FIRST, a non-profit organization, recently held a robotics competition that was free and open to the public. Naturally I attended, and brought my camera with me. I made this quick video to summarize the event,
As the video explains FIRST is sponsored by major institutions of government and the Military-Industrial Complex. This event was a chance for them to fulfill many different goals at once. Some of these goals include:
a delicate reminder that "national security" is a major issue
A "new age" was referenced in one sponsor's promotional video. This is a very powerful idea, and one that was repeated for emphasis.
It is easy to see that converging technologies are being promoted with events such as this, but what is less than obvious are the common threads that link apparently separate ideas. Diverse topics such as sustainable development, national security, robotics, technology, and economics are now converging to a single point. The new age is all about bringing these things together to form a new system.
The NASA recruitment piece in this video makes it seem as though America needs to take the lead in technological development. They are indeed very serious about this, however, the fact that converging technology is leading up to a world government system is not mentioned here. Reading policy papers about these topics, one notices that globalization nearly always comes up. It is well known that technological development in the U.S. is enabling a world government system, and that it is slowly emerging over time. This makes it all the easier for people to accept, because it doesn't happen all at once. World government is being built up deliberately, but the average person will be the last to know this.
I picked up a NASA sticker at this event. The sticker was promoting their 32'nd mission of the Space Shuttle Atlantis. In typical NASA fashion, this sticker was rife with symbolism. What was especially surprising to me was how detailed the reverse side peel-off label was in its description of the graphic.
The front side of the sticker
the back side that includes all of the juicy symbolic details
Atlantis is of course a highly symbolic term that refers to a Utopian Myth of an ancient high-tech civilization. Being the New Atlantis, America could be said to be represented on this graphic in the form of the Space Shuttle. The "mission" of Atlantis is the mission of America itself. As the label says "The STS-132 mission patch features Atlantis flying off into the sunset as the end of the Space Shuttle Program approaches." So we see the end of an era, an age. The sun sets on the Space Age, and rises on the "new age." The question to ask here is: what exactly is this new age that everyone keeps talking about? Is it the robot age?
"the sun is also heralding the promise of a new day"
The new age has much to do with robotics, and we (the people) are only now starting to realize this as the sun now sets on our country and way of life. The convergence of national security (paranoia over terrorism etc), sustainable development (sold on environmental alarmism/ skewed science), and of course advanced technologies is ringing in a new age. But before we get there, we must first survive a vicious trial by fire period, deemed "the age of transitions" by Mr. Newt Gingrich.
There is a massive story hidden between the lines, and it can be seen everywhere you turn. The truth is revealed in subtext, and symbolism.
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