Ethics in a Hybrid

Analogous to missile guidance systems that need the use of radar and a radio or a wired link between the control point and the missile, Arkin’s “ethical controller” is a software architecture that provides, “ethical control and a reasoning system potentially suitable for constraining lethal actions in an autonomous robotic system so that they fall within the bounds prescribed by the Geneva Conventions, the Laws of War, and the Rules of Engagement.”

Rather than guiding a missile to its intended target, Arkin’s robotic guidance system is being designed to reduce the need for humans in harm's way, "… appropriately designed military robots will be better able to avoid civilian casualties than existing human war fighters and might therefore make future wars more ethical."
As reported in a recent New York Times article, Dr. Arkin describes some of the potential benefits of autonomous fighting robots. They can be designed without a sense of self-preservation and, as a result, “no tendency to lash out in fear.” They can be built without anger or recklessness and they can be made invulnerable to what he calls “the psychological problem of ‘scenario fulfillment,’ ” that causes people to absorb new information more easily if it matches their pre-existing ideas.

The SF writer Isaac Asimov first introduced the notion of ethical rules for robots in his 1942 short story "Runaround.” His famous Three Laws of Robotics state the following:

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

The Laws of War (LOW) and Rules of Engagement (ROE) make programming robots to adhere to Asimov’s Laws far from simple. You want the robots to protect the friendly and “neutralize” enemy combatants. This likely means harming human beings on the battlefield.

In his recent book, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots, Dr. Arkin explores a number of complex real-world scenarios where robots with ethical governors would “do the right thing” –- in consultation with humans on the battlefield. These scenarios include ROE and LOW adherence (Taliban and Iraq), discrimination (Korean DMZ), and proportionality and tactics (urban sniper).

Arkin’s “rules” end up altering Asimov’s rules to look more like these:

1. Engage and neutralize targets as combatants according to the ROE.
2. Return fire with fire proportionately.
3. Minimize collateral damage -- intentionally minimize harm to noncombatants.
4. If uncertain, invoke tactical maneuvers to reassess combatant status.
5. Recognize surrender and hold POW until captured by human forces.

Of course there are serious questions and concerns regarding the just war tradition itself, often
evoked by pacifists. questions the premises on which it is built, and in so doing also
raises some issues that potentially affect autonomous systems. For example he questions “Are
soldiers when assigned a mission given sufficient information to determine whether this is an
order they should obey? If a person under orders is convinced he or she must disobey, will the
command structure, the society, and the church honor that dissent?” Clearly if we embed an
ethical “conscience” into an autonomous system it is only as good as the information upon which
it functions. It is a working assumption, perhaps naïve, that the autonomous agent ultimately will
be provided with an amount of battlefield information equal to or greater than a human soldier is
capable of managing. This seems a reasonable assumption, however, with the advent of
network-centric warfare and the emergence of the Global Information Grid (GIG). It is also
assumed in this work, that if an autonomous agent refuses to conduct an unethical action, it will
be able to explain to some degree its underlying logic for such a refusal. If commanders are
provided with the authority by some means to override the autonomous system’s resistance to
executing an order which it deems unethical, he or she in so doing would assume responsibility
for the consequences of such action. Section 5.2.4 discusses this in more detail.
These issues are but the tip of the iceberg regarding the ethical quandaries surrounding the
deployment of autonomous systems capable of lethality. It is my contention, nonetheless, that if
(or when) these systems will be deployed in the battlefield, it is the roboticist’s duty to ensure
they are as safe as possible to both combatant and noncombatant alike, as is prescribed by our
society’s commitment to International Conventions encoded in the Laws of War, and other
similar doctrine, e.g., the Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement.

It is anticipated that teams of autonomous systems and human soldiers will work together on the
battlefield, as opposed to the common science fiction vision of armies of unmanned systems
operating by themselves. Multiple unmanned robotic systems are already being developed or are
in use that employ lethal force such as the ARV (Armed Robotic Vehicle), a component of the
Future Combat System (FCS); Predator UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) equipped with hellfire
missiles, which have already been used in combat but under direct human supervision; and the
development of an armed platform for use in the Korean Demilitarized Zone [Argy 07,
SamsungTechwin 07] to name a few. Some particulars follow:
• The South Korean robot platform mentioned above is intended to be able to detect and
identify targets in daylight within a 4km radius, or at night using infrared sensors within a
range of 2km, providing for either an autonomous lethal or non-lethal response. Although a
designer of the system states that “the ultimate decision about shooting should be made by a
human, not the robot”, the system does have an automatic mode in which it is capable of
making the decision on its own [Kumagai 07].
• iRobot, the maker of Roomba, is now providing versions of their Packbots capable of
tasering enemy combatants [Jewell 07]. This non-lethal response, however, does require a
human-in-the-loop, unlike the South Korean robot under development.
• The SWORDS platform developed by Foster-Miller is already at work in Iraq and
Afghanistan and is capable of carrying lethal weaponry (M240 or M249 machine guns, or a
Barrett .50 Caliber rifle). [Foster-Miller 07]
• Israel is deploying stationary robotic gun-sensor platforms along its borders with Gaza in
automated kill zones, equipped with fifty caliber machine guns and armored folding shields.
Although it is currently only used in a remote controlled manner, an IDF division
commander is quoted as saying “At least in the initial phases of deployment, we’re going to
have to keep a man in the loop”, implying the potential for more autonomous operations in
the future. [Opall-Rome 07]
• Lockheed-Martin, as part of its role in the Future Combat Systems program is developing an
Armed Robotic Vehicle-Assault (Light) MULE robot weighing in at 2.5 tons. It will be
armed with a line-of-sight gun and an anti-tank capability, to provide “immediate, heavy
firepower to the dismounted soldier”. [Lockheed-Martin 07]
• The U.S. Air Force has created their first hunter-killer UAV, named the MQ-9 Reaper.
According to USAF General Moseley, the name Reaper is “fitting as it captures the lethal
nature of this new weapon system”. It has a 64 foot wingspan and carries 15 times the
ordnance of the Predator, flying nearly three times the Predator’s cruise speed. As of
September 2006, 7 were already in inventory with more on the way. [AirForce 06]
• The U.S. Navy for the first time is requesting funding for acquisition in 2010 of armed
Firescout UAVs, a vertical-takeoff and landing tactical UAV that will be equipped with
kinetic weapons. The system has already been tested with 2.75 inch unguided rockets. The
UAVs are intended to deal with threats such as small swarming boats. As of this time the
commander will determine whether or not a target should be struck. [Erwin 07]

