Key technology trends for military leaders

[CriticalThought]

I intend this thread to be a repository of trends that military leaders should keep in mind. I'll start off with a recent development:

Japanese giant Gundam robot shows off its moves

A giant robot based on a character from a classic anime series has undergone testing in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

edition.cnn.com

Japanese giant Gundam robot shows off its moves
By Jack Guy and Yoko Wakatsuki, CNN

Updated 1448 GMT (2248 HKT) September 24, 2020

(CNN)A giant robot based on a character from a classic anime series has undergone testing in the Japanese city of Yokohama.
The massive humanoid resembles a robot from "Mobile Suit Gundam," a popular TV series from the late 1970s, and can be seen walking, kneeling and gesticulating in a video of the test posted on Twitter on Monday.
The robot, which has been in the works since 2014, stands nearly 60 feet high and weighs 24 tons, with more than 200 pieces made from a mixture of steel and carbon fiber-reinforced plastic, according to the company that created it.

It was due to feature at the Gundam Factory Yokohama, a new attraction that will allow fans to get up close and personal with the creation and learn about how it was created.
The attraction was due to open in October 2020 but, because of the coronavirus pandemic, visitors will now have to wait slightly longer.
"This decision was made to ensure the health and safety of our fans and employees in response to the worldwide spread of COVID-19," the company that operates the site said in a statement.

"We apologize to all of our fans who were looking forward to our grand opening and ask for your understanding."
The team expects to open the factory "within the year," and details will be announced on the company's website.

Anime came about in the early 1900s when Japanese artists like Oten Shimokawa began experimenting through trial and error to create short animated films.
But back then, animations were costly to produce and works from Japan were overshadowed by Disney's success.
During World War II, the genre expanded as Japan's military government ordered animators to create propaganda films to influence the masses.
More recently, commercial hits like "Pokémon" and "Dragon Ball Z," have brought anime to audiences around the world.

Discussion

Games such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare have been featuring giant sentinel robots for a while now. And now we see a step towards this direction. This technology trend highlights the need for top military planners and decision makers to stay connected with latest tech culture and trends. In today's world, tech culture and trends are informed by a lot of deep, real world insight. Conversely, in developed countries, popular culture becomes an instigator for research into technologies previously thought impossible. There is an interplay between the two which is hard to describe, but cannot be denied. If military planners intend to remain relevant in the modern world, they need to take the time out to immerse themselves into this.

One trend which can help busy leaders in this regard is the availability of online movies showing start to finish game play of popular titles. This means you don't have to play them yourself, but can simply sit back and watch it being played by someone else. If any military leaders are interested, I will present one example relevant to this development:

 

[CriticalThought]

