The future of society

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This item from Slash dot is indicative.

"For more than a century, ranchers in the West have kept cattle in place with fences of barbed wire, split wood and, more recently, electrified wires. Now animal science researchers with the Department of Agriculture, is working on a system that will allow cowboys to herd their cattle remotely via radio by singing commands and whispering into their ears and tracking movements by satellite and computer. A video of Dean Anderson, a researcher at the USDA's Jornada Experimental Range at Las Cruces, NM., shows how he has built radios that attach to an animal's head that allow a person at the other end to issue a range of commands — gentle singing, sharp commands, or a buzz like a bee or snake — to get the cattle to move where one wants them to. Anderson says it would cost $900 today to put a radio device on one head of cattle, but he says costs will fall and the entire herd wouldn't have to be outfitted, just the "leaders." Much of the research has focused on how cattlemen can identify which cattle in their herds are the ones that the others follow."

Considering the advances in neural research and brain conditioning how long will it be before people will be wearing little boxes on their heads?(Already you see people on the street with miniature music devices attached to their ears. Control commands may soon be in the offing.)

In the story written in 1941 by Huigi(pseudonym for Eric Frank Russell) and printed in Astounding Science Fiction "The Mechanical Mice" http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1007 the protagonist sees a future of box wearing people much like the cows in the Slashdot item.

It'll presumably still require the subject to undergo some degree of conditioning a la Brave New World. In other words, it's only a threat to anyone already a sheep devoid of the capability to think for themselves.

Television, and other media, already have a degree of "remote control" effect on many/most people.

Advertisments for instance don't only sell/promote the product referred to, but also, subliminally, and more powerfully as a result, the lifestyle, aspirations, socially approved behaviours, etc which are pictured with the product. eg: if you behave heterosexually, want money, and wear gender-correct clothing you will ( maybe) have this super car etc.

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Advertisements are so transparent they make me LOL

The Jesuit saying "Give us the child before ten and we will have him for life." is significant. That the US voters could re-install an obvious incompetent and a liar such as G.W.Bush is also worth noting.

Advertisements may seem incompetent, but if they didn't work they wouldn't support one of the wealthiest industries in the world.

The latest financial crunch is also significant. Although the huge amount of taxpayer money allocated is destined for alleviating the problems of the scoundrels who run the banks the huge number of people who have been scammed into debt through mortgages and usurious credit card practices are getting no help at all yet there has been little or no public demonstrations and protests except to the congressmen who have been bought and paid for by the financial sector to permit the robbery.

Armchair herding?

Oh lord...

If I have the opportunity to upgrade in the future, I will. Though before I enable any kind of networking, solid or wireless, I would want to be firewalled and be knowledgeable of the components operating characteristics.

Evolution has been working on the problem for millions of years but the system is rather complicated and people still have mental problems. There are no guarantees.

yes, you are absolutely right.. and you can look at the things that they do to pets to discover what they want to do to us too... chips were implanted in pets first.. and now they want US chipped, and many people already have been!

yes they really want these things in people. I read a similar story of how we won't even be able to hear our own thoughts because of all the radio frequencies flying all over the place, and once in a while we will hear a command, and you obey, because your brain is no longer self sufficient.. we no longer think for ourselves, we rely on authority, and they have to make all of our decisions...

they honest to God think of us as sheeple..


like most of the world..?

You do not speak for me. I consider my self to be a free thinker to a degree. I attempt to author my own destiny which takes into consideration others. I decided to post this from my own volition.

Uh yeah, and I was agreeing with you.. .. i wasn't trying to treat you like a grasshopper, I just wanted to emphasize what you said so that I could also speak, and not repeat.

I apologize, I do not interpret misinformation well. Perhaps one of us is confused. I did not contribute to the referenced post so how are you emphasizing what I said? My last post however was intended to highlight the generalizations above as listed in bold.

When you attempt to artificially stimulate a part of the brain that deals with purely with conscious thought, nothing happens. Stimulating other parts of the brain can trigger sensory hallucinations, muscular movement, or even emotion, yet their is not a single case of actually being able to insert a thought, however basic, into someone's head.

Many people don't realize how overpowering the conscious mind can be over the other aspects of the brain. This is because with enough willpower you can actually alter your own neuro-chemical balance. As a result willpower can mimic the positive effects of medication on a chemical level , I know for a fact that in the case of depression the effects are indistinguishable from SSRI medication.

Which bottom line means that while society as a whole may fall under the sway of some thought control experiment, Those of us who understand the true power of our own minds will not follow the rest.

Sure. And tell me that advertising doesn't work. The US is engaged in a war in Iraq on totally false premises. How did that happen?

I see people walking around with cell phones and blue tooths on their ears and it reminds me of zombies being hooked up to a satellite.
There are so many wonderful ways in which we can use technology, but greed corrupts even the best of us.

I look at Dick Cheney and he just doesn't look happy. All that money, what's the point if humanity doesn't mean anything to you?
It's a strange world. At least there are some people who can see through the scams.

I find most electronic gadgets irritating and unnecessary. I used to have an MP3 player, for instance. Being unable to hear what was going on around me was usually not a benefit.