5 ms·

Home-made bombs are being sent to physicists in Mexico

154 points by acangiano 15y ago

mvzink 15y ago
For this audience, this might get more clicks if the title mentioned CS, nanotechnology, AI, etc. not physicists. And besides that, the title is incorrect: the only bomb mentioned in the article was sent to the author's brother; the author is a physicist, while his brother is a computer scientist and roboticist.
- acangiano 15y ago
  Unfortunately, it's too late for me to change the title.
  - rhizome 15y ago
    If only there was a way to know that it was the brother before you posted.
    - acangiano 15y ago
      You may notice that the title is copied verbatim from the subtitle. I submitted before I reached the end of the article. I already expressed regret for not being able to change the title. There is no reason to be sarcastic about it. Your comment is arguably no better for this community, than my rushed title submission.
      - rhizome 15y ago
        What are you talking about? You posted without a minimum of effort, not even finishing the story first. That's plenty of reason to be sarcastic!
VMG 15y ago
TFA: In statements posted on the Internet, the ITS expresses particular hostility towards nanotechnology and computer scientists. It claims that nanotechnology will lead to the downfall of mankind, and predicts that the world will become dominated by self-aware artificial-intelligence technology. The spooky thing is that this may not be as crazy as it sounds.
- Vivtek 15y ago
  ... That's absurd, I'm sorry. Of course the world will become dominated by self-aware technology; it already is, after all. (Well - from our point of view, anyway. From the bacterial point of view it's pretty much bacteria all the way down.) But to imagine that that self-aware technology will be anything but symbiotic with us is truly crazy. And certainly not something that bombs could fix anyway. Also: what kind of lame anti-technology terrorist group posts its statements on the Internet?
  - shithead 15y ago
    > Also: what kind of lame anti-technology terrorist group posts its statements on the Internet? Good question. I'd say it depends where one draws the line. Some people draw it at horse-drawn buggies (and they may be right), others don't balk at electricity but reject some body-invading medical practices, others have very hard lines on human dignity. I guess we'll find out, sooner or later, where the real line is by the collective "Oh, SHIT!" expletive when the tripwire is stepped on ...
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
    - Vivtek 15y ago
      It's just one more "oh my god the world is going to be scary" ghost story. The human race has gone through a number of really, really deeply changing technological hurdles over the past few thousand years while still remaining fundamentally human (and in fact I think more fundamentally human), and I don't think this one is going to be any different. Because when you get down to it, there are two ways an AI can be intelligent. Either it participates in the human world - in which case we are inherently part of its future - or it doesn't - in which case we are irrelevant to it, and it is irrelevant to us, and essentially in exactly the same way as bacteria. Sure, bacteria can kill us and the world is more risky with them in it. And sure, looked at from a certain angle, we evolved "beyond" bacteria and thus took over the world from them. But when you look at reality, first: we're made of bacteria. And even if you don't consider eukaryotes just a good way for a few bacteria to survive better, there are actual bacteria that live in us, to the point that there are more bacterial cells that make up you than there are human cells with human DNA, and you would die without them. So even though evolution has gone "beyond" bacteria - it's gone beyond them in a way that in no way makes their lives worse, because it really is bacteria all the way down. So far from being surpassed, actually the bacteria have conquered everything. Human culture is a software running on that substrate, in a sense. The things that make us human are our language, our ideas - and those are at an entirely different level from the bacterial. They coexist as separate continua, really. So let's assume that there arises a higher-level self-aware mind (and let's further assume that hasn't happened yet) - at worst it's going to evolve "beyond" us in the same way we are "beyond" the bacteria. I don't see that as precluding us