Aalam’s solution to this was simple: why not allow him to do it virtually?

“If I can virtually and mentally make the journey, even though my physical body can’t, surely it should qualify as fulfilling the Hajj?” he asks.

Although virtual-reality advocates say this digital realm is no match for real life experiences, most argue that in the absence of travelling overseas, it is one of the best available means of cultural exchange.

At the Dubai Women’s College, professors saw an opportunity to use Second Life to connect students with the world outside their tiny Arabian Gulf state. As a virtual orientation, the group visited a Second Life re-creation of Darfur and made an online pilgrimage to Mecca. Most notably, they met regularly with a group of Korean students in computer renditions of each other’s campuses to practice English and learn about one another’s culture.

CS Monitor, Study Abroad Through Second Life

We have reached a stage where we cannot distinguish the real elements of our thoughts and feelings from the virtual ones. We cannot draw demarcating lines around the “Digital Us.” As we gradually adjust our lives to the latest digital experiences, we stray further and further from the world of here and now, and that world becomes less and less satisfying. Once we’re wired for a virtual world, the present world goes dim and fails to satisfy our digitized needs. This is the situation the world is coming to.

The Internet, unlike television or newspapers, provides interaction. Everyone contributes in some way to its organization. We may call it a huge dream machine. We know we are likely to fall asleep anywhere, and on the Internet we are prone to spiritual sleep. But probably the Internet is less sleep-inducing than TV because surfing the Web is a relatively proactive pursuit.

The problem with high tech is that it tends to impede spiritual growth. No doubt, superhighways facilitate speed. But speed is basically injurious to the spirit. We need time to pray, to meditate. And a mad rush is not likely to yield any spiritual benefit.

IslamOnline.net, Islam in Cyberia

“We think urban is the future,” says James Lasswell, a retired colonel who now heads the Office of Science and Technology at the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory. “Everything worth fighting for is in the urban environment.” And Wayne Michael Hall, a retired Army brigadier general and the senior intelligence advisor in Schattle’s operation, has a similar assessment, “We will be fighting in urban terrain for the next hundred years.”

…

During James Lasswell’s presentation, he was quite specific about the non-Fallujah-like need to be “very discriminate” in applying firepower in an urban environment. As an example of the ability of technology to aid in such efforts, he displayed a photo of the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a three-story Lebanese building. The third floor of the structure had been obliterated, while the roof above and the floors below appeared relatively unscathed. In an aside, Lasswell mentioned that, while the effort had been a discriminating one, the floor taken out “turned out to be the wrong floor.” A rumble of knowing chuckles swept the room.

Slum Fights: The Pentagon Plans for a New Hundred Years’ War, by Nick Turse, 11th October, 2007

Installed recently to prevent vandals destroying property, or terrorists from carrying out a possible attack, the death has sparked controversy and calls by civil rights groups to have the systems re-manned and monitored by humans in order to make more accurate judgement calls.

Khan, 31, was apparently looking for somewhere to sleep when he approached the perimeter fence along the tracks near New Cross Gate. Apparently unable to speak English, and ignoring the warning signs, he paid no attention to the automatic voice warning issued by the unit.

It is unknown if he has any family, or relatives.

From a UK news report, circa 2020.

Protesters had gathered outside the Transhumanist Collective’s head offices in San Francisco on Thursday, staging what started out as peaceful protest following the recent revelation that human computation algorithms have secretly been distributed through the so-called “Tower Of Babel”, or iBrain network.

The algorithms, distributed to individuals without their knowledge or consent, are capable of leveraging existing thought patterns silently and in the background unlike current mainstream algorithms, which require active engagement from the individual. Dream, the trans-national media corporation, have been identified as the source of the algorithms and are allegedly responsible for their distribution in the iBrain network.

The protesters, numbering into the hundreds, congregated outside the Transhumanist Collective’s offices to voice their opposition to Dream’s violation of personal cognitive liberties. Demonstrators cheered, shouted, sounded horns and banged drums, waving signs with slogans ‘My thoughts are my own’, ‘You’re not welcome here’, and ‘So, you’re the voice in my head!’.

The protest took a tragic turn however, when a member of the so-called Freedom Club, carrying a sign which read ‘Human Race At A Crossroads’, hurled a home made bomb at Prof. von Ahn as he was being led out of the building under armed escort. The explosion seriously injured him and two members of his security escort along with many others, including several of the protesters.

Freedom Club
The Freedom Club have long held Prof. von Ahn personally responsible for the creation of the iBrain network. They have adopted a more more radical stance than the more widely known Individualists, who campaign for preservation and protection of the individual in society while acknowledging the benefits supported by the pro-hivemind supporters, known generally as The Collective.

