One might think that in the era of AI, computer hacking would become a thing of the past. After all, AI has predictive powers that stagger the imagination. AI can easily predict your death date, to include time, cause and location. It can also predict what you will do long before you do it. So how is it that all hackers and hacking methods are not quickly identified and stopped once and for all? Clearly, stopping hackers is not a priority. In fact, the power of AI could, and someday will, ID and categorize every “user” on the web and make known (to someone, somewhere) everything about them, to include actions they have not even thought of yet. And while we do the usual bang-up job of detailing hacking and its history in this episode, what I am about to describe puts it all into context. At least in terms of where the real threat resides, vis-a-vis personal computer data safety and our expectation of privacy. We all know that “some” people get hacked… but damn near “everyone” is subject to the following description. ALL modern computers using Intel or AMD processors have built-in back doors. This allows free access to all areas of your computer without your knowledge. AMD calls it the Platform Security Processor, and Intel named it the Intel Management Engine. This has been going on since 2008 for Intel, and 2013 for AMD. To be clear, this allows access to all memory, access to every attached device, access to what is on your screen – and – it allows TCP/IP server set up on your network regardless of your OS settings or user wants. The back door also allows remote access even if the computer is off. I would need to write a book to describe what happens to your “private” data with regard to the internet, social media, dumb phones, medical records, credit cards, banking, or, to cut to the chase, the digital footprint that is your life. This so-called “digital footprint” records everything there is to know about you, and is fed to AI which can accurately predict anything else about you… even if you have not done it yet. All of this personal data is actively collected, traded, sold and fed to AI, giving those in control of the data an information blueprint (past, present & future) that could easily stand as your personal book of life. Getting back to the topic of hacking, it is a real headache when it happens, and sometimes much more than a headache. One can educate themselves and implement safeguards and rules to follow that can drastically reduce the possibility of being hacked. There are no guarantees, of course. But in comparison, the state sponsored hacking outlined above affects everyone. And sadly, it was implemented with malice aforethought. The final insult is that it has been made legal – or at least implemented without concern for our rights, or legal blow-back of any kind. What can be done about state sponsored hacking? Back in the early 60s a man named Herbert published a work of fiction that straddles the line between reality and fantasy. The book is called Dune and it single handedly lifted the genre of sci-fi to new levels. In the tome he vaguely describes a war fought because of “thinking machines” and the terrible power and damage they cause to humanity. He called the fictitious war The Butlerian Jihad. The fictitious war results in the total destruction of all “thinking machines” and “conscious robots”, and coins the maxim “Thou shalt not make a machine in the likeness of a human mind”. Coming back to reality, what does Nature tell us is true of computers? It tells me that Nature holds no place for devices that seek to counterfeit reality, and at some point, we must get rid of computers, or surrender, once and for all, natural humanity.
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