continuing in our mundane human existence in a way that the vast majority of us will never notice. So to be perfectly clear - I personally believe entirely that something like the Singularity is in our future. What I think is crazy is the idea that we will be superseded. These anti-tech terrorists think it's going to be Terminator, when actually it's going to be something like a more ubiquitous Internet. Nobody's afraid of the Internet - the terrorists aren't, even - even though it's highly probable that the Internet itself is what will evolve into the next level of life. I just don't see how anybody can look at the changes that are coming down the pike and think, "Oh my God, the future is scary" - it's just going to be better. I mean, shit, I grew up in the middle of nowhere with interlibrary loan the best way for me to find out the really hard stuff. The Internet is like crack to me. I now do programming and technical translation for customers all over the world, and I can move whenever I want. That lifestyle was impossible twenty years ago. Impossible. No agency would track me down by mail if I had to keep leaving forwarding addresses, but now? I go to Hungary for the summer, we lived in Puerto Rico for two years, now I bought a foreclosure close to home (that I found on an Internet search) and we've been here a couple of years - and next year it's back to Europe. My customers might notice I'm getting up six hours earlier, but otherwise it's all the same to them. As technology gets smarter, I will continue to build it into my life, and as a result, my life will continue to be closer to what it ought to be. I just don't see the downside to that. And as it gets really smart, it's going to be inside my brain anyway, and - poof! Exponential curve. I expect to be part of it. How could it be otherwise? So, no. I think the only reason to be afraid of the future is if you want to be afraid of something. And I consider that truly crazy.
andrewcooke 15y ago
for other spanish speakers, this group is called Individualidades Tendiendo a lo Salvaje and a google search gives plenty of hits for more info http://www.google.cl/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Individualidades+Tendiendo+a+lo+Salvaje http://www.google.cl/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#38... (they don't seem to have a site; the statement is repeated on various anarchist blogs, but from dates and credits one of these may be the original http://liberaciontotal.lahaine.org/?p=1622 http://liberaciontotal.lahaine.org/?p=1622 http://culmine.noblogs.org/post/2011/04/27/paquete-explosivo-al-encargado-de-la-division-de-ingenieria-en-nanotecnologia-universidad-politecnica-del-valle-de-mexico/ http://culmine.noblogs.org/post/2011/04/27/paquete-explosivo...)
dhughes 15y ago
The FBI should put a message on the Web saying they know where these terrorists are and they've already sent nanobot assassins to infect them.
- iradik 15y ago
  I think this case is out of their jurisdiction.
  - 5hoom 15y ago
    Nothing is outside the jurisdiction of nanobot assassins, duh.
iradik 15y ago
The article mentioned the group praises Ted Kaczynski, so most likely good to read this essay if you want to see their POV. Industrial Society and Its Future (1995) by Theodore Kaczynski http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/ethics/Unabomber.pdf http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/ethics/Unabomber.pdf
- alnayyir 15y ago
  I think ted was likely a great deal smarter than the people we're dealing with now.
  - itswindy 15y ago
    Maybe, but life is cheaper in Mexico and the police have bigger fish to fry, making the bombers more dangerous and less likely to got caught.
    - Vivtek 15y ago
      Life is cheaper in Mexico? I know you didn't intend the way that came out, but life is life. It's no cheaper in Mexico than it is among the meth rednecks across the street from me, believe me.
      - armandososa 15y ago
        I think he was referring to cost of life
        itswindy 15y ago
        I think he was referring to cost of life Actually to the fact that it's a mess of a country, at least right now. people being killed left and right, and is almost a failed state. Not that Mexican parents weep less for their kids or anything like that.
Kirchart123 15y ago
I live in mexico ... I really think usa wanna insert their "terrorism" terms in our country to have an excue for army to enter .. Im swear that their long term pitch.
tripzilch 15y ago
What a bunch of dicks.

