Intelligence Secrets

Review of James Rusbridger, Betrayal at Pearl Harbour: How Churchill Lured Roosevelt into World War II and Bradley Smith Eric Nave: The Ultra-Magic Deals and the Most Secret Special Relationship, 1940-194

The transatlantic telegraphs and the Class of 1866: the formative years of transnational networks in telegraphic space, 1858-1884/89

'Im Sommer 1866 war es gelungen, ein Seetelegraphenkabel durch den Atlantik zu verlegen und so die Alte und die Neue Welt unmittelbar zu verbinden. Dieses Ingenieurs-technische Großprojekt steht nicht nur am Beginn der Entwicklung eines globalen Seetelegraphennetzwerks, sondern ist auch das Sinnbild einer einzigartigen Gemeinschaft von Kabelakteuren, der hiernach genannten Class of 1866. Aus dieser Kabelgemeinschaft institutionalisierten sich verschiedenste Netzwerke, wie z.B. die Society of Telegraph Engineers, welche fortan den internationalen Seetelegraphenmarkt wirtschaftlich, politisch wie auch kulturell dominieren sollten. Die Verkabelung des Atlantiks von 1866 stellt innerhalb der Geschichte der Seetelegraphie den zentralen Reflexionspunkt dar und die Pioniere des Atlantikkabels nutzten ihre Teilhabe daran, den eigenen Status als exklusive Kabel-Elite zu legitimieren. Durch die festliche Überhöhung des Ereignisses sowie die Veröffentlichung persönlicher Memoiren beeinflussten die Akteure bewusst die historische Wahrnehmung ihrer Zeitgenossen, wie auch der Geschichtsschreibung von heute.' (Autorenreferat)'In 1866 the first lasting submarine cable was laid across the Atlantic. This project not only initiated the development of world-wide submarine telegraph networks, but also the formation of a cable community, the Class of 1866, and their subsequent networks, as for example the Society of Telegraph Engineers, that came to dominate the global cable market economically, politically and culturally. The Atlantic cable project of 1866 represented the central reflection point within the history of submarine telegraphy and the Atlantic cable pioneers used it to legitimate their status as exclusive cable elite. With banquets, soirées and other festivities as well as in their diaries, memoirs and official histories of the cabling of the Atlantic, the Class of 1866 greatly influenced the historic perception of its contemporaries and until today.' (author's abstract

Mapping immaterial flows : how consumption invisibilizes labor : the satellite and shipping container

The kiosk system went down and everyone missed their flight. I had this experience recently at Chicago O’Hare International airport when I was flying to Austin. It affirmed the importance of understanding networks and how their working (or in this case, the lack thereof) immobilizes goods and people. Usually, when you check in for a flight, there is a kiosk, a station where you can print out your ticket, bag tags, and receipt. This automation of airline customers and their luggage is routine and due to its speed, allows a lot more people to obtain services. A standard of speed and ease of access is therefore coupled and expected. When this automation is no longer available, people lose their shit or more elegantly stated, the artifice of entitlement becomes gruesomely apparent. I understand everyone has a place to go and we won’t get their soon enough. However, the system is down and the airline workers are doing their best. Of course, once the network is back in place, the kiosks will resume operation and yes, they will arrange a later flight. But in a global economy where networked spaces are equated solely to make money at an expedient pace, how do we get people to understand other ways to respond to a malfunction? The common assumption is that systems are supposed to be perfect and a glitch or a malfunction is an exception, however it is quite the reverse. What if networks weren’t based on dualism? The binary being either: an all digital internet of everything kind of space or a cyberpunk infused reversion to the analog. Instead, what should be thought of and put into place is a multiplicity of network configurations such as A to Z, alif to bari yay, 1 to a 1000, uno to millón. This is what I propose in my research and arts practice: how do we build multiplicity and equity in systems? Networks are not arbitrarily put into place, they have funders, users, buyers, beneficiaries, and losers involved. Therefore, they are porous flows, exchanges, and axioms, always open to change. My research lies in between histories of media, technology, and globalization. I investigate these themes through performance, sculptural installations, reading groups, and workshops that focus on the role of technology. Specifically, my practice is focused on objects that are produced from global circuits and their embedded codes, encompassing both the technological and sociological. I investigate the history of objects such as the satellites and shipping containers and make immaterial streams tangible. The specific objects of the satellite and shipping container carry information that frames notion of historic and present day globalization facilitated by technology. The sections of this text are not necessary meant to be read sequentially, there are organized like nodes. In the first node, I will examine the role of satellites in my projects, Satellites and TELL A STAR. Satellites project examines Our World, the first global transmission (1967) through a sculptural installation, video and website. This project critiques the notion of techno-utopianism, a idea that technology will resolve all inequalities plaguing humanity. Then, I will review TELL A STAR, a 3-channel installation, where I divert the history of the first American satellite, Telstar (1962) through the lens of Afrofuturism, archival research and fluidity of identity. In the second node, I will review my project, Con-tain-er, its installation and performative elements and the role of “flows” within global shipping networks. Near the ending node, the role of networks, “junk,” and the use of workshops will be examined as part of my arts practice. Demanding the creation of more inclusive and divergent networks is central to imagining fluidity. It is within reach, we need to imagine it.Studio Ar

