The AI Threat in Perspective, by Silvertip

In the 1980s, a funny, popular pseudo-AI computer program “Eliza” was a college joke magnet.  A few beers, and then dialed into a dialup Bulletin Board System (BBS) and ask all kinds of suggestive questions, just to see what “Eliza” said.  So, as a Coder, we expanded the Data File, many times over… and Eliza’s answers got more verbose and direct, like Grandma suddenly butting into your life!  That was about the start of the AI revolution, for me.  It was cool, funny, and a half-life of 30 minutes over a dialup system.  Querying a Data file, database of “information” wasn’t going to sit stationary, for me. This was just cracking the door open on AI.

About 2003-04, the company I was working for in telecommunications, a Fiber Optic Carrier, was looking for ways to improve efficiency, the Databases needed something to “merge” it all together, into a simplified user interface.  Libraries were doing the same thing, any world wide company was facing the same issue(s), everyone up and down the company, from Sales to the Field Technicians, NOC (Network Operations Center).  It was literally the conversion from “Paper Records” to “Online”.  The same thing was happening in Public Schools – you know, “we gotta put a computer on every kid’s desk”.

By 2007, after many, many documentation surveys, filling spread sheet after sheet and uploading into databases, the last of the paper records in multiple 4-drawer filing cabinets faded away.  It was the “Paperless Office” mantra, that lead to Data Centralization.  About the same time, circa 2005, Microsoft was building the infrastructure for a huge network of Data Centers, around the USA.  If you’re resourceful, you can find every one of them.  By 2010, we’d turned up gear and circuits over Long Haul (LH) Fiber to ‘everywhere’.  This LH optical network has been everywhere since about that time. What was missing were the small ‘tentacles into your backyard.  That extension, or explosion happened as Federal Funding, Grants, etc. (Obama / Biden era), were fueling the ever gaining in speed expansion of direct communications to the multiple Data Centers.

Have you noticed the capacity of Hard Drives, from Megabytes (1980s) to Gigabytes (1990s) to Terabytes (2000s) – and about the same time, I believe serious Data Collection was underway.  The more searchable data at your disposal, the better the search results, just like the Eliza program, pump the raw Data into something, somewhere, knowing it would be useful later.  Your phone calls, Internet queries, television viewing habits, and most recently, everyday appliances – are watching you.

This Database has been growing silently in the background, while you have been feeding it. And perhaps you assumed you were safe, because nobody has been knocking on your door, sending you targeted ads, reacting to your Phone calls, Amateur Radio conversations, or gathering up your buying habits.  But the Big Database has been enticing you with ‘discount cards’ (grocery store cards), ease of access to entertainment, (online Movies, Sports, News) to gradually work their way into your life.  The bottom line, It’s too late to stop it.  You’ve already “FED the BEAST” over the last two decades. In my opinion what’s coming next is ‘massaging the data’, for what ever the end user is looking for.

One of my daughters was involved in looking for a certain International Terrorist.  The government set up a sort of shell company, with no customers, to sift through the mountains of data collected and in real time, for find this individual.  One of many such ‘Googler’ programs.  That was over a decade ago, before similar programs they used were rolled out to the public.  It’s too late to stop it, already here, Pandora’s box was opened at least two decades ago.

My first exposure to real-time, intrusive surveillance was as a Telecom Vendor, back in the early 1990s.  Every telephone PBX and Key systems (like digital office phones, with extensions), had a feature dubbed “Service Observing” or “Call Monitoring”, which allowed any other phone to “listen into conversations”, kinda life Quality Assurance, or Training (if enabled).  And, I mean, of the 26 systems I worked on, trained for, from ATT’s System 75, Definity, compact Key Systems, Nortel, Iwatsu, etc., all of them had a feature to “Barge In”, listen, and  record. Why speculate on what they were up to, just understand that technology is silent. There are no ‘clicks on the line’ like Hollywood movies, and yes, even the big central office (CO) phone switches), have had that surveillance capability since the 1970s.

We had ‘switch printers’ that could track any line, number, etc., call detail recording (CDR), Station Messaging Detail Record (SMDR), and with the integration of the computer networks, we could make every computer screen “pop” with which phone dialed 911. (I wrote the software for that.)  We could also ‘not record’ and ‘not allow tracking’ at will. This was as far back as the 1990s!