154 points by acangiano 15y ago

For this audience, this might get more clicks if the title mentioned CS, nanotechnology, AI, etc. not physicists. And besides that, the title is incorrect: the only bomb mentioned in the article was sent to the author's brother; the author is a physicist, while his brother is a computer scientist and roboticist.

acangiano 15y ago
Unfortunately, it's too late for me to change the title.
- rhizome 15y ago
  If only there was a way to know that it was the brother before you posted.
  - acangiano 15y ago
    You may notice that the title is copied verbatim from the subtitle. I submitted before I reached the end of the article. I already expressed regret for not being able to change the title. There is no reason to be sarcastic about it. Your comment is arguably no better for this community, than my rushed title submission.
    - rhizome 15y ago
      What are you talking about? You posted without a minimum of effort, not even finishing the story first. That's plenty of reason to be sarcastic!

VMG 15y ago

TFA: In statements posted on the Internet, the ITS expresses particular hostility towards nanotechnology and computer scientists. It claims that nanotechnology will lead to the downfall of mankind, and predicts that the world will become dominated by self-aware artificial-intelligence technology. The spooky thing is that this may not be as crazy as it sounds.

Vivtek 15y ago
... That's absurd, I'm sorry. Of course the world will become dominated by self-aware technology; it already is, after all. (Well - from our point of view, anyway. From the bacterial point of view it's pretty much bacteria all the way down.) But to imagine that that self-aware technology will be anything but symbiotic with us is truly crazy. And certainly not something that bombs could fix anyway. Also: what kind of lame anti-technology terrorist group posts its statements on the Internet?
- shithead 15y ago
  > Also: what kind of lame anti-technology terrorist group posts its statements on the Internet? Good question. I'd say it depends where one draws the line. Some people draw it at horse-drawn buggies (and they may be right), others don't balk at electricity but reject some body-invading medical practices, others have very hard lines on human dignity. I guess we'll find out, sooner or later, where the real line is by the collective "Oh, SHIT!" expletive when the tripwire is stepped on ...
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
  - Vivtek 15y ago
    It's just one more "oh my god the world is going to be scary" ghost story. The human race has gone through a number of really, really deeply changing technological hurdles over the past few thousand years while still remaining fundamentally human (and in fact I think more fundamentally human), and I don't think this one is going to be any different. Because when you get down to it, there are two ways an AI can be intelligent. Either it participates in the human world - in which case we are inherently part of its future - or it doesn't - in which case we are irrelevant to it, and it is irrelevant to us, and essentially in exactly the same way as bacteria. Sure, bacteria can kill us and the world is more risky with them in it. And sure, looked at from a certain angle, we evolved "beyond" bacteria and thus took over the world from them. But when you look at reality, first: we're made of bacteria. And even if you don't consider eukaryotes just a good way for a few bacteria to survive better, there are actual bacteria that live in us, to the point that there are more bacterial cells that make up you than there are human cells with human DNA, and you would die without them. So even though evolution has gone "beyond" bacteria - it's gone beyond them in a way that in no way makes their lives worse, because it really is bacteria all the way down. So far from being surpassed, actually the bacteria have conquered everything. Human culture is a software running on that substrate, in a sense. The things that make us human are our language, our ideas - and those are at an entirely different level from the bacterial. They coexist as separate continua, really. So let's assume that there arises a higher-level self-aware mind (and let's further assume that hasn't happened yet) - at worst it's going to evolve "beyond" us in the same way we are "beyond" the bacteria. I don't see that as precluding us continuing in our mundane human existence in a way that the vast majority of us will never notice. So to be perfectly clear - I personally believe entirely that something like the Singularity is in our future. What I think is crazy is the idea that we will be superseded. These anti-tech terrorists think it's going to be Terminator, when actually it's going to be something like a more ubiquitous Internet. Nobody's afraid of the Internet - the terrorists aren't, even - even though it's highly probable that the Internet itself is what will evolve into the next level of life. I just don't see how anybody can look at the changes that are coming down the pike and think, "Oh my God, the future is scary" - it's just going to be better. I mean, shit, I grew up in the middle of nowhere with interlibrary loan the best way for me to find out the really hard stuff. The Internet is like crack to me. I now do programming and technical translation for customers all over the world, and I can move whenever I want. That lifestyle was impossible twenty years ago. Impossible. No agency would track me down by mail if I had to keep leaving forwarding addresses, but now? I go to Hungary for the summer, we lived in Puerto Rico for two years, now I bought a foreclosure close to home (that I found on an Internet search) and we've been here a couple of years - and next year it's back to Europe. My customers might notice I'm getting up six hours earlier, but otherwise it's all the same to them. As technology gets smarter, I will continue to build it into my life, and as a result, my life will continue to be closer to what it ought to be. I just don't see the downside to that. And as it gets really smart, it's going to be inside my brain anyway, and - poof! Exponential curve. I expect to be part of it. How could it be otherwise? So, no. I think the only reason to be afraid of the future is if you want to be afraid of something. And I consider that truly crazy.

andrewcooke 15y ago

for other spanish speakers, this group is called Individualidades Tendiendo a lo Salvaje and a google search gives plenty of hits for more info http://www.google.cl/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=Individualidades+Tendiendo+a+lo+Salvaje http://www.google.cl/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&#38... (they don't seem to have a site; the statement is repeated on various anarchist blogs, but from dates and credits one of these may be the original http://liberaciontotal.lahaine.org/?p=1622 http://liberaciontotal.lahaine.org/?p=1622 http://culmine.noblogs.org/post/2011/04/27/paquete-explosivo-al-encargado-de-la-division-de-ingenieria-en-nanotecnologia-universidad-politecnica-del-valle-de-mexico/ http://culmine.noblogs.org/post/2011/04/27/paquete-explosivo...)

dhughes 15y ago

The FBI should put a message on the Web saying they know where these terrorists are and they've already sent nanobot assassins to infect them.

iradik 15y ago
I think this case is out of their jurisdiction.
- 5hoom 15y ago
  Nothing is outside the jurisdiction of nanobot assassins, duh.

iradik 15y ago

The article mentioned the group praises Ted Kaczynski, so most likely good to read this essay if you want to see their POV. Industrial Society and Its Future (1995) by Theodore Kaczynski http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/ethics/Unabomber.pdf http://web.cecs.pdx.edu/~harry/ethics/Unabomber.pdf

alnayyir 15y ago
I think ted was likely a great deal smarter than the people we're dealing with now.
- itswindy 15y ago
  Maybe, but life is cheaper in Mexico and the police have bigger fish to fry, making the bombers more dangerous and less likely to got caught.
  - Vivtek 15y ago
    Life is cheaper in Mexico? I know you didn't intend the way that came out, but life is life. It's no cheaper in Mexico than it is among the meth rednecks across the street from me, believe me.
    - armandososa 15y ago
      I think he was referring to cost of life
      - itswindy 15y ago
        I think he was referring to cost of life Actually to the fact that it's a mess of a country, at least right now. people being killed left and right, and is almost a failed state. Not that Mexican parents weep less for their kids or anything like that.

Kirchart123 15y ago

I live in mexico ... I really think usa wanna insert their "terrorism" terms in our country to have an excue for army to enter .. Im swear that their long term pitch.

tripzilch 15y ago

What a bunch of dicks.