TIMESTAMP: 2013
A State of Fear in the Homeland
In the early evening he ventured from his secure sleeper and set out onto the cold grey thorough fare. He posted the same self adhesive infrared LED flasher on each security observation pole he passed. These little flashers pissed off the cctv monitors big time; like little roman candles burning into the monitors' otherwise shadowed and noir images.
Within a few blocks Tenco was confronted by a lone black clad sec-cop. He had the corporate logo of a common homeland security code enforcement officer. Tenco tried to veer around the man, but found his feet inextricably stuck to the walkway as if by epoxy. If he had not been wearing his tightly cinched boots he may well have pulled his feet right out of them. 'Stay put', the sec-cop growled rhetorically; Tenco was going nowhere- being literally glued to the spot. He looked down and noticed the stasis pool on the pavement- well fuck, he thought, walked right into that without noticing. Momentarily a convoy of flat black carriers rumbled up. A handful of bio enhanced mil-cops detached from the center carrier and grabbed Tenco by either arm. The sec- cop deactivated the stasis pool with a point and a button click of his multi weapon. The Mil-cops unceremoniously shoved him in the back of the bloated black carrier, and the little convoy unceremoniously trundled off. He had time to ponder his fate during the ride; bandying the meaning of 'rendition' and 'enhanced bio interrogation' about in his imagination like two dead corpses that his brain pleaded with him to avoid staring at, but that he could'nt look away from- the morbid attraction of the words was too strong; 'rendition', 'enhanced bio interrogation'.
Tenco was shaken from his private introspection with a jolt as the little caravan came to an abrupt stop. Tenco, flanked by muted mil-cops, was ushered from the back of the carrier to an awaiting unmarked DHS special ops helicopter.
As soon as they had him strapped in, the helicopter lurched up from the tarmc, leaving Tenco's stomach simultaneously falling to his groin and upwelling biliously up his throat. As the helicopter rapidly banked up and over town, Tenco leaned slightly to look out the door.
"Watch it," said one of his otherwise reticent guards absently over the pers-com, gripping Tenco's arm painfully.
Tenco saw the post office, the logo flag on the steel pole in front. The Main Street was lined with ‘shopping’ flags, each brightly colored and sporting a variety of seemingly benign corporate logos. Tenco allowed himself a sliver of self satisfaction- so far so good, next step- into the belly of the beast.
As they continued, darkside came into view: railroad tracks, car-littered yards, shacks. Plumes of sooty smoke rose from smoldering tenements. The ever present security drones circling lazilly overhead, UMV’s lurked on practically every intersection, even from this distance the barrels of their chem cannons, and the flat plates of pain radiators, were clearly and ominously visible.
Like water fleas, he could make out people shuffled about under UV blocking hats and flowing antirad ponchos. They all had a common demoninator- credit zero. They were the brown and the yellow and the white demonized on the nightly monitors. Parasites on society- takers, not givers. Credit less moochers. Tenco wondered to himself- are they really so dangerous? From his vantage they all seemed so helpless and pathetic. What propaganda could he, no should he, believe?
Tenco also made out the familiar rendering trucks making runs through the streets of Darkside, picking up corpses. Cadaverously turgid flesh flailed like grotesque sea anenomies from the open trailer tops as blood and gore oozed down the camouflaged sides, running over the grey words stenciled on the sides in military font: For God. For Security. For Homeland. Tenco's head suddenly filled with darkness like matt black cotton. He passed out. As Tenco slumped forward in his seat, the guards gave each other a knowing look- the sedatives had overcome the prisoner. Next stop- interrogation and, if Tenco was lucky, a thorough deprogramming; If he was unlucky- if anti government, or even worse, anticorporate information was extracted from him, then he would be terminated and recycled, like so many before him� and after.
