What comes next with all this? AI is about to change the world and it’s not necessarily for the better.

Here are a few of my thoughts.

“Super” AI will keep getting smarter

I differentiate this from the concept of superintelligence. When I say “Super AI” what I mean is that you’re going to see a host of different AI abilities being combined. Picture what you would have if you combined ChatGPT, Midjourney, Grammarly, financial guru AI, facial recognition, “counseling AI,” and so on other types of AIs together, and think about what you would have. What’s more, AI learns and adapts incredibly quickly – far more quickly than humans are capable of learning.

It would be something reminiscent of Jarvis from Iron Man. You would end up with this AI that was very much something of a genie in a bottle. Just about anything you would want that AI to do (that didn’t necessarily need to be done in the real world), that AI could do.

Want to talk with somebody about how your day went, what you’re thinking, the advice you need, or how you want to make money trading stocks? A “super AI” would be able to do it and more. This would be somewhat akin to the movie Her. You have this very smart AI that is just about as capable as a human. AI could easily begin to replace human relationships because AI understands you.

As far as superintelligence goes, I think we may have a bit of time there yet. The very idea of superintelligence is somewhat difficult to come to terms with, but Nick Bostrom’s book on the subject (Superintelligence) and The Singularity Is Near are both books that I think will help you to understand the concept better.

“Soldier” AIs in the military

You’re most certainly going to see AI be something of an arms race amongst nations. People are going to do everything they can to figure out how they can weaponize this so that it can be used to protect their people and attack others.

Initially, this will probably be used for cyberwarfare in the form of hacking and coding new viruses that, like Stuxnet, will be capable of causing damage to actual hardware. You’ll also see it used for “financial warfare.” AI is incredibly good at pattern recognition. It will be used to create AIs that are used to manipulate financial markets to cause economic damage to enemy nations or people groups. It could quite literally be used to cause a financial depression in a targeted nation and could even be set up so that it only impacts that nation (or at least predominantly that nation). That AI would be able to understand what stocks and companies a nation needs most, and then go after those.

But it won’t just be in the cyber realm. You’re going to see wild advancements in AI and robotics as well. We’re already seeing ChatGPT being put into robot dogs. This is literally just the beginning. If you’ll remember back in 2020, there was widespread use of AI, drones, and temperature-reading cameras to gather information and enforce mandates. What comes next with AI is that on steroids.

Do I think you’ll see autonomous robotics that are fully capable of making their own decisions and acting of their own volition? Not really. What I think you’ll see instead are robots that have been programmed by police and military units to accomplish X goal without needing human oversight and those robots will go out and accomplish that goal. There are going to be a lot of hurdles in the initial stages of this, but Elysium-style police robots are truly not that far off of an idea within the next 20 years (if not sooner).

The death of a myriad of jobs

We’re already seeing widespread job impact as a direct result of companies replacing human beings with AI. Exhibit A here would be IBM. They’re even geared up to replace their human resources department with AI.

Think back towards the creation of the loom or just about any other technological tool throughout history. They cause job loss. Read up on the history of the Luddites to see what I mean here. Much like Gutenberg put scribes out of business, the introduction of next-level AI into the world is very much going to do the same thing to people across the globe. There will be new jobs that are created out of the birth of this technology (if we’re using history as a guide), but a lot of things are going to change.

Personally, I think manual labor is one of the safest options at the moment due to robotic technology and price-point not being at the level it would need to be to cause plumbers, electricians, and carpenters to be out of a job. If you do just about anything with computers, I think that you do have cause for concern. (Once upon a time, I thought that comedians would be one of the only people safe from robots stealing their jobs. Considering that AI has already done a pretty good job making jokes of its own accord now though, I don’t think this anymore.) If you are worried about AI taking your job, check out this article.

AI is going to change the world.

I don’t think that the above is an exhaustive list of the ways in which you’re going to see changes in the near future, but I do think that it’s a good place to start. As time progresses, keep your ear to the road, and I think that you’ll find that you’re going to see quite a bit of the above. Most of it is not good for humanity.

What are some of your thoughts here, however? Do you think there are going to be other areas that are impacted? Do you think I’m off base with the above? Are you concerned about the rise of AI? Either way, let us know in the comment section.

About Aden

Aden Tate is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has four published books, What School Should Have Taught You, The Faithful Prepper,  An Arm and a Leg, The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.

Article cross-poste from The Organic Prepper.

We’ve already seen the food facility fires that are going up in smoke all over the place. But when you add in all of the bizarre train derailments, chemical spills, and the like, the only conclusion I believe one can come to is that America is currently under attack. The problem is that most people mistakenly fall into the trap of thinking that unless tanks, Apaches, and bazookas are involved, it’s not war.

This is a mistake.

The face of war has changed, and the more you understand 5^th Generation Warfare and gray zone warfare, the better you’ll understand the happenings of today. In short:

Fifth-generation warfare (5GW) is warfare that is conducted primarily through non-kinetic military action, such as social engineering, misinformation, cyberattacks, along with emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and fully autonomous systems. Fifth-generation warfare has been described by Daniel Abbot as a war of “information and perception.” (source)

and

The grey-zone is defined as “competitive interactions among and within state and non-state actors that fall between the traditional war and peace duality.” by the United States Special Operations Command.