Intel to Collaborate with Microsoft on DARPA Program | Nasdaq

Intel to Collaborate with Microsoft on DARPA Program

PUBLISHED
MAR 8, 2021 9:00AM EST

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- What’s New: Intel today announced that it has signed an agreement with Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to perform in its Data Protection in Virtual Environments (DPRIVE) program. The program aims to develop an accelerator for fully homomorphic encryption (FHE). Microsoft is the key cloud ecosystem and homomorphic encryption partner leading the commercial adoption of the technology once developed by testing it in its cloud offerings, including Microsoft Azure and the Microsoft JEDI cloud, with the U.S. government. The multiyear program represents a cross-team effort across multiple Intel groups, including Intel Labs, the Design Engineering Group and the Data Platforms Group, to tackle “the final frontier” in data privacy, which is computing on fully encrypted data without access to decryption keys.
“Fully homomorphic encryption remains the holy grail in the quest to keep data secure while in use. Despite strong advances in trusted execution environments and other confidential computing technologies to protect data while at rest and in transit, data is unencrypted during computation, opening the possibility of potential attacks at this stage. This frequently inhibits our ability to fully share and extract the maximum value out of data. We are pleased to be chosen as a technology partner by DARPA and look forward to working with them as well as Microsoft to advance this next chapter in confidential computing and unlock the promise of fully homomorphic encryption for all.” – Rosario Cammarota, principal engineer, Intel Labs, and principal investigator, DARPA DPRIVE program
Why It Matters: Protecting the confidentiality of critical information — whether personal data or corporate intellectual property — is of strategic importance to businesses. Today, many rely on a variety of data encryption methods to protect information while it is in transit, in use and at rest. However, these techniques require that data be decrypted for processing. It is during this decrypted state that data can become more vulnerable for misuse.
Fully homomorphic encryption enables users to compute on always-encrypted data, or cryptograms. The data never needs to be decrypted, reducing the potential for cyberthreats. FHE, when implemented at scale, would enable organizations to use techniques, such as machine learning, to extract full value from large datasets while protecting data confidentiality across the data’s life cycle. Customers across industries such as healthcare, insurance and finance would benefit from new usages made possible by being able to use and extract value from sensitive data to its fullest extent without risk of exposure.
About Democratizing Adoption of Fully Homomorphic Encryption: FHE adoption in the industry has been slow because processing data using fully homomorphic encryption methods on cryptograms is data intensive and incurs a huge “performance tax” even for simple operations.
Under the DARPA DPRIVE program, Intel plans to design an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) accelerator to reduce the performance overhead currently associated with fully homomorphic encryption. When fully realized, the accelerator could deliver a massive improvement in executing FHE workloads over existing CPU-driven systems, potentially reducing cryptograms’ processing time by five orders of magnitude.
With its expertise in cloud infrastructure, software stacks and fully homomorphic encryption, Microsoft will be a critical partner in accelerating the commercialization of this technology when ready, enabling free data sharing and collaboration while promoting privacy throughout the data life cycle.
“We are pleased to bring our expertise in cloud computing and homomorphic encryption to the DARPA DPRIVE program, collaborating with Intel to advance this transformative technology when ready into commercial usages that will help our customers close the last-mile gap in data confidentiality —– keeping data fully secure and private, whether in storage, transit or use,” said Dr. William Chappell, chief technology officer, Azure Global, and vice president, Mission Systems, Microsoft.
What’s Next: The multiyear DARPA DPRIVE program will span several phases starting with the design, development and verification of foundational IP blocks that will be integrated into a system-on-chip and a full software stack. Throughout the project, Intel will assess progress against pre-established performance targets on artificial intelligence training and inference workloads using homomorphically encrypted data at scale.1 Beyond the development of the core technologies needed for the design of the accelerator, Intel and Microsoft will work with international standards bodies to develop international standards for FHE. Intel will also continue to invest in ongoing academic research in the field.

Discussion

Terrorist and anti-state groups such as PTM utilize apps such as WhatsApp/Signal etc to collaborate. So far, the state has been able to monitor activities on even these supposedly secure platforms. But now, efforts are being made to provide an iron clad mathematical guarantee that encrypted data will not be decrypted. It will be a while before this technology becomes mainstream, but it should be noted that if commercial companies are venturing into this space only now, then the US military will probably have this kind of technology today. With the US and other Western nations being known enemies of Pakistan that seek to destabilize the country at every opportunity, the evolution of such disruptive technologies should be followed closely, and plans should be made to counter them.

@PanzerKiel please keep an eye on this thread

 

[CriticalThought]

Sci-Fi-Worthy Morpheus Chip Wards Off 500+ DARPA Hackers - Interesting Engineering

The system was compared to a Rubik's Cube that's constantly rearranged as you try to solve it.

interestingengineering.com

Sci-Fi-Worthy Morpheus Chip Wards Off 500+ DARPA Hackers
The system was compared to a Rubik's Cube that's constantly rearranged as you try to solve it.

By Chris Young
May 25, 2021

antoniokhr/iStock
Engineers from the University of Michigan designed an "unhackable" computer chip, called Morpheus, that shifts its framework at a speed that makes it practically impossible to decode, a press statement from the developers explained.
The processor — which changes its own microarchitecture every few milliseconds — was tested by hundreds of professional hackers in a DARPA security challenge. None of them were able to breach the system.
The system draws comparisons to cybersecurity devices imagined in science fiction and the process it utilizes has been likened to trying to crack a Rubik's Cube that constantly rearranges itself.
Early 'cyberspace' premonitions coming true
In 1984, the godfather of cyberpunk, William Gibson, released his first novel, Neuromancer, which predicted the rise of the internet and popularized the term "cyberspace." One of the concepts in that sci-fi novel, called "ICE", was a hacker-proof technology within the "cyberspace" that took on the shape of virtual walls.