Über die Autorität

Unsere gesellschaftlichen Institutionen basieren auf bestimmten Vorstellungen und solange diese hingenommen werden, sind die Institutionen nicht gefährdet. Die Macht der Regierung bleibt erhalten, weil die Menschen der Meinung sind, daß politische Autorität und gesetzlicher Druck notwendig sind. Der Kapitalismus bleibt solange bestehen, wie dieses System als vernünftig und richtig erachtet wird.
Der Krieg, die russische Revolution und die Nachkriegsentwicklung haben das ihre dazu beigetragen, daß viele vom Sozialismus enttäuscht sind. Es trifft buchstäblich zu, daß der Sozialismus genauso wie das Christentum die Welt erobert hat und sich dabei selbst zerstört. In den meisten europäischen Ländern regieren jetzt sozialistische Parteien oder sind an der Regierung beteiligt, aber die Menschen glauben nicht mehr, daß diese Parteien sich von den bourgeoisen Regimen unterscheiden. Sie haben das Gefühl da8 der Sozialismus versagt hat und handlungsunfähig geworden ist. In ähnlicher Weise haben die Bolschewisten bewiesen, daß marxistisches Dogma und leninistische Prinzipien nur zu Diktatur und Reaktion führen können.
Für die Anarchisten ist das alles nicht überraschend. Sie haben schon immer behauptet, daß der Staat auf die individuelle Freiheit und die Harmonie in der Gesellschaft einen verderblichen Einfluß hat und daß nur die Abschaffung der auf Zwang beruhenden Autorität sowie der materiellen Ungleichheit unsere politischen, wirtschaftlichen und nationalen Probleme lösen kann. Aber ihre Argumente, obwohl durch lebenslange Erfahrung gestützt, erschienen der gegenwärtigen Generation als reine Theorie, bis die Ereignisse der letzten zwei Jahrzehnte die Richtigkeit der anarchistischen Position demonstrierten. Das Versagen des Sozialismus und Bolschewismus hat dem Anarchismus den Weg geebnet.
Wenn ein Bürger eine Soldatenuniform anzieht, dann muß er vielleicht Bomben werfen und Gewalt anwenden. Würden Sie dann sagen, daß Bürgertum für Bomben und Gewalt steht? Diese Unterstellung würden Sie entrüstet von sich weisen. Das heißt werden Sie antworten, daß ein Mensch unter bestimmten Bedingungen eventuell Gewalt anwenden muß. Dieser Mensch könnte ein Demokrat, ein Monarchist, ein Sozialist, Bolschewist oder Anarchist sein. Sie würden der Meinung sein, daß dieses für alle Menschen und alle Zeiten zutrifft. Brutus tötete Cäsar, weil er befürchtete, sein Freund hätte die Absicht, die Republik zu verraten und König zu werden; nicht darum, weil Brutus »Cäsar nicht liebte, sondern er Rom mehr liebte«. Brutus war kein Anarchist. Er war ein loyaler Republikaner.
Wilhelm Tell, berichtet die Volkskunde, erschoß den Tyrannen, um sein Land von der Unterdrückung zu befreien. Tell hatte nie etwas über Anarchismus gehört. Ich erwähne diese Ereignisse, um auf die Tatsache hinzuweisen, daß seit Urzeiten das Schicksal Despoten in Form einer Gewalttat freiheitsliebender Menschen ereilte, die gegen die Tyrannei rebellierten. Im allgemeinen waren die Attentäter Patrioten, Demokraten oder Republikaner, manchmal Sozialisten oder Anarchisten. Ihre Taten waren eine individuelle Rebellion gegen Unrecht und Ungerechtigkeit. Anarchismus hat damit nichts zu tun.
Es gab Zeiten im alten Griechenland in denen das Töten eines Despoten als höchste Tugend galt. Das moderne Recht verurteilt solche Taten, aber das menschliche Gefühl scheint sich in dieser Beziehung von früher nicht zu unterscheiden. Das Gewissen der Welt empört sich nicht über Tyrannenmorde. Auch wenn sie öffentlich nicht gebilligt werden, so verzeiht doch die Menschheit im Herzen solche Taten und ist oft insgeheim darüber erfreut.
Es ist nur natürlich, daß das Land mit den schlimmsten Tyrannen auch die größte Anzahl von Tyrannenmorden aufweist. Nehmen Sie z. B. Rußland. Wegen der totalen Unterdrückung der Redefreiheit und der Presse unter den Zaren konnte das despotische Regime nicht anders gemildert werden, als daß dem Tyrannen »die Furcht vor Gott« eingejagt wurde. Jene Rächer waren meistens Söhne des Hochadels, idealistische Jugendliche, die die Freiheit und das Volk liebten. Da alle anderen Wege versperrt waren, sahen sie sich gezwungen, zu Pistole und Dynamit Zuflucht zu nehmen, mit der Hoffnung, dadurch die miserablen Zustände in ihrem Land zu mildern. Sie waren bekannt als Nihilisten und Terroristen. Sie waren keine Anarchisten.
Die Tat eines serbischen Patrioten, der noch nie etwas von Anarchismus gehört hatte, nämlich die Ermordung des österreichischen Thronfolgers war der eigentliche Grund oder zumindest eine Entschuldigung für den Eintritt in den Weltkrieg. In Deutschland, Ungarn, Spanien, Frankreich, Italien, Portugal und in jedem anderen europäischen Land haben Männer unterschiedlichster politischer Richtungen auf Gewalt zurückgegriffen, ganz zu schweigen von dem politischen Massenterror, der von organisierten Gruppen wie den Faschisten in Italien, dem Ku Klux Klan in Amerika oder der katholischen Kirche in Mexiko praktiziert wird.
Sie sehen also, daß das Monopol der politischen Gewaltanwendung nicht bei den Anarchisten liegt. Der Anteil, der von Anarchisten begangenen Gewalttaten ist vergleichsweise winzig gegenüber dem von Leuten anderer politischer Richtungen. Die Wahrheit ist, daß Gewaltanwendungen seit undenkbaren Zeiten in allen Ländern und in jeder sozialen Bewegung ein Teil des Kampfes gewesen ist. Selbst der Nazarener, der gekommen war, um das Evangelium des Friedens zu predigen, vertrieb die Geldwechsler gewaltsam aus dem Tempel. Wie ich schon sagte, besitzen die Anarchisten nicht das Monopol für Gewalt.
Wohin Sie auch blicken, Sie werden feststellen, daß unser gesamtes Leben auf Gewalt oder der Angst davor aufgebaut ist. Von frühester Kindheit an sind Sie der Gewalt der Eltern oder der Erwachsenen ausgesetzt. Zu Hause, in der Schule, im Büro, in der Fabrik, auf dem Feld oder in der Werkstatt haben Sie immer jemandem gehorsam zu sein und seine Autorität zwingt Sie, seinen Willen auszuführen. Das Recht, Sie zu zwingen, nennt man Autorität. Angst vor Bestrafung wurde zur Pflicht gemacht und heißt Gehorsam. In dieser Atmosphäre des Zwangs und der Gewalt, der Autorität und des Gehorsams, der Pflicht, Angst und Bestrafung wachsen wir alle auf; wir atmen sie unser ganzes Leben lang ein. Wir sind derart durchtränkt mit dem Geist der Gewalt, daß wir nie innehalten und fragen, ob Gewalt richtig oder falsch ist. Wir fragen nur, ob sie legal ist und ob das Gesetz sie zuläßt.
Sie stellen das Recht der Regierung zu töten, zu beschlagnahmen und einzusperren nicht in Frage. Wenn eine Privatperson und nicht die Regierung sich der Dinge schuldig machen würde, so würden Sie diese als Mörder, Dieb und Schurken anprangern. Aber solange die verübte Gewalt »gesetzlich« ist, billigen Sie sie und unterwerfen sich ihr. Also protestieren Sie in Wirklichkeit nicht gegen die Gewalt, sondern gegen Leute, die Gewalt »ungesetzlich« anwenden.
Diese erlaubte Gewalt und die Angst vor ihr beherrschen unsere gesamte individuelle und kollektive Existenz. Autorität kontrolliert unser Leben von der Wiege bis zum Grab - elterliche, priesterliche und göttliche, politische, wirtschaftliche, gesellschaftliche und moralische Autorität. Welchen Charakter die Autorität auch haben mag, immer derselbe Vollstrecker übt Macht über Sie mittels Angst vor Bestrafung in dieser oder jener Form aus. Sie haben Angst vor Gott und dem Teufel, vor dem Priester und dem Nachbarn, vor Ihrem Arbeitgeber und Vorgesetzten, vor dem Politiker und dem Polizisten, dem Richter und dem Gefängniswärter, vor dem Gesetz und vor der Regierung. Ihr ganzes Leben besteht aus einer langen Kette von Ängsten - Ängsten, die ihren Körper quälen und Ihre Seele zerreißen.
Auf diesen Ängsten beruht die Autorität Gottes, der Kirche, der Eltern, der Kapitalisten und der Herrscher. Gehen Sie in sich und prüfen Sie, ob ich die Unwahrheit sage. Wie sollte es sonst möglich sein, daß sogar unter Kindern der zehnjährige Jonny seine jüngeren Geschwister dank seiner größeren physischen Kraft herumkommandiert, genauso, wie Jonny’s Vater ihn wiederum auf Grund seiner größeren Kraft und wegen Jonny’s Abhängigkeit bezüglich des Unterhalts herumkommandiert. Sie bestehen auf der Autorität der Priester und Prediger, da Sie glauben, daß diese »den Zorn Gottes auf Ihr Haupt lenken« können. Sie fügen sich dem Willen des Vorgesetzten, des Richters und der Regierung, da diese die Macht haben, Ihnen Ihre Arbeit zu nehmen, Ihr Geschäft zu ruinieren, Sie ins Gefängnis zu werfen - eine Macht übrigens, die Sie Ihnen selbst gegeben haben.

