can do this in ways that are almost imperceptible. Meanwhile, social media algorithms reinforce the popularity of people with lighter skin to the detriment of those with darker skin. Just this week, Twitter’s image-cropping algorithm was found to prefer faces that are lighter, thinner, and younger.

Selfie-esteem

We’ve reported before on the ways in which digital technologies are narrowing beauty standards. The phenomenon has led to the concept of the “Instagram face,” a particular look that’s easily accessible through the proliferation of editing tools. Photos reflecting this look, with a small nose, big eyes, and fuller lips, attract more comments and likes, leading recommendation algorithms to prioritize them. We also interviewed researchers who say beauty ideals are narrowing even more dramatically and quickly than they expected—with especially profound effects on the way young girls, in particular, see themselves and shape their identity.

But it could be particularly catastrophic for women with darker complexions, says Ronald Hall, a professor at Michigan State University and an expert on colorism. As more European looks are increasingly held up as an ideal, “these young girls imitate these behaviors, and those who are super dark-complected see no way out,” he says. “Those are the ones who are most at risk for harming themselves.”

That harm can involve bleaching or other risky body treatments: the skin-lightening industry has grown rapidly and is now worth more than $8 billion worldwide each year. But beyond physical risks, researchers and activists have also begun documenting troubling emotional and psychological effects of online colorism.

Amy Niu researches selfie-editing behavior as part of her PhD in psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. In 2019, she conducted a study to determine the effect of beauty filters on self-image for American and Chinese women. She took pictures of 325 college-aged women and, without telling them, applied a filter to some photos. She then surveyed the women to measure their emotions and self-esteem when they saw edited or unedited photos. Her results, which have not yet been published, found that Chinese women viewing edited photos felt better about themselves, while American women (87% of whom were white) felt about the same whether their photos were edited or not.

Niu believes that the results show there are huge differences between cultures when it comes to “beauty standards and how susceptible people are to those beauty filters.” She adds, “Technology companies are realizing it, and they are making different versions [of their filters] to tailor to the needs of different groups of people.”

This has some very obvious manifestations. Niu, a Chinese woman living in America, uses both TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese version (both are made by the same company, and share many of the same features, although not the same content.) The two apps both have “beautify” modes, but they are different: Chinese users are given more extreme smoothing and complexion lightening effects.

She says the differences don’t just reflect cultural beauty standards—they perpetuate them. White Americans tend to prefer filters that make their skin tanner, teeth whiter, and eyelashes longer, while Chinese women prefer filters that make their skin lighter.

Niu worries that the vast proliferation of filtered images is making beauty standards more uniform over time, especially for Chinese women. “In China, the beauty standard is more homogeneous,” she says, adding that the filters “erase lots of differences to our faces” and reinforce one particular look.

“It’s really bad”

Amira Adawe has observed the same dynamic in the way young girls of color use filters on social media. Adawe is the founder and executive director of Beautywell, a Minnesota-based nonprofit aimed at combating colorism and skin-lightening practices. The organization runs programs to educate young girls of color about online safety, healthy digital behaviors, and the dangers of physical skin lightening.

Adawe says she often has to inform the girls in her workshops that their skin is being lightened by social media filters. “They think it’s normal. They’re like, ‘Oh, this is not skin lightening, Amira. This is just a filter,’” she says. “A lot of these young girls use these filters and think, ‘Oh my God, I look beautiful.’”

“They think it’s normal… [but] it’s contributing to this notion that you’re not beautiful enough.”

Amira Adawe, Beautywell

It’s so easy to do—with a few clicks, users can make their appearance more similar to everyone else’s ideal—that many young women end up assuming a lighter-skinned identity online. This makes it easier to find acceptance in the digital world, but it can also make it harder for them to identify with their real complexion.

When Adawe explains how using a face filter can be part of a cycle of colorism, she is often met with resistance. The filters have become essential to the way some girls see themselves.

“It’s really bad.” she says. “And it’s contributing to this notion that you’re not beautiful enough.”

And it’s complicated regardless of your skin tone.

Halle, a single biracial woman in her mid-20s, thinks a lot about her own racial identity. She says most people would use the term “ambiguous” to describe her appearance. “I have whiter features,” she says. “My skin complexion is lighter than some other mixed-race girls’, and my hair is less curly.” She also used to be a regular user of dating apps. And from conversations with her friends who have darker complexions, she realized that her experience on dating apps was very different from theirs.