The novel was also a large inspiration for the popular sci-fi movie The Matrix, which likely inspired the name of the University of Michigan's Morpheus project.
It's telling that the University of Michigan presents its new findings alongside an image of virtual cube-like systems that recall Gibson's fictional "ICE."
The university's new "Morpheus" system was tested in 2020, over the course of four months, by hundreds of the world's most proficient hackers, working for DARPA — the organization backed the system with $3.6 million in 2017.
The Morpheus system has all the hallmarks of a technology imagined in science fiction, as it was unhackable, despite the best attempts of more than 500 hackers.
Last year, DARPA's bug bounty program, called Finding Exploits to Thwart Tampering (FETT), pitted 525 professional cybersecurity researchers against Morpheus, as well as other systems.
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Morpheus system is 'an unsolvable puzzle'
The goal of the FETT program was to test new hardware-based security systems that could protect data against common hardware vulnerabilities typically exploited by software.
During the tests, the Morpheus system was utilized to protect a mock medical database with software vulnerabilities. Not a single attack penetrated the system.
The Morpheus system, essentially, encrypts key data much in the same way as many other cybersecurity systems. It goes one step further, however, by shuffling that encryption randomly every few hundred milliseconds.
"Imagine trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube that rearranges itself every time you blink," Todd Austin, lead researcher on the Morpheus project, explained. "That’s what hackers are up against with Morpheus. It makes the computer an unsolvable puzzle."
Of course, those with access to the system don't interact with the same process and are presented with the unencrypted data on their own screens.
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According to the University of Michigan statement, the one trade-off for end users, is the fact that the Morpheus system runs approximately 10 percent slower than equivalent systems. However, the team explained that it aims to refine the system to make it faster in the future.
Ending 'patch and pray' and strengthening future cyber defenses
Todd Austin also explained that systems like Morpheus could stop the never-ending loop of "patch and pray," which sees developers patch their systems once vulnerabilities have already been discovered and, quite often, exploited.
"Today’s approach of eliminating security bugs one by one is a losing game," Austin explained. "Developers are constantly writing code, and as long as there is new code, there will be new bugs and security vulnerabilities. With MORPHEUS, even if a hacker finds a bug, the information needed to exploit it vanishes within milliseconds. It’s perhaps the closest thing to a future-proof secure system."
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Systems such as the University of Michigan's Morpheus chip are an increasing necessity in the current climate — a fact driven home by last year's record $7.8 billion invested in cybersecurity globally.
Just this month, a vital US fuel pipeline's operation was halted by a ransomware attack, and Ireland's health service was targeted by hackers, forcing the country's hospitals to cancel numerous medical appointments and shut down its IT infrastructure.
The FETT program also tested systems by MIT, Cambridge University, and Lockheed Martin, meaning that many of the world's best minds are building systems aimed at securing future databases against malicious hackers.
In a world that's increasingly reliant on data to run transportation systems, research analysis, and even medical infrastructures, these new systems could literally mean life or death.

@PanzerKiel

 

[PeaceGen]

I intend this thread to be a repository of trends that military leaders should keep in mind. I'll start off with a recent development:

Japanese giant Gundam robot shows off its moves

A giant robot based on a character from a classic anime series has undergone testing in the Japanese city of Yokohama.

edition.cnn.com

Discussion

Games such as Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare have been featuring giant sentinel robots for a while now. And now we see a step towards this direction. This technology trend highlights the need for top military planners and decision makers to stay connected with latest tech culture and trends. In today's world, tech culture and trends are informed by a lot of deep, real world insight. Conversely, in developed countries, popular culture becomes an instigator for research into technologies previously thought impossible. There is an interplay between the two which is hard to describe, but cannot be denied. If military planners intend to remain relevant in the modern world, they need to take the time out to immerse themselves into this.