- Alexander Berkman

The Day the time went out

Time may literally be running out – and could one day vanish altogether, according to a bizarre new theory.

The suggestion has been put forward to explain a cosmological mystery that has baffled scientists.

A decade ago, measurements of the light from distant exploding stars showed the universe to be expanding at an accelerating rate.

Physicists assumed that a kind of anti-gravitational force must be driving the galaxies apart, and gave it the name “dark energy”.

However, to this day no-one has been able to say what dark energy is or where it comes from.

The new theory from Professor Jose Senovilla, at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain, offers a radical alternative idea.

He believes there is no such thing as dark energy. Instead, he says we have been fooled into thinking the expansion of the universe is accelerating because time itself is slowing down.

At our local everyday level, the change would be imperceptible.

But it would be obvious from cosmic scale measurements tracking the course of the universe over billions of years.

Astronomers work out the speed of the universe’s expansion from the frequency of light emitted by certain types of supernovae, or exploding stars.

However, these measurements depend on our current perception of time, says Prof Senovilla.

If time has been slowing down, and clocks are now running more slowly than they did long ago, it would appear from our perspective as if things have been speeding up. Looking back over billions of years, galaxies would seem to be travelling away from each other faster and faster at various intervals since the Big Bang.

“Our calculations show that we would think that the expansion of the universe is accelerating,” said Senovilla.

His idea is based on string theory concepts which allow dimensions of space and time to switch from one to another.

If our single time dimension was changing into a new space dimension, it would produce just such an effect.

After billions of years, time would eventually disappear altogether.

“Then everything will be frozen, like a snapshot of one instant, forever,” Prof Senovilla told New Scientist magazine. “Our planet will be long gone by then.”

Prof Gary Gibbons, a cosmologist at Cambridge University, is drawn to the idea.

“We believe that time emerged during the Big Bang, and if time can emerge, it can also disappear – that’s just the reverse effect,” he said.