The automated tools for monitoring have been around at least 40 years.  Backl them the issue was the space to save needed, other than paper. This means digital storage. Paper fades and/or gets tossed, but Internet storage is forever.  A common saying at work is: “E-mail is evidence.”  And as savvy managers know, there is “The Snowmelt Method” – i.e. gradually collect, collect, collect data on everyone. If the need arises for termination, then it is a simple process to forward all that ‘bad stuff’ to Human Relations (HR), and the evidence is an overwhelming flood – that guy is gone!  That’s just e-mail. Add to that actual phone conversations.

I read that’s been in use for at least a decade and a half.

About the same time Real-time Company Vehicle Tracking invaded the business space, we had paranoid managers staring at monitors with all kinds of little blue arrows, moving around – 15 years ago.  For an example, real-time tracking is on Amazon, up to the minute, right up to your door. Oh, they know where you live.  Google has your residence pegged, pictures of it, in our case dated back to 2003, the year we bought our farmette.  It’s already here!  Automated license plate readers have been in service for at least a decade. I got ’em that long ago when someone was poaching on our farm. (Illegal, here in Virginia).  It’s too late to stop it.

When I was interviewed for a security clearance, 2002-2003, the agent doing the background check said, “Do not have a Social Media Presence”.  Hadn’t thought of that, and over the years, companies like Linked-In (I call it “Linked-out”) or someone was hitting us to sign up.  The stupid HR Department encouraged it, so I repeated what the FBI had told us.  But HR didn’t go through the same processes we did — $20,000 for a background check, annual Security Training, et cetera.

Meanwhile, HR would compromise the company’s government contracts with stupid requests.  One manager was all ‘bent outta shape’ because a Data Center wouldn’t just let her walk in. They started talking in threatening terms about cancelling a contract — a $700 million contract.  (This DEI-hire had no idea who or what she was dealing with, or what we actually did as Techs.)  The same individual ‘denied’ my home telephone name/number had ever been sold.  But, as the mailbox was filling with wrongly addressed mail (with a typo in my name that matched my work records). The her own employees in Customer-no-service admitted our information had been sold four times since 2003, it confirmed, she was ‘unbelievable’.  BTW, Linked-out has allegedly been hacked multiple times, thousands of records and IDs stolen around early 2023 and allegedly before that.  There is no such thing as “privacy on the Internet”  We called it “Evidence”, and there’s enough on each individual, whether or not it warrants “action” or “intervention”, yet to be seen.

The company was using early versions of AI since about 2005.  A custom program interface, would ‘assist’ you in daily work loads.  That grew literally everywhere, to every corner of our work life.  We asked our bosses, two of them, around 2010, “What do we need you for, everything is managed out of Broomfield, Colorado, about the only thing you do for us, write our reviews..?” – it was kind of a joke, but actually real.  We had more ‘access’ than most managers, who really didn’t ‘have a need to know’ where we were, what we were doing and why cellular tracking wasn’t working (we had clearances, the managers did not).

When HR really went whole hog, AI began doing the ‘job applicant screenings’, and interviews, from about 2023 on.  Recommending any prospective technician, was pointless unless they were ‘schooled’ with practice online tests to defeat the AI screening them!  A former technician tried to reapply for a tech position, but twice he couldn’t get past AI screening!  He was a tremendous asset to the company, had all the skills and  experience, but the AI kept rejecting him.  Then, he found out we were ‘weighted’ towards Woke and DEI in AI screening, and if he used certain words / phrases… With written notes outside the camera’s view, he passed the third attempt. But then he failed the second level interview. He gave up, in frustration.  The way of DEI is narrow, just as the way to heaven is. The wide path, IMO, is very wide, it’s the path of doing nothing.  An aside: I am forced into retirement due to a heart issues, all genetic, most of my 11 siblings have had something done.  Dad died at 56 years old. We all inherited it.

My brothers and I were preppers before it was a fashionable.  We lived in southwestern Wisconsin, on top of a big hill, one of my brothers built a 2000′ air strip, so he could park his tricked out Cessna on the farm.  A favorite of ours was to “float the dog” – my dog loved flying with us.  We had the Geiger counter, dosimeter, rate meter, fallout maps, buried junk silver coins, ammo and guns in PVC pipe, buried deep in the Back Forty. Some of that we never found again.