The Freedom club, on the other hand, see Prof. von Ahn’s work as seeding the death of the individual and ultimately the destruction of all personal freedoms. They have been known to use strong arm tactics and intimidation on researchers and business in the human computation field, much like animal-rights activism in the early 21st century. This attack is the first incidence of serious terrorist violence committed by the group.

The member responsible for the attack (who’s name has been withheld for legal reasons) is due stand trail soon. An investigation into the activities of the group is also currently underway.

Article 19
The creation of the iBrain ‘neural network’ in 2032 has long been considered a major leap for society. The network, which first connected scientists, researchers and business men, has since been widely adopted by the general populous. Man has since enjoyed unprecedented leaps in science and innovation and the network has done much to promote global peace.

It has however, not been without controversy. The creation of what some see as a global ‘hivemind’ has led to a tension dividing world opinion into two groups: The Individualists, supporting the traditional notions of individuality, and The Collective, who view the hivemind as part of the next stage in human evolution. Both groups have amassed large support bases, although recently there has been more popular support in favour of The Collective following the continued spread of the iBrain network and its benefits.

By 2036 the increased tensions lead to the United Allied Nations (UAN) to adopt Article 19 of the UAN Convention on Human Rights. The Article provides the right for each individual to to be the absolute sovereign of their own consciousness, to freely alter the state of their consciousness using any method they choose, and protects every person from being forced to change their consciousness against their will, providing the right of respect for the individual’s “private and family life, his home and his correspondence”.

The Dream-distributed algorithm scandal has been seen as a direct breach of those fundamental human rights, with many of the Individualists blaming Prof. von Ahn’s most recent work in allowing such a thing to happen.

The Distributed Human Computation Algorithm
Luis von Ahn’s work on human computation began in 2005 and he has remained an influence on the discipline ever since. He first demonstrated the technology in an online game called ESP Game, a simple game through which the players would provide detailed metadata for images. The technology was licensed to Google who went on to use in their Image Labeler software to improve image search results.

Prof. von Ahn later went on to create Verbosity, which collected ‘common sense facts’. This game ultimately succeeded in the realization of the Semantic Web, laying the groundwork for the Net as we know it today and the creation of the iBrain network. The Semantic Web allowed for truly intelligent searches, unlocking the massive databases of knowledge buried in the infrastructure of the internet and making it accessible to humans in unprecedented ways. This in turn lead to the creation if intelligent software agents and, most significantly, the neuro-software core to the iBrain.

Prof. von Ahn’s on-going contribution to, and leadership in, the the field of human computation has constantly made him a target and subject of much criticism. His recently published paper entitled, Automated Problem Classification and Intergrated, Distributed Solution Processing sparked a breakthrough that enabled processing on computation tasks to be dynamically distributed.

Where individuals would previously actively participate in solving problems by playing games and solving puzzles, Prof. von Ahn’s work proved it would be possible for individuals to participate simply by going about their everyday activities, much like screensavers used to be used to take advantage of idle computer power. The new algorithm would, for example, embed problem solving into simple processes, such as just reading email or using music discovery services, by leveraging their existing neuro-application interfaces.

Dream, through it’s connections to the Tower of Babel iBrain research institutions, was able to obtain and patent much of the technology used in the iBrain’s creation, as well as most of Prof. von Ahn’s recent work. It has now been alleged that Dream used their technologies it in a number of market research campaigns without any user’s consent or knowledge, integrating the algorithms directly into each individual’s passive decision-making systems.

The full extent of the breach is yet to be determined, and is currently under investigation by the UAN’s Human Rights investigators.

Called the “Tower of Babel” after the biblical myth, it is their attempt to build technologically enhanced minds that allows a completely telepathic connection – just by installing some software (called “neuro-software”) in your brain.

Rather than just simply creating a brain to machine interface, which allowed a user to connect to an external machine with a type of physical computer, the team of scientists and transhumanists have developed what’s being dubbed the “iBrain”, the world”s first true “neural net” – an internet of minds. They’re hoping to use neuro-software – software-type applications built from neurons and tiny machines built from atoms and molecules, called nanomachines – to enhance and replace our normal brain functions. Think of it as your brain with an upgrade.

Being funded in conjunction with Dream, the giant trans-national media company, and a joint US-Indian-Chinese partnership between DARPA (the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency), ITRI (the Indian Transhumanist Research Institute), and CADO (Chinese Human Advancement Organisation), they brought together the best and brightest of the worldwide Transhumanist Collective in order to bring this vision about, and today’s conference demonstrates their success: all the scientists, located in different parts of the world, took part using the new technology.

“It’s amazing,” said Dr. Brett Stott, a spokesman for the collective. “Our new individual and collective brain power far exceeds anything nature could have ever dreamed of.”