Government Policies toward Information and Communication

The development of what one might call 'modern' systems of information and communication began with the Gutenberg printing press in the 15th century, and progressed through the prepaid postal system, electric telegraph and telephone in the 19th century, radio and television broadcasting in the 20th century, and most recently the Internet. This essay focuses on the response of governments to these innovations, beginning with the printing press. United Nations DESA Discussion Paper No. 21 (October 2001).internet, printing press, telegraph, telephone, broadcasting, information and communication technologies (ICT)

Hyper-power and private monopoly: the unholy marriage of (neo) corporatism and the imperial surveillance state

American hyper-power world dominance by public and private agencies has replaced British Empire hyper-power world domination in the period 1815-1914. Snowden’s revelations have given rise to several important papers examining the geographical and territorial limits on the Internet, comparing it to the imperial telegraph (Kurbalija 2013) and even to the Roman imperial road (Moglen 2013). This paper recalls earlier telegraphy research (Standage 1999, Hills 2007) and explains how the previous hyperpower (Marsden 2004, describing a global super-power without effective opposition, from the French hyperpuissance) was able to control communications in order to extend its extraterritorial application of domestic law. I explain that the telegraph ‘cables that girdled the Earth’ (Clarke 1958) were sunk into the sea in Cornwall, southwest England, and that today’s Internet fibre cables are in the same places – with the result that the greatest National Security Agency espionage-gathering operation is a joint US/UK operation from the small town of Bude, Cornwall. Add to that espionage the invention of encryption/decryption computing, devices from Babbage’s Difference Engine to Turing and Tommy Flower’s Colossus Marks I and II that broke both Enigma and Lorenz1. The recipe now exists for what the National Security Agency calls ‘Total Information Awareness’ and the Orwellian nightmare of totally efficient surveillance and ‘war is peace’ according to the Ministry of Truth2. But it existed before, and we should learn from the past

The Evolution of FinTech: A New Post-Crisis Paradigm?

'Financial technology' or 'FinTech' refers to technology enabled financial solutions. FinTech is often seen today as the new marriage of financial services and information technology. However, the interlinkage of finance and technology has a long history and has evolved over three distinct eras. FinTech 1.0, from 1866 to 1987, was the first period of financial globalization supported by technological infrastructure such as transatlantic transmission cables. This was followed by FinTech 2.0, from 1987 to 2008, during which financial services firms increasingly digitized their processes. Since 2008 a new era of FinTech has emerged in both the developed and developing world. This era is defined not by the financial products or services delivered but by who delivers them. This latest evolution of FinTech, led by start-ups, poses challenges for regulators and market participants alike, particularly in balancing the potential benefits of innovation with the possible risks of new approaches.preprin