Comments on: At the summit

By: narciso

narciso — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:24:20 +0000

I finished “Burning Skies” today, while at the dentist’s office today, of all things, It’s a little easier to follow than Mirrored Heavens was. Actually the tradeoff between missile defense at least in Eastern Europe, and we could mention Alaska and assistance with the Iranian nuclear program is clearly spelled out. The fact that the siloviki probably run the companies that are arming their real mortal foe. I agree that Cyber warfare could quickly become the Ice 9 that collapses the net. The likelyhood that Russia ghas something to fear from NATO, which currently is running operations in the Near East, seems a little ludicrous. The reverse is more likely true if the Sajjaal is paired with nuclear warheads. I didn’t really get a better picture of President Harrison, from this or from Greater American News. a wunderkind admiral at 41, who started at Annapolis at 13, by the looks of things, who didn’t have many battles in which to prove himself.

As to the science, what powers this dystopian world, fossil fuels are out, the Tokamak failed catastrophically. One assumes that cap n trade didn’t work on this world, some kind of perpetual motion technology that we have yet to know about. as the biological and chemical tools to condition razors like Claire, that seems more plausible, with what we’ve learned about the ephemeral nature of memory, and how it can be manipulated

By: David Williams

David Williams — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:29:53 +0000

@ Al: schedule doesn’t permit this year, but it’s a great idea. txs. . .

@ SK: making it all the more chilling is that when Russia *did* decommision a bunch of its nukes, back in the 1990s, the question immediately gets raised as to Where Are All Those Nukes Going Anyway. uh-oh . . .

By: Steven Klotz

Steven Klotz — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:54:48 +0000

On the radio this morning someone was pointing out how absurd it is that we say the Cold War is over, yet 2 superpowers still have thousands of nuclear missiles aimed at each other. The truly scary point though was the idea that the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan manages to have nothing to do with the Cold War.

I think about this stuff little enough that hearing about missile defense, nuclear proliferation, etc makes me think of Burning Skies instead of the other way around.

The big question on my mind is if Russia has a Dollhouse…

By: Al Billings

Al Billings — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:30:45 +0000

You should come out to DEFCON in Las Vegas sometime. You might learn a bit about cyberwarfare (and script kiddies).

By: David Williams

David Williams — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:58:49 +0000

And once the hordes get off *everybody’s* leash, that’s where the fun really kicks in.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:39:46 +0000

That could escalate out of control very, very quickly. The defending country turns its own horde loose to try and cut off the attack. Since a lot of the “firepower” is going to come from botnets that’s likely to mean degradation of service and infrastructure in neutral area, who will then turn loose their horde….

And round and round we go

Cheers,
Tim

By: David Williams

David Williams — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:29:58 +0000

You could be right. The beauty of it is that it’s impossible to prove either way. One suspects that “smart mobs” on a very loose/untraceable/possibly nonexistent government leash is going to be the paradigm for the next round of cyberwarfare.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:19:15 +0000

Could be, and I’m pretty convinced that’s what happened in Georgia.

My personal opinion is that the Estonian attacks probably were just a giant unofficial, self coordinating, online vandalism spree. I believe that someone with some authority just paid attention….

Cheers,
Tim

By: David Williams

David Williams — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 14:05:09 +0000

I’m assuming that they had the Russian govt’s blessing. But as to the degree to which they were actively involved, who knows? The smokescreen of Plausible Deniability is in effect. China operates much the same way.

By: Tim

Tim — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:59:04 +0000

I thought that the Estonian cyberattacks were largely carried out by Russian script kiddies and organised by ethnic Russian Estonians…

Have I missed some news on that, or am I just being naive?

Cheers,
Tim