One trend which can help busy leaders in this regard is the availability of online movies showing start to finish game play of popular titles. This means you don't have to play them yourself, but can simply sit back and watch it being played by someone else. If any military leaders are interested, I will present one example relevant to this development:

that shit would be too expensive to mass produce, and easy to take down with missiles / artillery / mines.

this shows more promise :

 

[PeaceGen]

Sci-Fi-Worthy Morpheus Chip Wards Off 500+ DARPA Hackers - Interesting Engineering

The system was compared to a Rubik's Cube that's constantly rearranged as you try to solve it.

interestingengineering.com

@PanzerKiel

this tech, like all security tech before it, will eventually be beaten.

computer programs can be individually frozen by anyone with system administrator access,
operating systems and even the chip-based boot sequence of a computer (BIOS) can be overridden by anyone with access to the hardware and the skills and tools to do the hack,
programs like Morpheus can be monitored for the last-used key to data by external software,
and all data can be decoded once isolated from protector soft/hardware like Morpheus.

but like all security improvements, Morpheus will probably be an asset.
windows these days is usually protected by browser security shields that protect you from malicious sites, and virus scanners which protect you from most online virusses.

what i recommend cyber security agencies *worldwide* to do is to share zero day exploit details with eachother, and write both detection and defensive scripts to deal with intrusions at the operating system level, much like the commercial world detects and blocks ordinary virusses.

and eh, not just for windows. also for operating systems used in public or commercial infrastructure / factories.

in addition to this, all server, data, and control rooms have to be secured to the casing, chip and input ports levels.
you should make it impossible for a malicious company employee or impostor to insert malware via those access paths, without first acquiring a secure physical key from a securely and well-monitored repository of keys that is housed in a secure area of the company/facility.
i know this will mean substantial investments and regulations have to be made, but people won't object to those costs being passed onto them over time, because the safety and reliability of their most vital infrastructure will depend on it.
you should make them aware of this.

good luck, i hope you can keep our infrastructure safe,
i also hope that you realize that without the sharing of zero day information between superpowers and all of their combined smaller allied countries, nobody will be safe, physically or economically.

 

[PeaceGen]

that shit would be too expensive to mass produce, and easy to take down with missiles / artillery / mines.

this shows more promise :

or this :

(boston dynamics, find 'm on youtube)

 

[PeaceGen]

or this :

(boston dynamics, find 'm on youtube)

this is also a pretty interesting demo of their 2018 wares :

 

[PeaceGen]

i predict that within one to two decades, robotic soldier and robotic support-vehicles will start to replace the use of human soldiers on the front lines.
and no later than one to two decades after *that*, they will outperform the best human soldiers.

while these cyber-lifeform soldiers and their cyber-lifeform support staff *can* be properly secured (as is partially outlined in my reply concerning the new Morpheus cybersecurity program in this thread), they can also be sent into the field with simple objectives that can be executed (in potentially large, dispersed, varied groups) by 'expert machine programs' (non-sentient AI that is essentially akin to ordering your audio-activated "intelligent" home security system to start the automatic vacuum cleaner and prepare coffee at the same time).

their tolerance to a much wider range of temperature ranges and vast stretches of terrain, lack of need for heavy support items like water, lack of need of sleep, vision that is more accurate than that of a human, indisputable loyalty when properly secured, lack of fear, infinite patience, and intense drive to complete any mission, etc, etc, etc,
all will make this trend very unavoidable, and once one superpower starts with it, the others will have to follow. after that, like with combat aircraft, the smaller countries will purchase these armaments as well.

we will have to secure and regulate this new tech right from the outset of it's development, against all possible intrusion and takeover attempts.
fortunately human hackers have provided us with every reason and motivation to fix the cyber security challenges now and properly, before they end us.

i'll close with a bit of good news : the development and spread and rapid evolution of this new tech might be unavoidable, but stopping takeover attempts of it is not. that also keeps us secure from a malicious / malevolent *sentient* AI, which may get accidentally developed anywhere in the world, and which could (if we don't secure our cyber defenses now, properly and forever) annihilate the human race by crippling the tech we rely on or abusing the tech we use for transportation and security.