We saved dehydrated foodfrom canoe trips. Both of my parents were Great Depression era kids, so of course we had huge vegetable gardens.  We had a huge cistern in the basement, hand pump on the kitchen sink, etc.  Power outages were so common, during the winter months, the fireplaces were used often in the 1960s.  The Jimmy Carter era … just drove home why putting food by, guns to hunt with and reliance of government was useless on the farm.  I think we’re getting back to that, sigh, again!  This time, it’s not the small town Rumor Mill that’s getting you on the wrong radar, you’ve done it yourself!

What to do? Consider the following vulnerabilities and mitigations:

If you continue Internet use, recognize you’re being watched, tracked, and evaluated.  “Evidence” you’re making it too easy!  I like that final saying in Anon, like, “It’s not that I have anything to hide, I just have nothing to share.”

Your smart phone, tablet, or anything that can Text Message, you’re habits, are most likely well known – the targeted advertisements should confirm that.  AI is just scooping it up.  Private texts – don’t think so…!  Apple protects your cell phone data, that means what’s _STORED ON_ your cell phone, doesn’t include what you’ve done with it.

It’s probably that running some commercial software (free or pay), when you clicked on the License Agreement – you gave up all rights to your personal data, habits, searches, etc.  It’s a method of back-door tracking.  Utilities like C Cleaner can help erase the cr*p in your browser, the online stuff… that’s another story.  If you haven’t figured it out, your Internet Browser is ‘telling on you’.

You’re providing Data today, combined with past 2 decades, is active and can or will be used against you, all it takes is a few ‘laws to be modified’, suddenly you’re a lawbreaker.  ‘Show me the man, I’ll show you the crime’.  It’s just good to have that settled in your mind.  Think “Gray Man”, before you post some Rant that gets all kinds of unwanted attention.  Can’t so that, then shut up and have someone more reasonable reword your posts, so Grandma wouldn’t be embarrassed to call you kin.  My daughter, using certain ‘tools’, pulled up My Profile.  I have no social media accounts, so thought she wouldn’t find much.  10 years ago, I thought she’d find nothing. Boy, was I wrong!  I never posted anything online, but she had a complete profile of me, lifestyle, probable habits, religious affiliation, buying habits.  Don’t be too surprised, AI knows everything about you.

From Hollywood movies to Internet advice on privacy.  Only in Hollywood, do the bad guys have terrible aim with a gun, and the good guy can’t miss or run out of ammo!  You got a gun, and don’t practice, test yourself, Rifle at 100 yards, offhand (standing up), Pistol @ 3 meters and 21 feet.  If you’re not shooting 2″ groups, turn off the Hollywood shoot-em-up movies and start taking marksman\ship training, USCCA, NRA, AWA, GWG, better yet, since Women consistently out-shoot Men, get them trained.  Most of the Internet ‘gun stuff’ is just advertisements anyhow, and join GOA and other organizations that are trying to restore the 2nd Amendment rights.  Seen those “Privacy Rights” tabs, on news web sights?  Sure, but does your ISP protect your “Privacy Rights”, like they did ours, selling our data?  There is no “Internet Switch” that can just ‘kill everything’ like a kid playing ‘war games’.

AI is spread all over the place, Data centers in places so nondescript, you’ve driven past them without realizing there’s a Super Computer in that tiny space.  While your buddies are trying to shut down a multi-hundred acre data center, there’s a Cray Super Computer on the 3rd floor of some city office that nobody would ever bother with, six blocks from the slums, making decisions on your movement.  Or some rustic looking, stone building, far off the beaten path – the only clue is your cell phone drops calls/service every time you drive past, is it even an American institution?

You’ve passing through a nice residential suburb, and notice an unusually wide driveway with a gate, through dense foliage and tiny little shack next to it, looks like a kids playhouse (it’s a guard shack).  Some busy hwy, there’s an old sandstone building, kinda small for the huge parking lot next to it.  Heh, no big deal, but if you were let inside, there’s a couple of elevators that take you down 200′ to server room after server room, escorted all the way of course.  A warehouse district, nothing special, you walk to a side door, old picnic table, ring the doorbell, the door opens and you’re in the first of two airlocks, the guards are behind very thick bullet proof glass…  They already know who you are.

