Fortnightly Editorial
You are What You Read
When we decided to re-issue The International Outsider and continue what had been started, we realized the old chestnut of what our first Editorial should be and where would it take us had arisen. The problem was that the intervening years had certainly changed so much and not in the usual fashion that mankind has grown to know. As opposed to the usual wars, famines, pestilence et al, which to be completely honest though cited as global or world encompassing (World Wars 1 & 2 etc.) were in reality (throughout recorded history) only really continental and did not overly affect the majority of the earth’s population.
However this time we are in the middle of a pandemic that is changing the very social constructs and consequentially every aspect of life from manufacturing, finance, education, and health care to the production of raw materials across the spectrum but this time really globally. No place on earth has escaped the fallout let alone the ‘virus’ itself. [Read More].
Highlights In Europe
On 02/03/2021 (Associated Press) Twitter like Facebook announced very proudly it was cracking down on COVID vaccine misinformation with a strike system which denies access to the comments. The question remain who is behind the cracking down on Twitter, Facebook and consorts for their excessive and constant violations of privacy and human rights.
Meanwhile In Africa
Tunisia in Space: With its "Challenge One", Tunisia has joined the select club of countries operating and manufacturing their own satellites. Produced by Telnet with the support of Russia, Challenge One will be launched into orbit by a Soyouz 2 launcher on the 15 November 2021.
Latest From the New World
31/03/2021 From all of us at the International Outsider, an open letter to those who have decided that the global approach to dealing with the problems raised by the pandemic is one of do as we say because we know the answers.This is far from correct and provable as you have not transparently made the facts available to all and sundry.
Scotland Politics Alba New Political Party
The former first minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond, made a public announcement on 26 March, 2021 of the launch of Alba Party, a new pro-independence party in Scotland.
This came almost immediately after a Holyrood committee inquiry into Nicola Sturgeon found that she misled the Scottish parliament about what happened in the run up to Salmond’s alleged sexual harassment case, but not “knowingly”. Had it been judged to be “deliberate” she would have had to step down for breaking the ministerial code. A jury found Salmond not guilty of all 12 accusations of sexual harassment in March 2020. However, the inquiry committee was set up after he won a legal challenge to the Scottish government in 2019 for its internal handling of the accusations.Since then, the growing pro-independence populace in Scotland has been largely divided into the pro-Alex and pro-Nicola teams, with this intensifying during the inquiry. Many in the pro-Alex team have been hoping that he would make a comeback into politics, particularly since trust in the SNP and Sturgeon to lead the country to independence has taken a nose-dive over recent years...
[Read More].
What is Social Fabric and how is it translated into what we euphemistically call everyday/normal life?
The definition given by Wikipedia includes “The organization and definition of groups within a social system depend on various shared properties such as location, socioeconomic status, race, religion, societal function, or other distinguishable features”. There are many other definitions dependent upon the criteria used to define them and often these are directed economically or system based.
All the definitions give an all encompassing rationale so as to be inclusive. But what do we ourselves believe is the answer?So far history shows us that the ‘silent majority’ will opt for safety in the status quo offered to them by the administration (in whatever form) even when, as is often the case, it runs contrary to their welfare and survival. From pre-history to today, humans have held the belief that the social construct under which they live is the best and only one, even if it has flaws. Offer them alternatives and they will battle until death to uphold “their” system. This is both wrong and right. Wrong...
[Read More].
“AI is far more dangerous than nukes.” Elon Musk
- “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race….It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete, and would be superseded.” Stephen Hawking, BBC
- “It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage, therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.” Alan Turing
Warnings like those ones and iconic movies like Terminator or the unique 2001 A Space Odyssey of Stanley Kubrick based on a short story of the giant Arthur C Clarke (The Sentinel) have all painted the dark and cumalative inanity around the advent of a whole powerful omniscient AI. But is it a real danger?
[Read More].
Historical Run Up To War
Mohammed Zahir Shah, the last king of Afghanistan, was a popular leader reigning from 1933 to his exile in July 1973 when his cousin Mohammed Daoud Khan staged a surprise (bloodless) coup. Khan then proclaimed himself to be the first President and leader of the country.
Khan was a progressive leader and an ardent supporter of women rights. He conducted two 5-year modernization plans which increased the work force significantly. Preceding his presidency, Khan was in office in the early 1960s as the Prime Minister of Afghanistan. It was during this period that he had a very pro-Soviet stance mainly due to constant proxy wars and disputes on the border with Pakistan. Pakistan twice defeated the forces sent by Khan to take border control of the Durand Line (the 2,640-kilometer) border between Afghanistan and Pakistan) into the Bajaur Agency, which was the agency of Federally Administered Tribal Areas until it became a district in 2018. These engagements highlighted the poor state of the Afghan Army compared to relatively modern ones of Iran and Pakistan.
[Read More].
Articles Worth Checking
Our Picking
An Article of BBC Future (Long Read)
"Are we on the road to civilisation collapse? By Luke Kemp (a researcher based at the University of Cambridge.)
Sputnik News (Science)
Search for Alien Life Should Account for Pre-Industrial Civilisations, Scientists Say
The National interest (Space/Politics)
The New Space Race: Russia and China Want a Joint Lunar Space Station
The National Interest WW2
America Had a Master Plan to Invade Japan During World War 2 but more costly than dropping the Two atom bombs.
The International Outsider
The Strange And Unknown Story of The South African Nuclear Weapons by Anton Komarov
After EMPIRE: Using Apollo Hardware to Explore Venus and Mars (1965)
A manned Venus flyby concept was central to NASA planning.
Benjamin Franklin
One of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A polymath, he was a leading writer, printer, political philosopher, politician, Freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat.
Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.’
Mae Jemison
Mae Carol Jemison is an American engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut. She became the first black woman to travel into space when she served as a mission specialist aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.
Never limit yourself because of others' limited imagination; never limit others because of your own limited imagination.
Nick Bostrom
Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher at the University of Oxford known for his work on existential risk, the anthropic principle, human enhancement ethics, superintelligence risks, and the reversal test.
Far from being the smartest possible biological species, we are probably better thought of as the stupidest possible biological species capable of starting a technological civilization - a niche we filled because we got there first, not because we are in any sense optimally adapted to it.
Jacque Fresco.
was an American Structural designer, architectural designer, concept artist, educator, and futurist.
Burning bridges behind you is understandable. It's the bridges before us that we burn, not realizing we may need to cross, that brings regret.
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.
“If you win, you need not have to explain...If you lose, you should not be there to explain!” -- Adolf Hitler
Outstanding Organisations
Worth Checking
Seti
Search for extraterrestial intelligence.
The Venus project
Alternative Society.