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The FANGS of DESTINY

The Fifth Column

IT IS PRETTY GENERALLY ADMITTED ROW that the Munich "peace"
gave Germany industrial and military areas essential to fur
ther aggressions. Instead of helping to put a troubled Europe on
the road to lasting peace, Munich strengthened the totalitarian
powers, especially Germany, and a strengthened Germany in
evitably means increased activities of the Nazis Fifth Column
which is, in all quarters of the globe, actively preparing the
ground for Hitler s greater plans.

If we can divine the future by the past, the Fifth Column,
that shadowy group of secret agents now entrenched in every
important country throughout the world, is an omeri of what is
to come. Before Germany marched into Austria, that unhappy
country witnessed a large influx of Fifth Column members. In
Czechoslovakia, especially in those months before the Republic s
heart was handed to Hitler on a platter, there was a tremendous
increase in the numbers and activities of agents sent into the
Central European country.

During my stay there in the brief period immediately pre
ceding the "peace," I learned a little about the operations of the
Gestapo s secret agents in Czechoslovakia. Their numbers are
vast and those few of whom I learned, are infinitesimal to the
actual numbers at work then and now, not only in Czechoslo
vakia but in other countries.

For years Hitler had laid plans to fight, if he had to, for
Czechoslovakia, whose natural mountain barriers and man-made
defensive line of steel and concrete stood in the way of his an
nounced drive to the Ukrainian wheat fields. In preparation for
the day when he might have to fight for its control, he sent into
the Republic a host of spies, provocateurs, propagandists and
saboteurs to establish themselves, make contacts, carry on propa
ganda and build a machine which would be invaluable in time
of war.

In a few instances I learned the details of the Nazis inex
orable determination and their inhuman indifference to the
lives of even their own agents.

Arno Oertel, alias Harald Half, was a thin, white-faced spy
trained in two Gestapo schools for Fifth Column work. Oertel
was given a German passport by Richter, the Gestapo district
chief at Bischofswerda on what was then the Czechoslovak-Ger
man frontier.

At the appointed hour Oertel sat on a bench staring at the
fountain, watching men and women strolling and chatting cheer
fully on the way to meet friends for late afternoon coffee. Occa
sionally he looked at the afternoon papers lying on the bench
beside him. He felt that he was being watched but he saw no
one in a gray suit with a blue handkerchief. He wiped his fore
head with his handkerchief, partly because of the heat, partly
because of nervousness. As he held the handkerchief he could
feel the tightly bound capsule.

Precisely at five he noticed a man in a gray suit with a gray
hat and a blue handkerchief in the breast pocket of his coat,
strolling toward him. As the man approached he took out a
package of cigarettes, selected one and searched his pockets for
a light. Stopping before Oertel, he doffed his hat and smilingly
asked for a light. Oertel produced his lighter and the other in
turn offered him a cigarette. He sat down on the bench.

"Report once a week," he said abruptly, puffing at his cigarette
and staring at two children playing in the sunshine which flooded
Karlsplatz. He stretched his feet like a man relaxing after a
hard day s work. "Deliver reports to Frau Suchy personally.
One week she will come to Prague, the next you go to her. De
liver a copy of your report to the English missionary, Vicar
Robert Smith, who lives at 31 Karlsplatz."

Smith, to whom the unidentified man in the gray suit told
Oertel to report, was a minister of the Church of Scotland in
Prague, a British subject with influential connections not only
with English-speaking people but with Czech government
officials.* Besides his ministerial work, the Reverend Smith led
an amateur orchestra group giving free concerts for German
emigres. On his clerical recommendation, he got German "em
igre" women into England as house servants for British govern
ment officials and army officers.

Often the Gestapo uses Czech citizens whose relatives are in
Germany and upon whom pressure is put. The work of these
agents consists not only of ferreting out military information
regarding Czech defense measures and establishing contacts with
Czech citizens for permanent espionage, but of the equally im
portant assignment of disrupting anti-fascist groups of creating
opposition within organizations having large memberships in or
der to split and disintegrate them. Agents also make reports
on public opinion and attitudes, and record carefully the names
and addresses of those engaged in anti-fascist work. A similar
procedure was followed in Austria before that country was in
vaded, and it enabled the Nazis to make wholesale arrests im
mediately upon entering the country.

Prague, with a German population of sixty thousand is still
the headquarters for the astonishing espionage and propaganda
machine which the Gestapo built throughout the country. Before
Czechoslovakia was cut up, most of the espionage reports crossed
the frontier into Germany through Tetschen-Bodenbach. The
propaganda and espionage center of the Henlein group was in
the headquarters of the Sudeten Deutsche Partei.

THE WORK OF FOREIGN AGENTS does not necessarily involve the
securing of military and naval secrets. Information of all
kinds is important to an aggressor planning an invasion or esti
mating a potential enemy s strength and morale; and often a
diplomatic secret is worth far more than the choicest blueprint of
a carefully guarded military device.

There are persons whom money, social position, political prom
ises or glory cannot interest in following a policy of benefit to a
foreign power. In such instances, however, protection of class
interests sometimes drives them to acts which can scarcely be dis
tinguished from those of paid foreign agents. This is especially
true of those whose financial interests are on an international
scale and who consequently think internationally.

Such class interests were involved in the betrayal of Austria
to the Nazis only a few months before aggressor nations were
invited to cut themselves a slice of Czechoslovakia; and it will
probably never be known just how much the Nazis Fifth Col
umn, working in dinner jackets and evening gowns, influenced
the powerful personages involved to chart a course which sacri
ficed a nation and a people and which foretold the Munich
"peace" pact.

The story begins when Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister
of England, accepted an invitation to spend the week-end of
arch 26-27, 1938, at Cliveden, Lord and Lady Astor s country
estate at Taplow, Buckinghamshire, in the beautiful Thames
Valley. When the Prime Minister and his wife arrived at the
huge Georgian house rising out of a fairyland of gardens and
forests with the placid river for a background, the other guests
who had already arrived and their hosts were under the horse
shoe stone staircase to receive them.

The small but carefully selected group of guests had been in
vited "to play charades" over the week-end a game in which
the participants form opposing sides and act a certain part while
the opponents try to guess what they are portraying. Every man
invited held a strategic position in the British government, and
it was during this "charades party" week-end that they secretly
charted a course of British policy which will affect not only the
fate of the British Empire but the course of world events and the
lives of countless millions of people for years to come.