“Quite candidly, we compare matches and number of matches,” she says. “That is where I started to realize: wait a minute, there’s something going on here. My friends who identify as Black or Afro-Latina don’t get as many matches.”

It’s already known that beauty-scoring algorithms, which rank the attractiveness of images, give higher scores to whiter women. In March, we reported on how the world’s largest face recognition company, Face++, sells a racially biased beauty scoring algorithm that it markets to digital platforms, and online dating sites in particular.

Halle says her experience on these apps reflects the wider world, too. “This is deeply rooted in racism, colorism, and everything that’s happening in our society,” she says. The experience became so frustrating for her that she deleted all her dating apps. MIT Technology Review has reached out to many dating sites to ask whether they use beauty-scoring algorithms for matches, but none will confirm or deny.

Even if they do not use systems like Face++, however, they do use recommendation algorithms to learn user preferences over time. And this is another way that colorism and bias can creep in and be perpetuated.

Recommendations based on user preferences often reflect the biases of the world—in this case, the diversity problems that have long been apparent in media and modeling. Those biases have in turn shaped the world of online influencers, so that many of the most popular images are, by default, of people with lighter skin. An algorithm that interprets your behavior inside such a filter bubble might assume that you dislike people with darker skin. And it gets worse: recommendation algorithms are also known to have an anchoring effect, in which their output reinforces users’ unconscious biases and can even change their preferences over time.

Meanwhile, platforms including TikTok have been accused of intentionally “shadow-banning” content from some Black creators, especially those discussing the Black Lives Matter movement or racism in general. That diminishes their reach, and the cycle reinforces itself further. (In a statement, a TikTok spokesperson said “We unequivocally do not moderate content or accounts on the basis of race.”)

Michigan State’s Ronald Hall says he’s “extremely worried” about the impact on women of color in particular: “Women of color are constantly bombarded with these messages that you gotta be light in order to be attractive.”

Adawe, meanwhile, thinks the only solution is an all-out ban on filters that lighten faces. She says she has emailed Snapchat asking for just that. “Social media companies keep [creating] filters because the demand is so high,” she says. “But to me, I think they’re promoting colorism, whether they realize it and whether it’s intentional or not.”

A spokesperson for Snap told MIT Technology Review, “Our goal is to build products that are fully inclusive of all Snapchatters, and we’ve put in place a number of processes and initiatives to help us do that. Our guidelines for all Snapchatters—which also apply to Lens submissions—prohibit discrimination and the promotion of stereotypes, and we have an extensive review process in place for Lenses, which includes testing them on a wide range of skin tones.”

The company says it is partnering with experts for advice, and earlier this year it launched an initiative to build an “inclusive camera”, which is meant to be better at capturing a broader range of skin tones.

A completely different lens

Lise, who now lives in Minnesota, struggled with the effects of colorism for a long time. She went to therapy, watched endless YouTube tutorials on photo editing, and even bought a $600 camera that she hoped would make her look less dark in photos. Eventually she came to realize how harmful it had been.

“Now I just view everyone’s social media page with a completely different lens,” she says.

Today, she’s a new mom: when we spoke via Zoom, I was greeted by her cooing and wiggling baby. I was delighted, but Lise apologized profusely while she adjusted the lens.

She says she wants to see more raw photos online that show beautiful women who look like her. She no longer edits her skin color in photos, and she tries hard to stop the negative thoughts in her head, though it can be hard. “Oh, I’ll be darned if I see someone saying anything to a beautiful dark-skinned woman,” she says. “I don’t care if it’s online, I don’t care if it’s in person—I��m going to call you out. I just can’t be quiet about it anymore, but it’s taken years. I’m going to be more conscious about what I’m teaching my son.”

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varshadeshpande · 5 years ago

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Cyber Security in Healthcare Market 2020 | Know the Latest COVID19 Impact Analysis And Strategies

COVID-19 pandemic disease has created a severe outbreak in the world starting from China to almost in every country. It has major impact on almost everything including human life, world economy, automotive sector, industrial sector and others, as a result, demand and consumption rate gets lowered. Unavailability of vaccine to cure or prevent the disease from spreading is major reason due to which lockdown has been initiated for prevention and to lower the COVID-19 spread.

