CASHLESSNESS, CYBER-SECURITY, AI, AND INSANITY

Finally someone is saying it: the idea of a cashless society is nuts. No, not just nuts, it's insane. Of course, the plutocrats and technocrats that constitute "Mr. Globaloney," the "elite" of the west, will continue pushing the idea, but that only raises the issue of their sanity, not the wisdom or practicality of their ideas.  We all know, of course, why Mr. Globaloney wants such a thing and the "selling points" used to advance it: it will cut down on crime, terrorism, everyone will be tracked and hence crime will not pay and the world will be a bright and sunny place of peace, happiness, and brotherhood being run by transnational corporations and peace-loving pro-humanity international banksters like the late David Rockefailure.  The only thing it will mean is that the criminals will continue to hide their criminal activity, the banksters will continue to profit from it, and everyone else will be reduced to serfdom.

But there's a fly in Mr. Globaloney's ointment, and it's hinted at in this short article shared by Mr. V.T. and it raises issues I've raised before. But today, I want to throw something else into the high octane mix. In any case, here's the article:

Cyberattacks & the Vulnerability of a Cashless Society

Note carefully what Mr. Armstrong states, for it is a crucial point:

Let’s get something straight here. At the core of those responsible is really the NSA and Microsoft itself. The attack exploited a Windows networking protocol to spread within networks, and while Microsoft released a patch nearly two months ago, it’s become very clear that patch didn’t reach all users particularly because institutions often do not install patches fearing that proprietary software may not function.

If behind the curtain we have government demanding back-doors into iPhones and computer so they can listen to everything everywhere, well guess what – so can everyone else. Patches will work for individual users, but not major institutions. Trying to upgrade their operations is a real effort. They are slow to act and thus vulnerable.

In other words: (1) software is constantly having to be upgraded because (2) hackers and state and/or corporate and/or organizationally-sponsored cyber-warfare specialists are constantly probing various governments and institutions, which institutions are (3) slow to upgrade with patches lest their whole system go down.

The bottom line: no cyber-system of information exchange, including those of financial clearing, is safe. Indeed, a few years ago I blogged about cyber attacks on financial clearing houses and banks, where accounts were drained in milliseconds. The idea is not, of course, new, being the subject of movies and television series episodes (like Person of Interest), and of very real world stories. Recall, for a moment, that even the Federal Reserve has been hacked. Then there's Sony... on and on we could go.  The bottom line is that in any proposed cashless society, everyone is exposed to a risk that they otherwise would not be exposed to, including Mr. Globaloney. As I've indicated in discussions with Catherine Austin Fitts and others, and as I have suggested in some of my books, one may be absolutely certain that Mr. Globaloney keeps hard copy records of his holdings - the stock certificates, the bonds, the liens, the mortgages, deeds, and so on, and yes, probably a pile of money - somewhere, and probably uses such hard copy as the actual basis of his dealings in my hypothesized "hidden system of finance."

Now it's time to add that "other factor" which has not been, in my opinion, adequately discussed in this connection: Artificial Intelligence (AI). Most thinkers speculating on the possible advent of AI hypothesize that it could, conceivably, not only render humanity obsolete, but that it would actively pursue its demise. Imagine, for a moment, allowing a cashless system of payments to evolve in a world where AI - according to some - lurks right around the corner, on top of cyber-systems demonstrably insecure to human hackers. At that juncture, the bad scenarios multiply like rabbits: such an AI might conceivably "throw in" with this or that human cyber-warfare group; it might, conversely, attempt to "plug the holes" in an ill-thought effort to "protect" humanity with the result that, with "all holes plugged" and "secure", nothing can get done. Or, in the ultimate exhibition of nastiness, it might simply expropriate all that "cyberwealth" of the cashless society and leave everyone penniless.

And who's to say that, in the process, it might not forge arrest warrants and issue bulletins for the immediate arrest of Mr. Globaloney and his cohorts to be held as potential terrorist threats (or dealt with summarily by ordering drone strikes on their known haunts)?

In short, Mr. Globaloney, you might want to rethink that whole cashlessness idea, for it might, coupled with looming AI, be an instrument not so much of law, order, and peace, but of the ultimate and irrecoverable chaos, and your own very permanent impoverishment.                                                      https://gizadeathstar.com/2017/05/cashlessness-cyber-security-ai-insanity/