This course, which indirectly menaces the peace and security
of the United States, deliberately launched England on a series
of maneuvers which made Hitler stronger and will inevitably
lead Great Britain on the road to fascism. The British Parlia
ment and the British people do not know of these decisions,
some of which the Chamberlain government has already car
ried out.

And without a knowledge of what happened during the talks
in those historic two days and what preceded them, the world
can only puzzle over an almost incomprehensible British foreign
policy.

Present at this week-end gathering, besides the As tors and the
Prime Minister and his wife, were the following:

Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Defense.

Sir Alexander Cadogan, who replaced Sir Robert Vansittart as
adviser to the British Cabinet and who acts in a supervisory
capacity over the extraordinarily powerful British Intelligence
Service.

Geoffrey Dawson, editor of the London Times.

Lord Lothian, Governor of the National Bank of Scotland, a
determined advocate of refusing arms to the Spanish democratic
government while Hitler and Mussolini supplied Franco with
them.

Tom Jones, adviser to former Premier Baldwin.

The Right Honorable E. A. Fitzroy, Speaker of the House of
Commons.

The Baroness Mary Ravensdale, sister-in-law of Sir Oswald
Mosley, leader of the British fascist movement.

To understand the amazing game played by the Cliveden
house guests, in which nations and peoples have already been
shuffled about as pawns, one must remember that powerful Ger
man industrialists and financiers like the Krupps and the Thys-
sens supported Hitler primarily in order to crush the German
trade-union and political movements which were in the late
igao s threatening their wealth and power.

The Astors are part of the same family in the United States.
Lady Nancy Astor, born in Virginia, married into one of the
richest families in England. Her interests and the interests of
Viscount Astor, her husband, stretch into banking, railroads, life
insurance and journalism. Half a dozen members of the family are
in Parliament: Lady Astor, her husband, their son, in the House
of Commons; and two relatives in the House of Lords. The Astor
family controls two of the most powerful and influential news
papers in the world, the London Times and the London Ob
server. In the past these papers, whose influence cannot be ex
aggerated, have been strong enough to make and break Prime
Ministers.

In the quiet and subdued atmosphere of the diplomats draw
ing rooms in London they tell, with many a chuckle, how Lord
Halifax, his bowler firmly on his head, was sent to Berlin and
Berchtesgaden in mid-November, 1937, with instructions not to
get into any arguments. Lord Halifax, in the mellow judgment
of his close friends, is one of the most amiable and charming
of the British peers, earnest, well meaning and not particularly
bright.

In Berlin Halifax met Goering, attired for the occasion in a
new and bewilderingly gaudy uniform. In the course of their
conversation Goering, resting his hands on his enormous paunch,
said:

"The world cannot stand still. World conditions cannot be
frozen just as they are forever. The world is subject to change/

"Of course not," Lord Halifax agreed amiably. "It s absurd to
think that anything can be frozen and no changes made."

"Germany cannot stand still," Goering continued. "Germany
must expand. She must have Austria, Czechoslovakia and other
countries she must have oil"

Now this was a point for argument but the Messenger Ex
traordinary had been instructed not to get into any arguments;
so he nodded and in his best pacifying tone murmured, "Natur
ally. No one expects Germany to stand still if she must expand."


- John L. Spivak

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Termine 17. Juli 2009 - 15-August 2009 Berlin

16.07.2009
Zimmerstraße 13, Berlin-Mitte, U-Stadtmitte

TRIO SCORDATURA
Elisabeth Smalt (viola, adapted viola), Alfrun Schmid (voice), Bob Gilmore (keyboard)
http://www.trioscordatura.com/

Scott McLaughlin (IRL) Marx
Linda Buckley (IRL) New Work
Garrett Sholdice (IRL) fliehen/nehmen
Enda Bates (IRL) Incantation
Peter Moran (IRL) It is not true
Benedict Schlepper-Connolly (IRL) Cyan
Judith Ring (IRL) Hush
Peter Adriaansz (NL) Enclosures

Eintritt €6

Weserstraße 50/ Ecke Elbe 12045 Berlin Neukölln

The Institute for Intermediate Studies/Gelegenheiten presents
F L U X K O N Z E R T N U M B E R S I X (6)

Ben Patterson - Variations for Double-Bass (Christopher Williams, double-bass, gerade nach Berlin aus Barcelona umgezogen, also lasst uns ihn mit offenen Armen empfangen!)
(Noten - http://jeffreytrevino.com/Files/iis/variationsfordoublebass1-4.pdf )
+
verschiedene algorithmische Sachen, wie
Juan Oroszco - Globos Algoritmicos
Jeff Treviño - algorithmischgezeichtnete Bäume
usw.

Das Show fängt punktlich an.

gelegenheiten-berlin.de
jeffreytrevino.com/iis

Weisestr. 24, 12049 Berlin Neukölln

Michael Maierhof, cello
Chris Heenan, kontrabassklarinette

http://www.sowieso-neukoelln.de

17.07.2009

Leipziger Strasse 36 / Charlottenstrasse 24

An der Kante" / "On th Edge" - "manipuliert und gestört"

Bermhard Lang - Schrift 1.2 (1998)
Bruno Maderna - Musica su due dimensioni (1958)
Michael Maierhof - splitting 29 (2007-09) UA
Ivo Nilsson - Gedeckt (2007-09) UA
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri - new work (2007-09) UA
Martin Schüttler - schöner leben 3 (2009) UA

Erik Drescher, Flöte, Elektronik
Daniel Plewe, Elektronik, Tontechnik, Klangregie
Michael Maierhof, Klangregie
Ivo Nilsson, Klangregie
Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, Klangregie
Martin Schüttler, Klangregie

Skalitzer Str. 133, Berlin - Zentrum Kreuzberg, U1/U8 Kottbusser Tor

GROUPSHOW

jan jelinek guitaret,electronics
andrew pekler slideguitar,electronics
hanno leichtmann percussion,electronics

Kastanienallee 77 10435 Berlin Prenzlauer Berg

Odeya Nini (US)
and more

check full info at http://salonbruit.blogspot.com/

18.7.2009

Lohmühlen-/Ecke Kiefholzstraße

draußen & gratis

Christof Griese Australian Connection
Christof Griese reeds / Adrian Sherriff bass trombone / Martin Lillich bass / Nico Schäuble drums

Ein hochkarätiges Quartett. Den Bezug zu Australien liefern der Wahlaustralier, Ex-Berliner und genialer Trommler und Komponist und einer der besten Bassposaunisten und Multiinstrumentalisten (Flöte, Shakuhachi, Didgeridoo, Perkussion) der Welt.