To control the disease spread, lockdown is so far is considered to be the better solution observed in the many countries but it also has an adverse effect on the economy. Most of the world is as of now encountering highly typical living conditions as a result of COVID-19. At the stature of the widespread, more than 2 billion individuals were beneath a few shape of lockdown, and 91% of the world’s population, or 7.1 billion individuals, live in nations with border controls or travel limitations due to the infection. Nevertheless, whereas the planet is targeted on the health and economic threats posed by COVID-19, cyber criminals round the world beyond any doubt square measure capitalizing on this crisis.

Most cybersecurity professionals fully anticipated that cybercriminals would leverage the fear and confusion surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic in their cyberattacks. Of course, malicious emails would contain subjects relating to COVID-19. Of course, malicious downloads would be COVID-19 related. This is how cybercriminals operate. Any opportunity to maximize effectiveness, no matter how contemptible, is taken.

While many have anecdotally suggested ways in which COVID-19 related cyberattacks would unfold, we have little data supporting the actual impact of COVID-19 on cybersecurity. Several have reported that the number of malicious emails with the subject related to Covid-19 has grown several hundred percent and that the majority of COVID-19 related emails are now malicious.

Get a Sample Copy of the Report@ https://www.databridgemarketresearch.com/covid-19-resources/covid-19-impact-on-cyber-security-in-the-ict-industry

Cyber Security in Healthcare Market analysis is provided for the Global market including development trends by regions, competitive analysis of Cyber Security in Healthcare market. Cyber Security in Healthcare Industry report focuses on the major drivers and restraints for the key players.

The Industrial Cybersecurity market is expected to grow from USD X.X million in 2020 to USD X.X million by 2026, at a CAGR of X.X% during the forecast period. The global Industrial Cybersecurity market report is a comprehensive research that focuses on the overall consumption structure, development trends, sales models and sales of top countries in the global Industrial Cybersecurity market. The report focuses on well-known providers in the global Industrial Cybersecurity industry, market segments, competition, and the macro environment.

Under COVID-19 Outbreak, how the Industrial Cybersecurity Industry will develop is also analyzed in detail in Chapter 1.7 of the report., In Chapter 2.4, we analyzed industry trends in the context of COVID-19., In Chapter 3.5, we analyzed the impact of COVID-19 on the product industry chain based on the upstream and downstream markets., In Chapters 6 to 10 of the report, we analyze the impact of COVID-19 on various regions and major countries., In chapter 13.5, the impact of COVID-19 on the future development of the industry is pointed out.

Impact of COVID-19:

Industrial Cybersecurity Solution Market report analyses the impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Industrial Cybersecurity Solution industry. Since the COVID-19 virus outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost 180+ countries around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency. The global impacts of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are already starting to be felt, and will significantly affect the Industrial Cybersecurity Solution market in 2020.

This report provides a point-to-point analysis of dynamic aspects of Cyber Security As A Service market. Along with the recent trends, it focuses on the upcoming innovations. In addition to this, it consists of different segment with its subtypes as well. It helps in making critical business decisions on the basis of different predictions, which are studied in the same report. Technologies and tools are elaborated for an understanding of Cyber Security As A Service market.

Industrial Cybersecurity Solution Market on the basis of Product Type:

· Antivirus

· Firewall

· SCADA Encryption

· Data Loss Prevention (DLP)

· Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)

· Intrusion Detection Systems/Intrusion Prevention Systems

· Identity and Access Management (IAM)

· Unified Threat Management (UTM)

· Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS)

· Others

Conclusion

From the above statements, it is evident that the cyber security market is having moderate growth and is expected to increase due to the strategic decisions such as partnership, acquisition and new product launches taken by the market leaders.

According to LearnBonds.com, around 55 % of major organizations will boost their ventures in computerization arrangements, uncovered HFS Research study conducted in April. Hybrid or multi-cloud, smart analytics, and artificial insights take after, with 53%, 49 % and 46 % of those bodies inquired naming them as their driving IT speculations this year. These investments by the organizations will create new opportunities for the growth of cyber security market.

