Transcript for 8/12/24: CYBER BUG A BOO

Usually, when you go to Bigfoot gatherings or UFO conventions, there is an area where you can walk through and buy stuff. All kinds of cool things like T-shirts, and books by several authors and you can also meet up with various Ghost Hunter groups and see their demonstrations of the newest gadgets -- that ghost geeks use to hunt down elusive phantoms.

When I attended the Roswell convention -- there was a booth hidden amongst the various corn dog and sopapia stands where my curiosity was peaked.

It was a booth dedicated to the "Birds Are not Real" conspiracy group. 

I have never seen them aggressively promoting themselves because they are a parody conspiracy group that makes fun of conspiracy theories.

The satirical conspiracy theory they promote is that birds are drones operated by the United States government to spy on American citizens.

The movement claims that all birds in the United States were exterminated by the federal government between 1959 and 1971 and replaced by lookalike drones used by the government to spy on citizens; the specifics of these theories are not always consistent.

Peter McIndoe created the satirical conspiracy theory "on a whim" in January 2017. After seeing pro-Trump counter-protestors at the 2017 Women's March in Memphis, Tennessee, McIndoe wrote "Birds Aren't Real" on a poster and improvised a conspiracy theory amongst the counter-protestors as a "spontaneous joke". 

A video of McIndoe at the march went viral, which started the satirical movement. In 2017, he posted on Facebook: "I made a satirical movement a few months ago, and people on Instagram seem to like it a lot." He later disclaimed the post, saying it was written by a staffer who was fired and did not admit until 2021 that he did not truly believe the conspiracy.

Satire or not -- I have heard people that seriously think that birds have been replaced by spy drones --and while anything is possible you may be surprised to find that it isn't the birds you need to worry about -- it is the bugs.

I can honestly tell you that there have been times when people have shown me pictures on their cell phones of the most peculiar insects I have ever seen. Their markings look unnatural and according to those who have seen them -- they have a mechanical buzz noise that sounds like a mini motorcycle.

Now I can't explain what these things are, only that I know that Bill Gates has been experimenting with mosquitoes, which has had conspiracy theorists wondering why there has been a rise in reported cases of Dengue Fever and Malaria.

The deadliest creature on earth, is the mosquito, which is responsible for more than 300 million cases of malaria each year and causes between one and three million deaths. Malaria affects 10% of the world’s population, making it the leading mosquito-borne disease. The 3,000 species of mosquito, including some 200 in North America, do not all carry the same diseases. Mosquitos can also carry dengue and yellow fever. encephalitis, elephantiasis, and canine heartworm.

Various mutations have been released into teh mosquito population and from there who knows what the insect delivers to the body when it injects its stinger into the skin.

Now, a lot of these stories generate laughs undefined but sometimes there are species of bird animal or insect that somehow manages to show up in areas that they don’t belong in -and people who aren’t used to seeing them wonder if there is either a glitch in the matrix or it is a sign that perhaps we are facing the earths expiration date.

It has long been assumed that the force driving evolution is natural selection, not the creation of genetic variants because the rate of mutation was thought to be constant and unaffected by circumstances although Darwin himself did not believe this. There is a body of thought that concludes that the model of selection must include adaptive mutation.

Adaptive mutation is defined as a process that, during the nonlethal selection process, produces mutations that relieve the selective pressure whether or not other, non-selected mutations are also produced.

Examples of adaptive mutation or related phenomena have been reported in bacteria and yeast but not yet outside of microorganisms. A decade of research on adaptive mutation has revealed mechanisms that may increase mutation rates under adverse conditions.

Directed mutagenesis, also known as directed mutation, was a hypothesis proposing that organisms can respond to environmental stresses by orthogenetically directing mutations to certain genes or areas of the genome.

We have seen over time how the environment is affecting the genome and the Global Biota. We have also seen how tinkering with the natural processes can create circumstances that cannot be reversed and so the natural world begins to change in unimaginable ways.

Offering the potential to ‘engineer’ at a sub-molecular level, analyses of the views of members of the public have identified concerns about blurring the distinction between natural creation, and human control of the creation processes through genetic engineering and what is critically called Frankenscience.

Messing with the atmosphere, genetically modifying food, and even creating hybrid species of insects has set the earth on a collision course with Mother Nature, and has thwarted the evolutionary process- and now we are seeing the results of this tinkering.

It is not just the geoengineering of Insects that poses a threat -- so the reality of swarms of artificial insects is now out there as well,

Now I won't say "bugs aren't real" but there are now many mechanical insects that have been made to spy on enemies foreign and domestic.

Cyber insects, can remain hidden in plain view while spying in areas that are off-limits to larger surveillance devices.

The spy drones can take off and land anywhere, while maneuvering through city streets and hallways, and they can stop and turn on a dime, these micro-drones can also pack a lethal punch, equipped with an array of weapons and sensors, including tasers, explosives, high-resolution video cameras, infrared sensors, license plate readers, and listening devices.

Believe it or not, there have been some sightings of these objects in the Pacific Northwest -- but they are as elusive as Bigfoot sightings -- where you either need to present proof or it never happened.

A team of researchers in conjunction with the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research is developing what they are calling a micro aerial vehicle (MAV) that will undertake various espionage tasks. The robotic insect can effortlessly infiltrate urban areas, while being controlled from a long distance; and it is equipped with a camera and a built-in microphone.

The insect drone, with its 0.15-gram camera and memory card, is managed remotely with a special helmet. Putting on the helmet, the operator finds themselves in the “Cyber Insect's cockpit” and virtually sees what the big sees in real-time.

