FuturICT Blog: Societal Big Data Applications at CERN: How Big Is the Risk?

During my studies, I have encountered various companies and people that are behind the agenda to establish a “World Simulator” and a data-driven AI-based “benevolent dictatorship”. I don’t want to name them, but I can confirm with absolute certainty: “This is real!” I was told, in particular, that global problems would be solved by “superintelligent” systems by 2036 (apart from two: climate change and cyber security). The world would be run by an AI system, organized on 10 levels – from individuals all the way up to the entire planet (see photo below). Evidence pointing in this direction can be also found in various publications. One just needs to know how to put the puzzle pieces together. For example, CIA Chief Technology Officer Gus Hunt said that we were already “a walking sensor platform”, and it was now almost possible to connect all data dots.[1] Moreover, Google was reported to work on reprogramming the state,[2] IBM’s Watson computer was proposed for US president,[3] and Mark Zuckerberg was said to have imperial ambitions.[4]

After my TEDx talk “Creating a Planetary Nervous System Together”, I was made aware of the existence of a Skynet-like system. Moreover, I was also hinted at an article entitled “Can the military make a prediction machine?”[5] It was therefore clear that huge volumes of data about the world and our lives would be processed by powerful AI systems in an attempt to predict the future. Steven Wolfram claimed that “People are more predictable than particles”,[6] and companies such as Palantir or Recorded Future suggested that human behavior was about 90% predictable.

How is this possible, given that most people believe human behavior is unpredictable, or at times even random? The answer is clear: One would have to steer human behavior and “end randomness”.[7] A few years after I had seen a weird talk in Brussels suggesting a project called “Matrix Reloaded”, I realized that the proposal had apparently been implemented!

Scientific events about Steering Behaviors and Societies were held. A publication reported of a Facebook study, which demonstrated large-scale emotional manipulation.[8] Another scientific study showed that, by manipulating the order of search engine results, it was possible to change election outcomes by up to 20 percent.[9] A further publication revealed that a huge number of people had been influenced in their voting behavior in the US election 2012.[10] After this, opinion polls failed to predict election outcomes in a number of countries, which indicates that similar methods to manipulate elections had been used in other democratic countries, too.[11]

I have warned of manipulation attempts based on Big Data since years. The Digital Manifesto, published in the Spektrum der Wissenschaft and Scientific American, finally alerted the public that people were conditioned and manipulated by means of a method called “Big Nudging”, based on personalized Filter Bubbles.[12] Elon Musk as well hinted at the possibility that we were living in a Matrix,[13] and demanded to develop methods to break it up. Barack Obama indicated that there were technologies beyond the reach of democratic control, when he said:[14]

" ... this is also a time around the world when some of the fundamental ideals of liberal democracies are under attack and when notions of objectively and of a free press and of facts and of evidence are trying to be undermined or in some cases ignored entirely. And in such a climate it’s not enough just to give people a megaphone. And that’s why your power and your responsibility to dig and to question and to counter distortions and untruths is more important than ... ever. "

However, the scandal erupted only after the Brexit vote and the US election in 2016, when Cambridge Analytica claimed it had created psychological profiles of hundreds of millions of voters, and influenced them with personalized information.[15] Only then, the wider public started to realize that Big Data, combined with Social Bots, were used by a number of billionaires to “hijack democracies”.[16]

However, as mentioned before, the method was already used several years before Cambridge Analytica “turned the world upside down”.[17] So, where was that other data center located, which had been used to manipulate peoples’ opinions and decisions before? The World Simulator, the “Big Mechanism”, the “Big Nudge” – and the masses of personal data needed for them – had to be located somewhere.

Was it possibly located at CERN? After the UN General Assembly and the Paris Agreement, a couple of newspaper articles came out, all around the same time. They stated that CERN now also worked on societal issues and a number of business cases, using Artificial Intelligence.[18] Something like a Crystal Ball (“Orakel”) had been built, based on Big Data. Predictive analytics is being used as well. These are exactly the technologies needed for “Big Nudging”! And, of course, computers and electrical power are abundant at CERN.

The announcement of CERN’s sudden interest in societal issues was made, after the elementary particle accelerator had been “upgraded” over a two year time period between 2013 and 2015. This happened after it was announced in July 2012 that the Higgs particle – also euphemistically called the God’s particle (as it is believed to produce mass) – had been discovered, or a particle consistent with its properties.[19] Physicists had searched for it in vain for 40 years. It was then stressed that “the biggest discovery in 20 years” had confirmed the standard model of elementary particle physics. To “find new physics”, it was now necessary to upgrade the accelerator and replace the detector, newspapers said. So, the CERN was “upgraded”, and at the same time a backup data center was newly created in Budapest.[20] The high-bandwidth Internet connections (100 GigaBits per second!) make interesting detours.

Source: http://information-technology.web.cern.ch/opendays2013/wigner

All of this is very interesting, to say the least. Then, someone sent me a link to a Scientific American article saying that CERN would use Artificial Intelligence to expose cyberattacks.[21] This article explains that CERN hosts a powerful cybersecurity center, which aims to protect not only its own computers, but also its entire Data Grid. (This Grid may also play a significant role in the organization of the information flows of the Internet. After all, the World Wide Web and Grid Computing were invented at CERN…)

Source: https://ibm.co/2nSqgQC

So, the question is, what kind of data is being used by leading cyber security applications using Artificial Intelligence? As the above picture shows, this includes 10 billion data elements per hour such as trusted partner feeds, threat feeds, and open source data as well as information from blogs. The X-Force component also involves so-called DNS forensics (see picture below), geo-tagged user info, full URL search lists, ports, etc., probably even including individual movement patterns of the computer mice and click streams of all Internet users. In other words, this is very detailed personal data about each and every one of us. These are exactly the kinds of data used by the various digital instruments for the so-called “benevolent dictatorship” based on methods such as the "war simulation" of our societies, Big Nudging for behavioural manipulation, and the Citizen Score, described in previous Blogs. Therefore, we should be very concerned. According to Murphy’s law, “Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.” In particular, if there is a possibility for misuse, it will sooner or later happen.

Source: https://ibm.co/2rXoYmD

This is extremely concerning, as there are almost no legal obstacles for dual use, since the CERN is extraterritorial. In other words, most national and European laws do not apply, including the European General Data Protection Regulation. This situation makes CERN politically uncontrollable – and that’s why it can become a danger for all of us. Finally, if you thought that CERN was now providing us with the cyber security we deserve, the following email from a high-level expert, who knows exactly what AI can do and what are its limits, will certainly make you sleep badly.[22]

Even worse, one day, the personal data stored and processed at CERN could fall into the hands of people who do not act in our interest. Then, we would be in trouble – in real big trouble! This scenario is exactly what – according to my information – is currently under way, and that’s why I decided that I had to alert the public. Please circulate this warning to everyone! Thank you! Let’s hope we can get this fixed!