#cybersecurity #cyber attack #information security #information technology #IT security #cyber crime

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bigyack-com · 6 years ago

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Sycophants and ‘General Weirdness’ at SoftBank Vision Fund

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A toxic culture at SoftBank’s Vision Fund

Masa Son, the Japanese billionaire, instilled a hard-driving work ethos at his venture capital firm, SoftBank Vision Fund: Go big or go home. But the fund has also been described as an environment of sycophancy and harassment, reports Bloomberg Businessweek. The workplace is “steeped in vintage Wall Street macho belligerence,” according to Bloomberg: “Current and former employees of the fund and SoftBank describe an environment of sycophancy toward Son, internecine political rivalries, harassment, compliance issues and an abnormally high tolerance for risk — all wrapped in a casing of general weirdness.” The fund is known for making outsize bets on tech start-ups, which helped it take in more than $21.2 billion on investments in 2017. But its practices have raised skepticism from outsiders. “The strategy that Son and his all-male phalanx of managing partners followed seemed less about any specific technology than about placing large bets on the buzziest start-ups,” Bloomberg writes. The plan seemed to be working, until the fund’s most prominent investment, WeWork, spectacularly fumbled its I.P.O.

In China, a widening web catches people’s data

The Chinese government, already known for its vast surveillance systems, is stepping up its ability to spy on virtually everyone in the country, the NYT’s Paul Mozur and Aaron Krolik report. The Chinese authorities are melding old and new technologies — including phone scanners, facial recognition cameras, and face and fingerprint databases — into tools for authoritarian control, according to private and police databases. The tools can help identify people walking down the street, find out whom they are meeting, and determine who does and doesn’t belong to the Communist Party. In the United States and other countries, some of these techniques are used to track terrorists and drug lords. The rollout in China has come at the expense of personal privacy. The authorities stored the personal data of millions of people on servers that are unprotected by even basic security measures, The Times found. Leaks of online data is a major problem. Signs of a backlash are brewing: In Shanghai, residents pushed back against a police plan to install facial recognition cameras in a building complex, and in Zhejiang Province a professor sued a zoo after it required mandatory facial recognition scans for its members to get access, Mr. Mozur and Mr. Krolik write.

Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot forge an auto giant

Fiat Chrysler and PSA, the maker of Peugeot, agreed today on a merger in a deal that would create the world’s fourth-biggest auto manufacturer, write the NYT’s Jack Ewing and Liz Alderman. The carmakers signed a formal agreement for a 50-50 merger, which had been announced in October. The combined company will be led by PSA’s C.E.O., Carlos Tavares. The Fiat chairman, John Elkann, will hold the same role at the new company. The new entity would surpass Volkswagen as the market leader in Europe, with more than 400,000 employees and worldwide sales of 8.7 million vehicles. Integrating the companies could take many months, including the process of choosing a name for the new company. Analysts regard the union as an imperfect match: “They share some weaknesses, including a dependence on the declining European market and the lack of a strong presence in China,” the reporters write.

Russian tech firms are a target for state-sponsored trouble

Russia’s tech sector has a wealth of talent but is often hurt by the country’s stumbling attempts to market its developers’ skills, the NYT’s Andrew Higgins writes. The $670 million sale this year of Nginx, a Russian company that developed web server software used by more than a third of the world’s websites, to F5 Networks of Seattle, sent a clear message: Russian programmers can create valuable products. But that was before Russia’s capricious and aggressive law-enforcement system got involved. Police officers with automatic weapons last week searched the homes of the company’s founders, Igor Sysoyev and Maxim Konovalov, and their company’s Moscow office, and also took the two men in for questioning. The case, essentially an intellectual property matter that the authorities escalated to a criminal case, has turned one of Russia’s biggest IT success stories into an example of why the country has so much trouble developing its economy beyond natural resource extraction, Mr. Higgins writes.

PG&E clears a $1.7 billion bankruptcy hurdle

Pacific Gas & Electric reached a $1.7 billion settlement with California regulators for deadly wildfires started by its equipment in 2017 and 2018, the NYT’s Lauren Hepler and Ivan Penn write. The deal resolves one of several obstacles that the company faces in its bankruptcy petition. The utility is trying to win approval in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for a separate multibillion-dollar settlement. Two weeks ago, the utility appeared to have cleared a big hurdle by reaching a $13.5 billion settlement with wildfire victims. But Gov. Gavin Newsom objected to the company’s proposed restructuring last week, as hedge funds vying for control of the utility seek to change the settlement with victims. The results of those battles will shape how fire victims are compensated for lost homes and loved ones. It will also determine how California fixes and updates its strained energy system.

