April 1, 2021

Major Lazer - Titans (feat. Sia & Labrinth) (Official Music Video) Premiered 69 minutes ago

Subscribe to the Major Lazer YouTube Channel: http://majorlazer.fm/YouTube

Music is the Weapon Reloaded OUT NOW: https://smarturl.it/MITWReloaded

April 1, 2021

The Dangerous Gamification Of War

We’re already dealing with the nightmare of a militarized police force. What happens when we bring drones and robotic soldiers onto American streets?

https://thebanter.substack.com/p/the-dangerous-gamification-of-war



Netflix’s sci-fi action flick “Outside the Wire” was well-written, had fantastic action, and the special effects were top notch. The dialogue was funny at times and meaningful at others, and both Anthony Mackie and Damson Idris, who took up the majority of the screen time, were excellent (as was the rest of the cast). However, the message was a bit muddled, which is a shame since it’s a very important message: drone warfare is not a future we should be pursuing.



Never ending war

This is going to be full of spoilers so if you haven’t watched OTW yet, you have been warned.

The premise of of the movie is pretty straightforward: 25 years in the future, the United States has developed robots to fight alongside our troops called “Gumps” (as in “Forrest Gump” because they’re dumb but effective). At the same time, an android (like a robot but far more sophisticated), built by the US to look, act, and, most importantly, feel pain and emotions like a human is stationed in Ukraine to keep the Russian-allied faction in a civil war from winning. Anthony Mackie’s Captain Leo is fast, strong, extremely lethal and sort of ‘anti-Skynet’ character. He does not actually enjoy being a weapon of war, so he goes rogue. He accomplishes this with the unwitting aid of Damson Idris’s Lt. Harp, a dispassionate drone pilot who had disobeyed direct orders and coldly sacrificed two marines to save 38 others. It was the right call, technically, but made without compassion. To a drone pilot, Marines are simply pixels on a video screen. This is the point of the movie and one we don’t talk about enough: increasing our reliance on drones will inevitably lead to more war. Making them more sophisticated will lead to greater devastation. Making them autonomous will all but guarantee never ending war. We are, right now, working on autonomous drones so this is not an abstract philosophical point. This is real and has to be considered, immediately.

Gamifying War

One of the main reasons the Vietnam War ended was because the nightly news started to show us hundreds of caskets coming home with American flags draped across them. We also started to see the appalling violence being committed in our name on the other side of the world. The public became horrified by the atrocities in Vietnam, and soon joined the hippies demanding we stop. There’s a reason the first Bush administration stopped allowing the press to show the caskets coming home from the Middle East during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the 90s. The American public is generally fine with waging war as long as they don’t have to see the cost. Out of sight, out of mind works, even with military conflicts. When was the last time you thought about the fighting in Afghanistan? Yes, that’s still going on. Now, imagine if there is no emotional cost at all. We no longer send troops in to be killed. All of the fighting is done by machines we control from thousands of miles away. Killing is easy when it’s a video game. Here’s how drone operator Michael Haas recalls missions he flew over Afghanistan and other conflict zones:



Drones are a tool but they are an easily abused tool. We made killing easy and we abused it immediately. If we were to ever develop “Gumps”, we would absolutely wage never ending war. We’re already doing it because of how (relatively) few troops we lose a year. If we reduce that number to near zero? We would be involved in every single conflict across the globe and those conflicts would somehow never resolve. Too bad for the hundreds of millions caught in the crossfire, though. They’re not our problem, right?

Science Fiction Has Been Warning Us About This For Half A Century................

snip

April 1, 2021

If you want to get involved in the Moderna variant-tweaked vaccine study they are enrolling now

The vax is called Moderna mRNA-1273.351


https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-evaluating-moderna-covid-19-variant-vaccine-begins





https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04785144


Brief Summary:

This is a phase 1, open-label, randomized clinical trial in males and non-pregnant females, 18 years of age and older, who are in good health, have no known history of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection, and meet all other eligibility criteria. This clinical trial is designed to assess the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351 manufactured by ModernaTX, Inc, given in vaccination schedules alone, sequentially, or coadministered with mRNA-1273. mRNA-1273.351 is a novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated mRNA-based vaccine that encodes for a full-length, prefusion stabilized S protein of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant. Enrollment will occur at approximately five domestic clinical research sites.