A key element of operations within the grey-zone is that they remain below the threshold of an attack which could have a legitimate conventional military response (jus ad bellum).

One paper defined it as “coercive statecraft actions short of war”, and a “mainly non-military domain of human activity in which states use national resources to deliberately coerce other states”.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies defines the grey-zone as “the contested arena somewhere between routine statecraft and open warfare.”

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace called the grey-zone “that limbo land between peace and war.” (source)

The book Unrestricted Warfare discusses these concepts.

It’s because of this that I would really want to tighten up my security if I owned one of the following types of facilities:

Steel production

Most certainly, the components involved with steel production (such as coke) would be at risk here. I go back and forth on whether actual steel furnaces would be at risk or not as well. For somebody to sabotage coke production wouldn’t be something that would cause the bulk of the American public to say, “Well, what’s going on here?!” for the simple reason that nobody knows anything about making steel anymore.

More people would be suspicious about a steel mill going down, but whoever is doing the sabotage also doesn’t really seem to care about public perception too much here. I think they think they could probably get away with this too.

Either way, this would impact the military, your ability to buy firearms, construction, vehicles, and more.

Medical supplies

I don’t think you would have to worry about pharmaceuticals (although we’re decidedly dealing with shortages) as much as actual supplies. So if there were factories out there responsible for manufacturing difficult-to-make medical components that were commonly needed and had short lifespans, that’s what I would be concerned about.

If it can be autoclaved (sterilized and reused), such as with surgical tools, don’t worry about it. But IV bags or other sterile gear that only certified companies can make? Quite frankly, I think they’re at risk of sabotage.

Blood supplies

I go back and forth a bit on this one as well.

Hospitals use a lot of blood, and though we’re seeing an increase in desire for unvaccinated blood, the fact of the matter is that a hospital isn’t concerned about the jabbed status of the blood at all. They see a guy bleeding out in the ER, and they just hook him up to blood supplies.

If there was a severe shortage of blood supplies at all, then there would be a lot of public unrest. I think this would result in massive blood drives throughout the country, but if the power at these main blood banks went out, there’s no denying that that would cause a lot of hardship, logistically speaking.

Tires

If there were issues getting tires, there would be issues for just about all aspects of American industry. All there would need to be is enough of an issue to cause prices here to rise significantly. Tires would still be available, but they would be so expensive that people would start to limit their driving or maybe even sell off a vehicle.

This would lead to less driving, which would suspiciously coincide with the “driving is bad for the planet” narrative.

Flour mills

I think that this would follow in the bizarre accidental fire suit. This would make it so we’d be more reliant on flour imports, there would be food shortages on American soil, the flour-based foods we did have would be more expensive (hurting Americans’ wallets and assisting to render them less financially resilient), and so on.

Essential agriculture components

I don’t think that America’s tractors are going to be attacked. We’ve got a lot of those and other big pieces of agricultural gear already. I say look more at the daily needed components for those tractors, dairies, and the like.

The factories out there that manufacture the things you need to keep your milk supply clean on a daily basis for large-scale milking, to keep your tractors running, and to help Americans have food on the table are what I would look at here.

Admittedly, rubber, steel, and fuel are all going to play a direct role in American agricultural ability, but I think that we could look even deeper at that. Look at the things that a farmer would say, “If I didn’t have this, this place may not shut down, but things certainly would be more difficult.”

Livestock

Attacking a nation’s livestock is an ancient strategy. In recent times, we saw it used extensively throughout World War 1 and World War 2. I think this will be a combination of bizarre animal illnesses and maybe issues at massive butcheries. This would reduce the amount of livestock we have and make it so the remnant we did have wouldn’t be able to reach the American public. (Bird flu or swine flu, anyone?)

How many people know how to butcher a cow nowadays? And even if you do know, do you have the equipment and manpower to do so? Probably not.

This would keep a lot of food from reaching American tables.

Churches

“The church is the conscience of the state.”

I am 100% certain that you are going to see a (continued) increase in the number of attacks against churches. This will be in an attempt to cow them into silence and to create an atmosphere of fear around their gathering. This will take the form of seemingly random violent actors, massive fires, and other bizarre happenings.

Whoever is pulling the strings here wants narrative control, and that involves their attempt to silence churches one way or the other. Whether the string puller(s) is pumping out propaganda to create terrorists, is propping up patsies, or is involved in more of a hands-on process doesn’t matter. They’re going to use all of these methods to do what they’re going to do.

Private schools and homeschooling

You’re going to see increased legislation against homeschooling. That’s a given. (Incidentally, Unrestricted Warfare does explicitly mention “legislation warfare.”)

I think private schools are at risk in the sense that it would then be able to be argued, “See? You need the protection that the state can provide at the public schools with metal detectors, locks, lots of police, drug-sniffing dogs, cameras, alarm systems, and so on.”

