Along the ages many cultures, people and societies have dissaparead. They collapsed. Joseph Tainter analize in his book "Collapse of Complex Societies" how societies becomes more complex trying to solve their problems. How they tend to develop layers of bureaucracy, infrastructure, or social class to address the challenge. Tainter, who first (ch. 1) identifies seventeen examples of rapid collapse of societies, applies his model to three case studies: The Western Roman Empire, the Maya civilization, and the Chaco culture.
Monday, July 5
Sunday, July 4
Toynbee Theory
A Study of History is the 12-volume magnum opus of British historian Arnold J. Toynbee, finished in 1961, in which the author traces the development and decay of all of the major world civilizations in the historical record. Toynbee applies his model to each of these civilizations, detailing the stages through which they all pass: genesis, growth, time of troubles, universal state, and disintegration.
He argues that the breakdown of civilizations is not caused by loss of control over the environment, over the human environment, or attacks from outside. Rather, it comes from the deterioration of the "Creative Minority," which eventually ceases to be creative and degenerates into merely a "Dominant Minority" (who forces the majority to obey without meriting obedience). He argues that creative minorities deteriorate due to a worship of their "former self," by which they become prideful, and fail to adequately address the next challenge they face.
Saturday, July 3
Olduvai Theory
The Olduvai theory states that industrial civilization (as defined by per capita energy production) will have a lifetime of less than or equal to 100 years (1930-2030). The theory provides a quantitative basis of the transient-pulse theory of modern civilization. From 2030 on, Humanity would return step by step to previous levels of civilization, ending in one thousand years (3.000 a.C.) with a hunting-culture based as the one that existed in the Earth three millions years ago.
This theory was stated by Richard C. Duncan based upon his experience in energy sources and his passion over archeology.
Industrial Civilization is defined in Duncan's paper as the time approximately from when energy production per capita rises from 37% of the peak value to when it falls to below 37% of its peak value (1930-2030) i.e. the peak in energy production per capita is in between these two endpoints and these two endpoints have values of 37% of the peak value.
This theory was stated by Richard C. Duncan based upon his experience in energy sources and his passion over archeology.
Industrial Civilization is defined in Duncan's paper as the time approximately from when energy production per capita rises from 37% of the peak value to when it falls to below 37% of its peak value (1930-2030) i.e. the peak in energy production per capita is in between these two endpoints and these two endpoints have values of 37% of the peak value.
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Friday, July 2
Media blackout
Another way to refer to the media censorship. Usually this term is used when the censorship relates to a certain topic that has been blocked by the media or relates to some Government censorship over specific information, as it happend during the droppings of atomic bombs in Hiroshima, or in the UK during the Second World War.
Tuesday, April 4
'Blackout. The outage'
In the next months, the Blackout, will see light.
We will keep you informed about where to find it.
We will keep you informed about where to find it.
Tuesday, November 17
Britain to build cyber attack forces to tackle IS, hackers
British spies are building elite cyber offensive forces to strike at Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile powers, Chancellor George Osborne said on Tuesday after warning militants wanted to launch deadly digital attacks.
Islamic State was trying to develop the capability to attack British infrastructure such as hospitals, power networks and air traffic control systems with potentially lethal consequences, Osborne said.
In response, Britain will bolster spending on cyber defences, simplify its state cyber structures and build its own offensive cyber capability to attack adversaries.
"We will defend ourselves. But we will also take the fight to you," Osborne, Britain's second most powerful politician after Prime Minister David Cameron, said in a speech at Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency.
"We are building our own offensive cyber capability – a dedicated ability to counter-attack in cyberspace. When we talk about tackling (Islamic State), that means tackling their cyber threat as well as their guns, bombs and knives."
Britain's new cyber attack forces will be run jointly between GCHQ and the Defence Ministry and will target individual hackers, criminal gangs, militant groups and hostile powers, using a "full spectrum" of actions, Osborne said.
GCHQ traces its history back to World War One signals intelligence with Winston Churchill as its founder and once reported to the MI6 foreign intelligence service but has since gained significant influence as one of the world's pre-eminent eavesdropping agencies.
One of the most secret spy agencies in the world, its existence was only officially recognised legally by Britain in the 1990s.