Brumcalli
Flo Bublys drums, composition / Donat Kubrinski trumpet, Flügelhorn / Florian Bergmann alto sax, bassclarinet / Robert Menzel tenor sax / Philipp Domke trombone / Sebastian Kunzke tuba

Die ansteckend gute Laune des Sextetts ist geradezu sicht- und fühlbar. Es ist die „junge Garde“ des Bläserjazz, die am diesem Abend äußerst charmant und geradezu bildhaft unkompliziert aufspielt.

www.jazzkeller69.de

Leipziger Strasse 36 / Charlottenstrasse 24, 10117 Berlin

"An der Kante" / "On the Edge" - "KO V/F"

Peter Ablinger - Instrumente und ElektroAkustische Ortsbezogene Verdichtung
("Red on Maroon"), Flöte (1995-99)
Alvin Lucier - Still and Moving Lines in Silence in Families of Hyperbolas (1973)
Dror Feiler - Like Tears in Rain (1998)
- Salutacíon angelica (2005)
Michael Maierhof - splitting 17 (2003)
Chiyoko Szlavnics - Eva H (with CN) (2007)

Erik Drescher, Flöte, Elektronik
Daniel Plewe, Tontechnik, Klangregie
Peter Ablinger, KLangregie
Wenke Schladitz, Videoprojektionen, Inszenierung
Weisestr. 24, 12049 Berlin Neukölln

Axel Dörner, Trompete
Chris Heenan, Kontrabassklarinette & Altsaxophon
Magda Mayas, Klavier
Morten J. Olsen, Schlagzeug

http://www.sowieso-neukoelln.de

19.7.2009

Weichselstraße 49 12045 Berlin-Neukölln

14:00 - 21:00 Uhr

"Pasajes - Quimera"
Sound und Video Installation
von Marisol Jimenez

Diese Installation besteht aus zwei Hauptteilen, die gleichzeitig in zwei verschiedenen Räumen von ohrenhoch präsentiert werden - ein 16-minütiges Fixed Multimedia Stück, das einen Strom von fragmentierten Videobildern mit elektronischen Klängen kombiniert, und ein 30-minütiges akusmatisches Stück, das die Klangwelt erschliesst, die im Video präsentiert wird. Das erste Wort im Titel, "Pasajes" hat eine doppelte metaphorische Bedeutung. Einerseits heisst es "Fragmente", weil die visuellen und klanglichen Elemente wie Scherben eines gebrochenen Objektes präsentiert werden. Andererseits heisst es "Passagen", wie Öffnungen oder Durchgänge, die eine Verbindung mit einem Traumzustand oder "Quimera" herstellen.

www.myspace.com/marisoljimenezmusica
www.ohrenhoch.org/Aktuell.html

20.7.2009

KuLe, Auguststr. 10, 10117 Berlin

LABOR SONOR SPEZIAL

Lucio Capece
Diego Chamy
Axel Dörner
Christian Kesten
Andrea Neumann

Every artist contributes a composition or concept for the group or constellations.

30.7.2009
Schlesische Straße 42

f.d.i. (freude durch improvisation)

FUSK:
Rudi Mahall, bcl
Philipp Gropper, sax
Andreas Lang, bass
Kasper Tom, drums (www.myspace.com/kaspertom)

http://www.wendel.nstp.de

31.7.2009

Flughafenstrasse 38, Berlin Neukölln, U-Bahn Boddinstrasse

Birgit Ulher, trumpet, speakers, mutes
Gregory Büttner, computer
+
Chris Heenan, counterbass clarinet
Liz Allbee, trumpet

1.8.2009

Lohmühlen-/Ecke Kiefholzstraße

draußen & gratis

Delius/Williamson/Lillinger
Tobias Delius tenor sax, clarinet / Joe Williamson bass / Christian Lillinger drums

Das Trio spielt seine Lieblingssongs. Dieses sehr persönliche Repertoire steht beim Improvisieren jederzeit zur Verfügung, die Songs tauchen plötzlich auf. „Wir wissen vorher nie wie viele und welche wir spielen werden, das ergibt sich im Moment…“


Fields/Schubert
Scott Fields guitar / Matthias Schubert tenor sax

Beide widmen sich mit konventioneller und erweiterter Spieltechnik einer Melange aus Komposition und Improvisation


Hub Hildenbrand Trio
Hub Hildenbrand guitar, composition / Dirk Strakhof bass / Denis Stilke drums

Mit der Öffnung hin zur Musik der verschiedenen Kulturen der Welt und ihrer musikalisch-künstlerischen Verarbeitung auf der Grundlage des Jazz schafft das Trio eine absolut eigenständige Sprache.


8.8.2009

Karl-Marx-Allee 36

APPLIANCES BERLIN

ein Abend von NOT APPLICABLE (London) und FARAI-RECORDS (Berlin)

featuring:

Icarus
Isambard Khroustaliov (electronics)
Ollie Bown (electronics)
Britt Hatzius (visuals)
Tom Arthurs (trp)
Lothar Ohlmeier (bass clarinet)
Maurizio Ravalico (percussion)
Rudi Fischerlehner (drums)
+ special guests

http://www.not-applicable.org
http://www.farai-records.com

11.8.2009

Rosenthaler Str. 13, 10119 Berlin-Mitte

Matthias Schubert - ts
Els Vandeweyer - vib
Clayton Thomas - b
Hannes Lingens - dr

Schlesische Straße 42

f.d.i. (freude durch improvisation)

Tom Hall + Ian Rogers
www.tomhall.com.au, www.myspace.com/digi_destroy, www.myspace.com/ambrosechapeldestroysyou

http://www.wendel.nstp.de

15.8.2009

Lohmühlen-/Ecke Kiefholzstraße

draußen & umsonst

Tristanoband
Benjamin Weidekamp clarinet / Florian Bergmann bassclarinet / Michael Wilhelmi piano / Christian Marien drums

Wichtig ist den Musikern ein polyphoner Improvisationsansatz in der die herkömmliche Solistenrolle wegfällt und die Musiker stattdessen stets gemeinsam über die jeweilige Komposition musikalisch plaudern, diskutieren sowie tun und lassen was ihnen sonst noch so einfällt. Die Freude am gemeinsamen Musizieren ist ihnen dabei in jeder Sekunde anzumerken.