From the outside, it’s just another warehouse, inside, there’s enough power to power for two months, food and water for 200 occupants, sleeping quarters, air filtration, etc., you’ve just past one of the biggest Internet hubs on the east coast, it looked like just another warehouse.   Third floor of an office, you’ve never been to.  They buzz you in, and greet you by full name – it was another AI-driven system\ that identified you, the staff was just ‘messing with you’, testing out facial recognition software.  I’ve described just a few Data Centers thagt I haven’t been to in more than two years  I believe are all interconnected and working on AI.  We’re past the point of shutting it down.

Unless you and your friends have a Camo canopy (overhead), and have never, ever taken a cell phone to that location, or GPS located it, real time or online.  (GPS with internet has the ability to upload your driving habits, preferences, locations, favorite eating spots, etc).  One sneaky trip to the hideaway, sure – will you be surprised AI has put the pieces together, like those teams of Internet Sleuths did hunting Osama Bin Laden, in seconds, rather than months?  It took us less than 15 minutes to locate a secret hideaway in California, because the guy’s wife posted a picture online.  I sent him a DM, with his address, real name, picture, work history, salary, house, driveway, generators – that was way too easy.  AI could have done that an much more in seconds.  You cannot hide.  How about trying to blend in, hiding in plain sight, not attracting attention?

Your 2025 or newer model year vehicle, has a kill switch built in.  It can be shut down from anywhere in the world.  And that Diesel Truck, probably is partially electronic.  Internet / AI has invaded everything.

A gentleman laughed when someone suggested a shotgun could take down a drone.  He has and still does fly drones in hot zones.  But at 5000′ does anyone hear or see them? I doubt your shotgun can reach it.  Among Hams (Amateur Radio), someone floated the idea of RF jamming, then Fiber Optic guided Drones, which emit no discernible signal.  Note how quickly warfare is evolving.  3-4 years ago, did Fiber Optic Drones exist?  AI started slow, and each week, day the acceleration in learning is gaining speed.  China just posted an article on a Robot running faster than a Olympic sprinter.  AI is being used in autonomous weapon systems… gee, who saw that coming?  You got a sure fire solution, AI is already working on a firing solution, a work around to defeat you.

You’re getting older. When the SHTF, that flying stuff might break bones or blind ya!  Any plans you make, imagine yourself nearly disabled.  Recoil from that hand cannon? Forget using it.  The Feds probably have a 4473 online, AI can crank all that data out in a second, with very little input data to start the search.  Should certain laws come to pass, then we’re all screwed.  My wife and I practice with ‘light recoil’ handguns. They are chambered in .380 ACP instead of 9mm or the .40 S&W cannons.   Age caught up to us.

What sucks is that now every organization, including the Library, wants us to do everything Online.  Finally, we got lots of free time on our hands, and they’re trying to tie us back to Internet services.  Given some of these DSA (commies) rich Globalists think it’d be a good idea to ‘reduce the global population by half’, 70 years old, health issues, SSA going broke, and I’m on their radar!  Our answer isn’t suicidal, or even a concrete solution – remain flexible in thinking, people, places, and things.  Set up the next generation & their kids with as much AI proof material as we can find.  The nature of people hasn’t changed, but, the nature of AI is subject to extremely rapid change.

When some new weapon system is tested, they don’t do it in cites – they look for places, like you have.  There’s wisdom in the “Gray Man” type of living, blending in, and shut-the-hell-up, possibly to even family.  One of your kids could be your undoing.  “Daddy reloads and has 500,000 rounds of armor piercing, etc. and we live way out there…”  People remember dramatic sounding stuff like that, like forever.  The Ruby Ridge standoff was a violent 11-day siege in August 1992 in Boundary County, Idaho, involving Randy Weaver, his family, and their friend Kevin Harris against federal agents.

“The incident began when U.S. Marshals attempted to arrest Weaver for failing to appear in court on federal firearms charges, which stemmed from an ATF sting operation involving the sale of illegally shortened shotguns.  Very Secluded location, gave the U.S. Marshals plenty of ‘cover’ to act any way they wished.”  (Ironically,  that was an AI citation)

Nowhere is really, absolutely ‘SAFE’. And AI just made it even less so.