California law creates confusion for gig workers

Many independent contractors in California are caught in uncertainty by a law that focuses on gig-economy workers. The legislation takes effect on Jan. 1, but many employers and workers say it is unclear how it will affect them, write the WSJ’s Christine Mai-Duc and Lauren Weber. • Many workers will be reclassified as employees rather than independent contractors under the law, known as AB5, “giving them access to minimum wage and overtime laws, workers’ compensation coverage and paid sick days” the reporters write. But confusion over who will be affected is driving some to take precautionary measures, while others hope a court will clarify the matter soon. Other states are watching closely: “How the outstanding questions about AB5 get resolved in the coming months could have national implications, as lawmakers in other states including New York and New Jersey consider similar legislation,” the reporters write. “We are going into uncharted waters,” one small-business owner said.

Revolving door

Bed Bath & Beyond’s new C.E.O., Mark Tritton, is ousting six senior executives. Citadel, the alternative asset manager, named Tripp Kyle its chief corporate affairs and communications officer.

The speed read

Deals • Carlyle and other investors are reportedly taking a stake in American Express Global Business Travel, in a deal that values the company at $5 billion, including debt. (WSJ) • JAB Holdings is combining the coffee brands Jacobs Douwe Egberts and Peet’s Coffee with the aim of raising as much as $3.3 billion from a European listing. (FT) • Daimler is seeking to buy a majority stake in its Chinese operations at a time of heightened tension between Berlin and Beijing. (Reuters) • Beike Zhaofang, an online property brokerage platform, is considering an I.P.O. that could raise at least $1 billion. (Bloomberg) • The E.U. has opened an investigation into the merger of two major South Korean shipbuilders. (FT) Politics and policy • Senator Elizabeth Warren is escalating her attacks on private equity. The industry is ready to fight back. (WaPo) • The E.U. outlined comprehensive “green” guidelines to regulate finance-industry claims in a thriving sector. (WSJ) • President Trump will reportedly attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January after skipping last year’s meeting. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain is also said to be planning to attend. (CNBC, Bloomberg) Trump impeachment inquiry • President Trump sent a six-page letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in which he called the impeachment inquiry a “perversion of justice” and invoked the Salem witch trials. (NYT) • A majority of House members support the articles of impeachment. (NYT) • Senator Mitch McConnell said he would decline to call four witnesses, including Mick Mulvaney and John R. Bolton, all of whom have firsthand knowledge of Mr. Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. (WaPo) Brexit • The pound slumped as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plans to set a deadline for Britain to leave the E.U. by the end of next year, with or without a trade pact, renewed fears of a no-deal Brexit. (Bloomberg) • Britain’s exports of financial services rose to $106.5 billion last year, with the E.U. still the biggest customer. (Reuters) Trade • President Trump’s China and North American trade pacts reverse a trend of opening markets that was decades in the making. (NYT) Tech • As the effects of holding tech platforms accountable for sex-trafficking on their sites take hold, some experts and politicians say the results are not all positive. (NYT) • The technology behind Bitcoin was once seen as a challenge to internet giants, but they now think it could help them solve many problems. And some cryptocurrency investors, unable to retrieve their money, want the body of an executive exhumed to prove that he is dead. (NYT) • Peter Thiel, the billionaire investor and Facebook board member, is advising Mark Zuckerberg not to bow to public pressure as the company tries to address criticism of its effect on U.S. politics. (WSJ) • Amazon has said it is not liable for what its third-party merchants sell, but those products might literally be garbage. (WSJ) • Another Google employee added her name to a list of workers who say they were fired for legally advocating labor rights inside the company. (Bloomberg) Best of the rest • General Electric, which makes 737 Max engines with Safran of France, is likely to take a significant hit from Boeing’s decision to halt production of the jetliner. And Airbus, Boeing’s rival, is struggling to produce planes fast enough. (WSJ, Bloomberg) • A California law mandating that public companies have at least one woman on their boards by the end of the year has brought in many people who don’t fit the traditional mold. (NYT, sign-up) • Jane Fraser’s promotion to Citigroup president has come at a critical juncture for the bank. (FT) • More homes on 57th Street in Manhattan were sold for over $25 million in the last five years than on any other street in the world. (Bloomberg) • A bubble in marijuana stocks has burst as the reality of a difficult regulatory landscape has sunk in. (Bloomberg) • Congress moved closer to approving a one-year extension for a popular tax cut that benefits certain alcohol producers. (NYT) • Credit Suisse is further reviewing its business practices after a second accusation of surveillance against a senior executive at the bank. (FT) Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow. We’d love your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to [email protected]. Read the full article

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