BLOFELD (Schurkenjazz)
Martin Klingeberg trumpet / Wanja Slavin alto sax / Martin Zenker bass / Oli Steidle drums

Schurkenjazz, nennt der Trompeter als Motto, für sei extra für die Lohmühle aus hervorragenden Musikern der Berliner Szene zusammengesetzte Quartett. Ein energetischer Schlusspunkt.

www.jazzkeller69.de

Max Headroom Broadcast

The Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion incident was a television signal hijacking in Chicago, Illinois, on the evening of November 22, 1987; it is an example of what is known in the television business as broadcast signal intrusion. The intruder was successful in interrupting two television stations within three hours. Neither the hijacker nor his accomplices have ever been found or identified.
The first occurrence of the signal intrusion took place during WGN-TV's News at Nine. During Bears highlights in the sports report, the station's signal was interrupted by a video of a person wearing a Max Headroom mask,standing or sitting in front of a swaying sheet of corrugated metal imitating the background effect in the Max Headroom TV and movie appearances. There was no audio, only a buzzing noise. The hijack was stopped after 20 seconds when WGN switched the modulation of their studio link to the John Hancock Center transmitter. The incident left sports reporter Dan Roan flustered, saying, "Well, if you're wondering what happened, so am I." Later that night, around 11:15 p.m., during a broadcast of the Doctor Who serial Horror of Fang Rock, PBS station WTTW's signal was hijacked using the same video that was broadcast during the WGN-TV hijack, this time with distorted audio. The person in the Max Headroom mask appeared, as before, this time saying, "That does it. He's a freakin' nerd," before laughing and jeering, "Yeah, I think I'm better than Chuck Swirsky. Freakin' liberal." The unidentified man continued to utter random phrases, including New Coke's advertising slogan "Catch the Wave" while holding a Pepsi can (Max Headroom was a Coca-Cola spokesperson at the time), then tossing the can down, and making an obscene gesture with a rubber extension over his middle finger (the gesture was cut off of the bottom of the screen due to the close-up of the camera) then retrieving the Pepsi can, and saying "Your love is fading", before removing the rubber extension, then began humming the theme song to Clutch Cargo, and stating that he had "made a giant masterpiece for all the greatest world newspaper nerds" (the call letters WGN are an abbreviation for "World's Greatest Newspaper", in reference to the Tribune Company's Chicago Tribune). He then held up a glove, said "my brother is wearing the other one", and put the glove on. He then took the glove off, adding that it was "dirty."
The picture suddenly cut over to a shot of the man's lower torso. His buttocks were exposed, and he was holding the now-removed mask up to the camera while being spanked with a flyswatter by an unidentified accomplice wearing a dress, as the man exclaimed "They're coming to get me!". The accomplice then said, "Bend over, bitch!" The man then said, "Do it!" and moaned. The transmission then blacked out and cut off, and the hijack was over after about 90 seconds.
WTTW, which maintains its transmitter atop the Sears Tower, found that its engineers were unable to stop the hijacker because at the time there were no engineers on duty at the Sears Tower. Also, the station's master control center was unable to contact its transmitting equipment remotely to switch the studio/transmitter link, unlike their counterparts at WGN-TV, who were able to thwart the intruder by switching their John Hancock Center studio/transmitter link remotely within seconds. The Max Headroom incident made national headlines and was reported on the CBS Evening News the next day.
WTTW and WGN-TV joined HBO as victims of broadcast signal intrusion.There was not another verified intrusion incident of this kind in the United States until February 1, 2009, when Comcast customers in Tucson, Arizona, had Super Bowl XLIII interrupted for 30 seconds by an adult channel.
Not long after the incident, WMAQ-TV humorously inserted clips of the hijacking into a newscast during Mark Giangreco's sports highlights.

Detective Elephant Man

Just because you're horribly deformed doesn't mean you're not an idiot

Mirage -Quincy Jones

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Ecco - Riz Ortolani

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Alien Encounters

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RELIGION AND ROCKETRY

"It might turn out that the redemption of other species differed from ours by working through ours. There is a
hint of something like this in St. Paul (Romans 8:19-
23) when he says that the whole creation is longing and
waiting to be delivered from some kind of slavery, and
that the deliverance will occur only
when we, we Christians, fully enter upon our sonship to God and exercise
our "glorious liberty/'

On the conscious level I believe that he was thinking
only of our own Earth: of animal, and probably vege-
table, life on Earth being "renewed** or glorified at the
glorification of man in Christ. But it is perhaps possible
it is not necessary to give his words a cosmic mean-
ing. It may be that Redemption, starting with us, is to
work from us and through us.

This would no doubt give man a pivotal position. But
such a position need not imply any superiority in us or
any favouritism in God. The general, deciding where to
begin his attack, does not select the prettiest landscape
or the most fertile field or the most attractive village.
Christ was not born in a stable because a stable is, in it-
self, the most convenient or distinguished place for a
maternity.

Only if we had some such function would a contact
between us and such unknown races be other than a ca-
lamity. If indeed we were unfallen, it would be an-
other matter.

It sets one dreaming to interchange thoughts with
beings whose thinking had an organic background
wholly different from ours (other senses, other appe-
tites), to be unenviously humbled by intellects possibly superior to our own yet able for that very reason to de-
scend to our level, to descend lovingly ourselves if we
met innocent and childlike creatures who could never
be as strong or as clever as we, to exchange with the in-
habitants of other worlds that especially keen and rich
affection which exists between unlikes; it is a glorious
dream. But make no mistake. It is a dream. We are
fallen.