The Transhumanist Collective was initially just a term given to a loose group of media organizations, non-profit groups and individuals dedicated to transhumanism, that is the use of technology and science to enhance human evolution. Many of them became the founding members of the organization when it was officially formed in 2010. Since then, they became a lot more focused, similar to the computer hobbyists of the 1970′s, working on artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and biotechnology, all of them dedicated to bringing about the so-called “Singularity” where artificial intelligence and technology becomes more powerful than normal human abilities, and allow humans to evolve into what some see as a new life form.

That evolution includes additional features like thought or meme protection and filtering that should help improve people”s lives and protect them from “rotting apples”, as one participant called it. It would work like an anti-virus programme, except for the mind, and it was this that drew the attention of the Chinese, US and other governments.

“Our role is to protect the citizens of the world,” said Charlie Leavenworth, the American ambassador to the United Allied Nations (UAN), at their Beijing headquarters. “This does not just include physical protection, but mental protection, too. An idea today can be just as deadly as a computer virus. As the British have long said, core values need to be protected as much as possible and if this requires building the necessary mental tools to help with that, then we are prepared to do whatever it takes.”

Dr. Lynn Gardner, one of the members from the DARPA team, told the virtual conference: “Traditionally, software was seen as something that you downloaded to a computer, but we have proven that it is possible to add what can be considered software for the mind. One of the biggest problems humans have always faced is being able to filter out the right information from the wrong in order to form better opinions and make better decisions, whether personal or business. With our new meme detection and protection tools, we should be able to filter out any undesirable or harmful thoughts and improve decision making.”

A large number of other corporations are backing the project research, as they see it as an excellent way to help increase market share through advertising and marketing. For example, Micro Minds is hoping their proposed Dream Maker service will permit “in dream” advertising, an area that was not possible with today’s networks since it required the user to be awake.

As a media company, Dream is also extremely interested in being able to broadcast news constantly, as well as the possible advertising revenues. Hu Chen, a company spokesman, said that, “With iBrain, the mind is always on. For a company like us, being able to sell advertising 24/7 is an extremely valuable commodity. For marketers, it”s a dream come true. They have direct insight into customers’ minds, wants and desires, hidden or not, providing unique opportunities for market research. There are, of course benefits for the customer as well, as this will provide much easier and direct communication with our public relations officers. In addition, companies will be able to pinpoint exactly what the customer needs, just by analyzing thought patterns and other data.”

One possibility that has the military and corporations interested is the so-called “hivemind” ability, whereby neuro-software will permit groups of people to be linked together like a bee-hive, working together as a tightly knit unit. The porn industry have long been using a similar tool with earlier brain-machine interfaces allowing viewers to experience the sexual emotions of the actors. Social networking groups have also used a similar idea to create powerful information sharing networks.
These were always seen as being too cumbersome for military operations or business, however. What makes the latest version different is that, besides not needing bulky computers, it doesn’t just simply allow information to be sent and received, but also programmable instructions.

This has long been considered the “holy grail” by military experts in creating efficient and cost-effective armies. Initial tests have been very successful in co-ordinating complex tasks amongst individuals. The military see it as an excellent method to help manage soldiers in very complex operations that could fail due to human error. Several corporations have also begun trials in the supply chain in managing its workers” time more effectively using a similar method.

It is this “always on” and programmable functionality that has some privacy groups concerned. Electronic Freedom Foundation spokesman Gareth Sanjay pointed out that, “We”ve known for some time now that the governments behind this research have made great use of dataveillance before to keep its citizens under constant surveillance. China has arrested and detained individuals before for supposed future thought crimes where citizens have matched certain patterns of behaviour, and they’ve also experimented a lot in manipulating and conditioning groups of people. The US and other members of the UAN have fared little better with arbitrary, secret arrests, removal of civil liberties, and intimidation against those it believes are a threat in its “War on Terror”.”

Amnesty International also expressed their concern, saying that “The notion that certain thoughts and ideas should be “filtered out” and rejected are extremely worrying and Orwellian. And as for corporations essentially directing its employees like robots, it is a step too far towards the total restriction of freedom of thought and action. There’s also the added worry that, as we have seen with RFID, society is going to be further controlled simply by what the technology is, rather than just how it is used.”

Many of the meeting”s participants disregarded such fears saying that the same prophesies of “doom and gloom” were predicted with the usage of RFID, ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things, and none of those had come to pass. They point out that these technologies have brought massive benefits to mankind, despite criticism that it has only favored the rich and powerful.

“Instead,” said one participant who wished to remain anonymous, “the real risk has come from the neo-Luddites who have often resorted to terrorist acts to try and prevent the advancement of technology and mankind. Ever since the Unabomber spoke about the machines ruling mankind and reducing them to ‘the status of domestic animals‘, people like him have used fear-mongering and terror to prevent what they fear and don’t understand.” As far as he was concerned, the neo-Luddites were like “King Canute trying to command the tide not to come in. This technology will benefit everyone.”

(Unknown author, BBC News, circa. 2026-2032. Links added to references that exist today)