This study includes two cohorts. Cohort 1 will provide rapid information about the immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351 in a previously vaccinated group. This cohort can inform near term public health decisions if the variant virus becomes more widespread. Cohort 2 will evaluate different strategies for generation of cross protective immune responses in a naïve population. This cohort will take longer to provide information on the immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351, but is important to inform future public health strategies. Cohort 1 will include approximately 60 subjects 18 years of age and older who received two vaccinations of mRNA-1273 at dosages of 50 mcg, 100 mcg, or 250 mcg in the Phase 1 clinical trial (DMID 20-0003). Subjects in Cohort 1 will receive a single intramuscular (IM) injection of the designated vaccine and will be followed through 12 months after vaccination. Follow-up visits will occur on Days 8, 15, and 29, as well as 3, 6, and 12 months after the vaccination. Cohort 2 will include approximately 150 participants 18 through 55 years of age who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine, have no known history of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection, and do not have underlying conditions that are associated with an increased risk of severe illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection. They will be randomly assigned to one of 6 treatment arms and will receive 2 or 3 IM injections of the vaccine and followed through 12 months after the last vaccination. Follow-up visits will occur 7, 14, and 28 days after each vaccination, as well as 3, 6 and 12 months post the last vaccination.

The primary objective is to evaluate the safety and reactogenicity of mRNA-1273 and mRNA-1273.351 vaccines, in naïve and previously vaccinated individuals

Detailed Description:

This is a phase 1, open-label, randomized clinical trial in males and non-pregnant females, 18 years of age and older, who are in good health, have no known history of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection, and meet all other eligibility criteria. This clinical trial is designed to assess the safety, reactogenicity and immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351 manufactured by ModernaTX, Inc, given in vaccination schedules alone, sequentially, or coadministered with mRNA-1273. mRNA-1273.351 is a novel lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-encapsulated mRNA-based vaccine that encodes for a full-length, prefusion stabilized S protein of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 variant. Enrollment will occur at approximately five domestic clinical research sites.

This study includes two cohorts. Cohort 1 will provide rapid information about the immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351 in a previously vaccinated group. This cohort can inform near term public health decisions if the variant virus becomes more widespread. Cohort 2 will evaluate different strategies for generation of cross protective immune responses in a naïve population. This cohort will take longer to provide information on the immunogenicity of mRNA-1273.351, but is important to inform future public health strategies. Cohort 1 will include approximately 60 subjects 18 years of age and older who received two vaccinations of mRNA-1273 at dosages of 50 mcg, 100 mcg, or 250 mcg in the Phase 1 clinical trial (DMID 20-0003). Subjects in Cohort 1 will receive a single intramuscular (IM) injection of the designated vaccine and will be followed through 12 months after vaccination. Follow-up visits will occur on Days 8, 15, and 29, as well as 3, 6, and 12 months after the vaccination. Cohort 2 will include approximately 150 participants 18 through 55 years of age who have not received a COVID-19 vaccine, have no known history of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection, and do not have underlying conditions that are associated with an increased risk of severe illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection. They will be randomly assigned to one of 6 treatment arms and will receive 2 or 3 IM injections of the vaccine and followed through 12 months after the last vaccination. Follow-up visits will occur 7, 14, and 28 days after each vaccination, as well as 3, 6 and 12 months post the last vaccination.

The primary objective is to evaluate the safety and reactogenicity of mRNA-1273 and mRNA-1273.351 vaccines, in naïve and previously vaccinated individuals. The secondary objective is to assess humoral immunogenicity of mRNA-1273 and mRNA-1273.351 vaccines, in naïve and previously vaccinated individuals.