Size: 14487446
Duration: 14:55
Audio File
Saturday, July 05, 2008
Cyberpunk Radio - #106 - Into the Belly of the Beast and Cyborg Guitar
Monday, June 09, 2008
Cyberpunk Radio - #105 - Music and Mind Washing
Dayglo Abortions ("America Eats Her Young"); the rise of the machines and the vulnerability of the Wired Pentagon- deeply penetrated by "Chinese hackers", vast weapons systems whose command and control systems may now very well be compromised by "foreign" agents. Will the US military be turned against it's masters by "hackers"... are these "hackers" human... or an advanced AI with it's own inscrutable agenda?? Finishing with "I'm a Robot" by Flying Saucers in My Brain.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Cyberpunk Radio - #104 - Socio Politics of Religious Fear
DJ Defwheezer, Dead Prez (Police State), the mashing politics of religious fear mongering in the 2008 elections and beyond. As the nomination process for the Democratic Presidential nominee winds down, Hillary, obviously weakened by the stress of the campaign, lets slip some of her true (and frankly racist) feelings regarding her support among "hard working uneducated whites" (aka "crackers"). Clinton's verbal slip sealed her fate as a has bin politician aligned with the agents of intolerance. Goodbye and good riddance. Now, if only he can avoid getting acute lead poisoning, Barrack will be the next leader of the free world. mp3 file: CPR104 Duration: 13:31 File Size: 13146045
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Cyberpunk Radio - #103 - MEMS - Machines, Flesh, and the Pentagons Insect Cyborg Army
TIMESTAMP 2008-04-17; Singularity Index: 0.81; The Meating of Flesh and Machine; SkyNet "ground and air" protection and enforcement; Right now, secret factories are mass producing Cyborg Armies of insects with electronics embedded inside them. They've creating swarms of cyborg moths and flying beetles that can be controlled remotely. The U.S. military fields squadrons of these winged insect/machine hybrids with on-board audio, video or chemical sensors and biowarfare payloads. The cyborg insects conduct surveillance and reconnaissance missions on distant battlefields, in far-off caves, but also closer to home- in most major US cities, transmitting detailed data back to their handlers at U.S. intelligence and military bases. The Pentagon aims to exponentially increase the paranoia of an already omnipresently surveilled society; any insect fluttering past your window may be a remote-controlled spy, packed with surveillance equipment. Even more frightening is that such creatures could be weaponized, that these cyborg insects might be armed with bioweapons. For the past 50 years, work by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has led to some of the most spectacularly precision lethal weaponry in the U.S. arsenal: from Hellfire-missile-equipped Predator drones and stealth bombers to the Javelin portable "fire and forget" guided missiles. For decades now, DARPA has been funneling significant sums of money into a very different kind of guided missile project, its Hybrid Insect Micro-Mechanical Systems (HI-MEMS) program. This project has developed tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis.- creating cyborg insects. Technicians grow MEMS and electronics inside the insect pupae. The new tissue forms around the insertions, making the bio-electronic interface long-lasting and reliable." In other words, micro-electronics are inserted at the pupal stage of metamorphosis so that they can be integrated into the insects' bodies as they develop, creating living robots that can be remotely controlled after the insect emerges from its cocoon. Through the implanted "multiple inserted neural and muscular stimulators, a visual stimulator, a nano assembly and a microcontroller" in a flying beetle, one can modulate the insect's flight starts, stops, throttle/lift, and turning. That is, you can literally drive an actual beetle. Using advanced simplex matrix computer algorithms, fluidic behavior patterns can be used to precisely direct large numbers of these cyborg bugs simultaneously in gigantic swarms of insects. This project is progressing at an increasingly rapid pace. Under the rubric of creating a cyborb insect-based “military micro-surveillance system” DARPA's actual long-term goal for the HI-MEMS program has a more sinister goal. They are designing and testing what are essentially robot bombs, that look and act like swarms of bugs and birds, armed with bioweaponary spreading death to the intended targets." Laced with anthrax, botulinum, Ricin, or Tularema, for instance. Insect cyborgs are easily mass produced. Also, the engineering needed to produce beetles with greater-than-normal size and payload capacity is relatively simple- the thorax can be truncated to reduce its mass and add MEMS components where abdominal segments would have been, during the larval stage. The optimal spots to insert a neural stimulator is behind the eye, in the flight control area of the insect brain, the main flight powering muscle is in the dorsal-thorax, accessed via the neuromuscular ganglion in the peri thorax. Guidance parameters are delivered via global positioning system (GPS). DARPA’s Pentagon-funded scientists churn out inventions with potentially deadly, implications without ever fully considering -- let alone seeking public or expert comment on -- the future ramifications of new technologies under production. "The people who build this equipment are always going to say that they're just building tools, that there are legitimate uses for them, and that it isn't their fault if the tools are abused," ...Can you say "SkyNet"? adapted from article by Tom Engelhardt
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Cyberpunk Radio - #102 - Nanobots and Music