Listen to, read, memorize, understand your Bible, yourself!  Substituting your own study for online programs, preachers, and news, benefits someone else.  Want to know the truth, go to the truth yourself, there is nothing keeping you from reading, yourself.  Can’t read? Then download the “Audio Bible” and just keep it playing in the background, sleep aid, in your vehicle (most vehicles like USB formatted as FAT32, anything else is unreadable, the entire Bible fits on a 4Gig thumb drive as MP3.)  When everything is falling apart (if you’re here), it’s good to know the only One who knows the beginning from the end, right?  I believe the real choice is at the doorstep, God – or – AI. (Ahat’s short for The Beast).

Never throw them away, collect them, fill your shelves with them – before they’re gone.  Not those ‘Pad type’ computers for reading downloaded books, real printed paper books.  They can’t EDIT a book that’s paper in your hands.  Online “editing” has been underway for quite some time.  It’s worse than being “cancelled”, IMO, they’re actively trying to re-write history.  We noticed it with DVD Cartoons, years ago, “Hey Dad, when you were a kid, was Whoopie Goldberg alive when Bugs Bunny was on TV, talking about Racism?”  Paper can’t be edited.  Go to Gun Shows, look for manuals, books, pamphlets, they’re cheap, sometimes really interesting… and can lead to interesting conversations.  We have five floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, all overflowing – name a topic, we probably have a book on it. (Some good, some bad).

Build relationships with your neighbors, if you can – but, go to their place, until you’re comfortable with have them over.  Be happy!  All the trouble in the news, fear, doubts, be that light that lights up their life!  Saying, “I don’t know…” is the easiest way to avoid touchy, personal subjects.  Some people can seem mean and  evil, but, from my own personal experience, once they get past their defensive issues, they can become really good friends, trustworthy friends.  The faster they befriend you, the faster they can leave you – lasting relationships take time.

I cannot perceive anything AI can presently do about Prepping, city, suburbs, country, even very remote places.  No do I expect to ‘out think’ AI in an emergency situation… it’s like trying to ‘out think God’, I perceive there is no weakness.  No plug to pull, it’s spread all over the world and soon to be orbiting earth.  Too many people we’ve met, will talk about prepping, between playing online games… practicing some kind of skill, fighting against images?  No garden, no pressure canner, no dehydrator, no vacuum packer, and the last place they’d ever go is to a wholesale distributor for food, or set aside space for a simple pantry.  How long could they possibly last, without a vehicle, phone, and Internet?  50-pound sacks of of rice, dry beans and pasta are cheap!  Freeze it, then portion it off into 2-to-3 person servings (1/4-cup per person), vacuum pack it with oxygen absorbers, and throw it in a box on the shelf (food grade plastic tubs are cheap).  Seasoning packets in bulk, some canned goods have no expiration, Spam is 1/2 the price @ Aldi versus Wally World. Heh, it’s pretty good, fried!  Growing Herbs, get a dehydrator, bag and vacuum pack.  Do it slowly at first, in stages, and graduate to Bulk Buys, build up your reserves for lean times, power outages, water outages, start thinking about doing without the weekly shopping trips.  Where I grew up, with 10 siblings, we ‘ate’ out of the freezer and root cellar the whole Wisconsin winter.  Potatoes, Carrots, and Acorn Squash.  Gotta have MREs or “25-year shelf life” Freeze Dried stuff. Get just a little and try it.  Why does it usually age out and taste bad?  It’s wretched!

AI is not going to be ‘defeated’, shut down, stopped or controlled.  China and Russia, with the EU coming on, AI has long been ‘here to stay’.  When AI needs ‘your’ electrical power or water to ‘survive’ – will Prepping make sense then?  AI is everywhere, there is no ‘central core processor’, like Hollywood movies suggest.  Buy and prepare now, rather then trying to buy during scarcity and high prices.

Can you se AI in these verses?

“4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? 5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.

11 And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon. 12 And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, 14 and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. 15 And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed. 16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads: 17 and that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” – Revelation 13:4-17

The Beast sounds kinda like AI. But God is still on the throne.  Read your Bible.  John 3:16 is more than a banner in the end zone of a football game.