We know what our race does to strangers. Man de-
stroys or enslaves every species he can. Civilized man
murders, enslaves, cheats, and corrupts savage man.
Even inanimate nature he turns into dust bowls and
slag-heaps. There are individuals who don't. But they
are not the sort who are likely to be our pioneers
in space. Our ambassador to new worlds will be the
needy and greedy adventurer or the ruthless technical
expert. They will do as their kind has always done.
What that will be if they meet things weaker than them-
selves, the black man and the red man can tell. If they
meet things stronger, they will be, very properly, des-
troyed.

It is interesting to wonder how things would go if
they met an unfallen race. At first, to be sure, they'd
have a grand time jeering at, duping, and exploiting its
innocence; but I doubt if our half-animal cunning
would long be a match for godlike wisdom, selfless valour,
and perfect unanimity.

Of course after the first debauch of exploitation we
shall make some belated attempt to do better. We shall
perhaps send missionaries. But can even missionaries
be trusted? "Gun and gospel" have been horribly com-
bined in the past. The missionary's holy desire to save
souls has not always been kept quite distinct from
the arrogant desire, the busybody's itch, to (as he calls
it) "civilize" the (as he calls them) "natives." Would
all our missionaries recognize an unfallen race if they
met it? Could they? Would they continue to press upon
creatures that did not need to be saved that plan of Sal-
vation which God has appointed for Man? Would they
denounce as sins mere differences of behaviour which
the spiritual and biological history of these strange
creatures fully justified and which God Himself had
blessed? Would they try to teach those from whom they
had better learn? I do not know.

What I do know is that here and now, as our only pos-
sible practical preparation for such a meeting, you and I
should resolve to stand firm against all exploitation and
all theological imperialism. It will not be fun. We shall
be called traitors to our own species. We shall be hated
of almost all men; even of some religious men.

But let us thank God that we are still very far from
travel to other worlds.

I have wondered before now whether the vast
astronomical distances may not be God's quarantine
precautions. They prevent the spiritual infection of a
fallen species from spreading. And of course we are also
very far from the supposed theological problem which
contact with other rational species might raise. Such
species may not exist. There is not at present a shred of
empirical evidence that they do. There is nothing but
what the logicians would call arguments from "a priori
probability" arguments that begin "It is only nat-
ural to suppose," or "All analogy suggests," or "Is it not
the height of arrogance to rule out ?" They make very
good reading. But who except a born gambler ever risks
five dollars on such grounds in ordinary life? "

- C. S. LEWIS

diaphragm becomes a sounding body

"At each of these points a line is drawn at right angles to

MD, and on this line the corresponding value of the

distance of the oscillating body from M is marked ;
thus, for instance, at length





o ^ = MA ^ a x cos o

1 „ i^ =■ Mb^ a X cos iO°

2 „ 2^ = Mc = a X cos 6o^

3 „ o = o = a X ^^j 90°

4 „ 4^ = Me=^ a X cos 120°

And generally 7 = a cos 0, a being the distance MA^
and fl the angle which the radius to any point on the
circumference of tne reference circle ADg makes with
MA.

The curve drawn through the points A, 6, c, 3, e, f.g^
etc., is the curve of vibration of a body oscillating after
the manner of a pendulum^ and following the law of
simple harmonic motion. This is more frequently ex-
pressed thus \ y ^s:. a sin 0, ^ being the complement of
0, or the angle which MD makes with the axis as it
revolves about Mva the positive direction. It forms what
is called a sinusoidal curve or curve of sines. The interval
between two crests of waves ^^ is called the wave length.
The distance MA through which the particle vibrates is
called the amplitude of the vibration. The whole dura-
tion Z, which is represented by the time o to 1 2, is called
the period of the vibration. The amplitude and period
of a vibration are quite independent of each other.
The oscillating particle will make the same number of
vibrations per second whether the amplitude of its
excursion be great or small. This equality of period
for all amplitudes is called isochronism.
Such a simple harmonic curve can be actually pro-
duced by providing a tuning-fork of a rather large size
with a pen or stylus, which during its oscillation leaves
traces on a strip of paper which is drawn from under
the tracing stylus with uniform velocity, in a direction
at right angles to the line of vibration.
The vibrations of a sounding body give rise in the
surrounding atmosphere to a wave-motion which is
transmitted by the successive molecules of air executing
similar vibrations as the vibrating body itself. When
a tuning fork vibrates in air it gives to the air a series of
pushes, each of which produces a momentary increase of
pressure and density in front of the advancing prongs,
while a momentary decrease of density and pressure is
produced behind them. As the prongs advance, first in
one direction and then in the opposite, a series of
compressions and extensions are produced in alternate
succession. But each compressed portion tends to relieve
itself by expanding into the neighbouring air, which is
thus in its turn compressed, and the extended portions
in like manner communicate extension. Hence a
series of compressions and extensions are propagated
through the surrounding air, and these constitute an
undulation whose period is the same as that of the
vibrations of the tuning fork. If the sonorous vibrations
take place in open space their amplitude must get
smaller and smaller, and the sound will die away. If
the air waves impinge on a diaphragm of any kind, the
diaphragm will take up the sonorous vibrations and
oscillate with the same period and the same form. The
diaphragm becomes a sounding body."

- Sir William Henry Preece

Voice of Eye

Voice Of Eye were the duo of Bonnie McNairn and Jim Wilson.
Their specialty was "organic sound sculpting": a form of electronic ethnic ambient music that relies mainly on electronic drones and manipulated instruments.
Noise soundscapes by only handmade and acoustic instruments (no samplers/synthesizers were used.)

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Jealous Again

The most popular hardcore/punkrock-band that had seen Vocalist come and go.
"Jealous Again" was the second Ep of Black Flag. Keith Morris left to form The Circle Jerks. Ron Reyes took his place (Chavo Pederast). None of these 5 songs appeared on the debut-album. The Drummer Robo left 3 years later and joined the Misfits. 6 and a half minutes of hardcore genius.

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...And He Did Eat Locusts And Wild Honey

Great Drones and Noise-Scapes from Rosencrantz & Guildenstern .

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