After last Friday's Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people and were claimed by Islamic State, Britain said it would boost staff at its domestic MI5 security service, MI6 and GCHQ by about 15 percent.
CYBER WAR
Osborne said public spending on cyber security would be almost doubled to a total of 1.9 billion pounds ($2.9 billion)over the period to 2020, saying the decision to ramp up cyber defence funding had been taken before Friday's bloodshed in Paris.
Islamic State was already using the internet for propaganda, to radicalise people and for planning purposes, he added
"They have not been able to use it to kill people yet by attacking our infrastructure through cyber attack," he said. "But we know they want it and are doing their best to build it.
GCHQ was currently monitoring cyber threats against 450 companies in aerospace, finance defence, energy and telecoms sectors, while the number of cyber national security incidents had doubled to 200 a month since last year, he said.
A new national cyber security plan drawn up by the government would feature a dedicated force to ensure faster and more effective responses to major online attacks. The force would be based at GCHQ in Cheltenham, southwest England.
Other elements of the plan included possible cooperation between internet service providers, with help from the government, to fend off malware attacks and block bad addresses used against British internet users, as well as a new institute to train coders, Osborne said.
British broadband provider TalkTalk suffered a cyber attack in October which affected 157,000 customers. This month, Britain and U.S. authorities carried out a drill with leading banks to test their response to a cyber incident in the financial sector.
"The experience in the last month of TalkTalk shows how cyber attack can suddenly go from a theoretical risk to a massive business cost," Osborne said.
Islamic State was trying to develop the capability to attack British infrastructure such as hospitals, power networks and air traffic control systems with potentially lethal consequences, Osborne said.
In response, Britain will bolster spending on cyber defences, simplify its state cyber structures and build its own offensive cyber capability to attack adversaries.
"We will defend ourselves. But we will also take the fight to you," Osborne, Britain's second most powerful politician after Prime Minister David Cameron, said in a speech at Britain's GCHQ eavesdropping agency.
"We are building our own offensive cyber capability – a dedicated ability to counter-attack in cyberspace. When we talk about tackling (Islamic State), that means tackling their cyber threat as well as their guns, bombs and knives."
Britain's new cyber attack forces will be run jointly between GCHQ and the Defence Ministry and will target individual hackers, criminal gangs, militant groups and hostile powers, using a "full spectrum" of actions, Osborne said.
GCHQ traces its history back to World War One signals intelligence with Winston Churchill as its founder and once reported to the MI6 foreign intelligence service but has since gained significant influence as one of the world's pre-eminent eavesdropping agencies.
One of the most secret spy agencies in the world, its existence was only officially recognised legally by Britain in the 1990s.
After last Friday's Paris attacks, which killed at least 129 people and were claimed by Islamic State, Britain said it would boost staff at its domestic MI5 security service, MI6 and GCHQ by about 15 percent.
CYBER WAR
Osborne said public spending on cyber security would be almost doubled to a total of 1.9 billion pounds ($2.9 billion)over the period to 2020, saying the decision to ramp up cyber defence funding had been taken before Friday's bloodshed in Paris.
Islamic State was already using the internet for propaganda, to radicalise people and for planning purposes, he added
"They have not been able to use it to kill people yet by attacking our infrastructure through cyber attack," he said. "But we know they want it and are doing their best to build it.
GCHQ was currently monitoring cyber threats against 450 companies in aerospace, finance defence, energy and telecoms sectors, while the number of cyber national security incidents had doubled to 200 a month since last year, he said.
A new national cyber security plan drawn up by the government would feature a dedicated force to ensure faster and more effective responses to major online attacks. The force would be based at GCHQ in Cheltenham, southwest England.
Other elements of the plan included possible cooperation between internet service providers, with help from the government, to fend off malware attacks and block bad addresses used against British internet users, as well as a new institute to train coders, Osborne said.
British broadband provider TalkTalk suffered a cyber attack in October which affected 157,000 customers. This month, Britain and U.S. authorities carried out a drill with leading banks to test their response to a cyber incident in the financial sector.
"The experience in the last month of TalkTalk shows how cyber attack can suddenly go from a theoretical risk to a massive business cost," Osborne said.
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Monday, May 5
America could plunge into a blackout
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has told how the three electric systems could be brought down entirely by attacks on select stations. America could plunge into a blackout if only nine power plants were attacked.
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