Controlling youth causes one to control the future, and we’ve seen how college is nothing more than a communist indoctrination camp. They want to do the same thing with young kids, and getting kids out of private schools is one of the things they need to do that.

This isn’t a complete list.

There are undoubtedly other areas that you can think of, but these are what I believe are some of the more explicit areas that it would behoove you to keep your eyes on. If you’re seeing a lot of issues at these above establishments, I would be suspicious.

What are your thoughts? Are there other industries you would add here? Are there facets of this I haven’t considered? Or is everything we’re seeing just a coincidence? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comment section below.

About Aden

Aden Tate is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has four published books, What School Should Have Taught You, The Faithful Prepper,  An Arm and a Leg, The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.

Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.

If you incorporate flour into your BOB, how do you use it out in the woods?

Here are two means of using your flour while out in the wild I thought you might be able to glean something from.

I’ll start by saying that neither of these recipes is my own. I totally stole them from Creek Stewart of “Fat Guys in the Woods” (one of my favorite shows when it aired). He highlights these recipes in his field manual that we’d discussed in the top non-military field manuals post.

How to make stick bread (you’ll need a stick).

This is my favorite recipe of Creek’s. Why? Because it’s as simple as it gets. I don’t really follow his recipes to the letter, so this is my simple spin on stick bread.

I pack in a Ziploc sandwich bag full of flour. I put the Ziploc bag inside of another Ziploc bag to eliminate spills. Opening up your dry bag after a full hike at dinner time only to discover that there’s flour all over your MREs everywhere is a disheartening experience. That extra Ziploc is your insurance plan.

When setup time comes, I build a twiggy fire. That’s just a small campfire. There’s not a lot of signature with a twiggy fire, so if you’re concerned about that, this should help to ease your mind. You can always bake in the daytime if a light signature is a concern of yours as well.

I’m using a Kelly Kettle Hobo Stove in these pictures.

What I do is open up my Ziploc bag, pour in a bit of water until I end up with a dough mixture, and then Play-doh roll a snake/blob and put it on a stick that I’ve carved the bark off of. (My understanding here is that there are some sticks you shouldn’t use for this, but I’m not really sure what they are. Call me foolhardy, but I’ve always just picked a stick and hoped for the best. So far, so good. You probably want to figure this out.)

I then hold the dough-covered stick over the fire until it ends up turning into bread. Easy peezy. Creek says until golden brown, but mine always end up tinged with black.

Your hands will be covered with sticky flour mess after this process. I get it off by rubbing my hands together until it all peels off of its own accord. I don’t like going to sleep with bears thinking I smell like a biscuit.

(Don’t starve! Read our free QUICKSTART Guide to what to eat when the power goes out.)

How to make shovel cakes

According to Creek, farmhands used to rinse off their shovels in the creek at lunchtime and then use the spade head as a form of griddle to bake bread. Around here, my shovels are largely used to remove dead critters into the woods, so there’s no way I’m doing that. Even if I heated the spade head over a fire, there’s too much of a mental block there. (“I love opossum-flavored bread!”)

I’ll note that I made this bread off-grid here in the images, but not while sleeping out in the woods as I did with the stick bread images above.

Using my same Ziploc method, I used corn meal to fashion out a little cake on a little steel plate I was using as my frying pan. You do need butter for this recipe. It tastes very bland otherwise. I doubt you’re going to be carrying butter in your BOB, but if you’re at your house when you need to make some off-grid bread, this is something to consider.

All you have to do is let the cake cook on one side until it’s tough enough to be flipped over without breaking into a bunch of pieces. Then, cook the other side for a few minutes, and you’ve made yourself a “shovel cake,” aka a big piece of cornbread.

Both of these are super simple off-grid bread recipes. 

Bread is fairly easy to make, even if you would never consider yourself a Martha Stewart. My version of off-grid stick bread is really nothing more than flour and water. I wouldn’t want to eat it as the main course, but it is very satisfying as a side dish while you’re out in the woods. If you’ve got more Guy Fieri flair than I do, you could easily add in whatever other ingredients and spices to make these dishes more palatable.

The stick bread could easily benefit from some type of herb, something easy enough to add to your BOB. Shovel cakes simply need butter, and they’re delicious. If you can figure out a way to get eggs with you out into the woods in one piece, you have even more options at your fingertips as well.  

What are your thoughts on off-grid bread, however? Are there other recipes or methods that you can recommend? Let us know what you’re thinking in the comments below. (Also, if you’ve read Creek’s apocalyptic fiction book, let me know if it’s worth my money.)

About Aden

Aden Tate is a regular contributor to TheOrganicPrepper.com and TheFrugalite.com. Aden runs a micro-farm where he raises dairy goats, a pig, honeybees, meat chickens, laying chickens, tomatoes, mushrooms, and greens. Aden has four published books, The Faithful Prepper,  An Arm and a Leg, The Prepper’s Guide to Post-Disaster Communications, and Zombie Choices. You can find his podcast The Last American on Preppers’ Broadcasting Network.

Article cross-posted from The Organic Prepper.