The device can land precisely on human skin, use its super-micron-sized needle to take DNA samples and quickly fly off again. All the people feel is the pain of a mosquito bite without the burning sensation. 

The drone is hard to detect and it can inject a micro radio frequency identification (RFID) tracking device right under skin. It can also be used to inject toxins into the enemy during battle.

The U.S. is not alone in miniaturizing drones that imitate nature. France, the Netherlands, and Israel are also developing similar devices. France developed flapping wing bio-inspired micro drones. The Netherlands BioMAV (Biologically Inspired AI for Micro Aerial Vehicles) also built Parrot AR drones. The Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) has produced a butterfly-shaped drone, weighing just 20 grams, which can gather intelligence inside buildings.

There is also a bird version that resembles a hummingbird.

The “Nano Hummingbird” drone is negligibly larger than an actual hummingbird and fits in the palm of one’s hand. It flies effortlessly, blending in with its surroundings. It is capable of maneuvering through windows and inside buildings.

The hummingbird drone, built by AeroVironment, can fly forwards, backward, and sideways, as well as rotate clockwise and counterclockwise. Not only does the drone resemble its avian inspiration in size, it looks remarkably like a hummingbird in flight. 

Researchers have created a robotic dragonfly that flies like a bird and hovers like an insect. It is designed for aerial photography, advanced gaming, R&D and security. The TechJect Dragonfly can be used for any task requiring live and mobile video feed; such as photography, home/workplace security, swarm robotics, advanced gaming, and spying.

The dragonfly drones are being developed to have data imputed in real-time to facilitate decision-making with the expectation of providing an overall picture for the remote controllers. These drones were designed to mimic insect flight patterns. They use high-frequency wings to hover over targets and perch to save battery life. Technology is being developed to allow drones to siphon electricity from wires and other power sources to be able to continue operations for days or weeks.

Scientists are also working on the development of miniature spider-like robots, which will be capable of carrying out intelligence-gathering tasks. It’s estimated that as much as 30% of the population has some degree of arachnophobia, making it one of the more common fears among humanity. This is logical, as spiders are creepy, erratic, and very fast runners. Now, robotics researchers have built something even scarier— a six-legged robot that looks like a spider, but moves faster and more efficiently. 

There is nothing that makes the blood run colder than the sight of a roach darting across the floor. What if this cockroach was running to save you? That's what researchers at UC Berkeley had in mind when they designed CRAM, a robot prototype that looks just like a cockroach. It has a jointed exoskeleton and a soft shell that allows it to shapeshift and move through small spaces. The researchers think CRAM, whose existence was partially funded by the US Army, could be the first step in creating an incredibly effective search-and-rescue or intelligence-gathering robot.

What’s impressive about these cockroaches is that they can run as fast through a quarter-inch gap as a half-inch gap, by reorienting their legs completely out to the side. They’re about half an inch tall when they run freely, but can squish their bodies to one-tenth of an inch—the height of two stacked pennies.

The Polish military will soon have “Bee” drones’ accompanying its armored personnel carriers. A Polish firm says it has developed incredibly tiny drones that can fly over battlefields for 30 minutes. This is a communications system, which operates superbly in battle conditions.

These drones don’t just offer surveillance capabilities; they can attack small targets with explosive charges. The Bee’s head has two built-in cameras and is electromechanically stabilized by a gyroscope. Once the Bee drones are close enough to their targets, they can explode.

Engineers from Washington State University (WSU) have created the smallest, lightest, and fastest micro-robots ever.

Inspired by actual mini-bugs and water striders, the insect-like micro-robots could one day be used for artificial pollination, search and rescue missions, remote environmental monitoring, micro-fabrication, or even robotic-assisted surgery.

The waster strider-inspired micro-robot weighs only 55 milligrams, while the mini-bug-inspired robot clocks in at a paltry eight milligrams. Perhaps equally impressive, both can move at about six millimeters a second.

A typical ant weighs about 5 milligrams and can move at nearly a meter per second. While extremely slow compared to real-life insects, this is significantly faster than other micro-robots based on the same technology.

The key technology driving the locomotion of these micro-robots are the miniaturized actuators that weigh less than a milligram each. Specifically, they don’t have moving joints, gears, or hinges like one would typically find in a mechanical moving device.

Instead, these micro-actuators are made from something called “shape metal” alloy (SMA) that changes shape when its temperature changes. The result is an extremely small yet mechanically sound “machine” that can propel the micro-robots at these previously unattainable speeds, 

These cyberbugs and the possibility of something going wrong have been written many times in science fiction stories and movies.

Back when I was a kid, I was a big fan of the Outer Limits. One of the most terrifying if not the most memorable episodes was called the Zanti Misfits. The Zantis are actually aliens that look like 6-inch hoagie-sized bugs with human-like faces.

When I first saw these creatures I thought of the biblical passage with the bugs from the bottomless pit crawling out to torment mankind.

In The Bible, Revelation 9:3 tells the story of Satan being given the key to the bottomless pit by a falling star. Satan then uses the key to release a plague of supernatural locust-like demons that torment unbelievers for five months. The locusts are described as having the following characteristics: 

They look like horses ready for battle, with crowns of gold on their heads and human faces. They also have iron breastplates and wings that sound like chariots rushing into battle. 

They are controlled by some unseen force. Was the apostle John seeing the reality of cyber bugs in his vision of the future?

In 1975, William Castle, one of the best horror writers and directors created the film Bug. It was the last film Castle was involved with before his death. 

In the film, an earthquake releases mutant cockroaches that can create fire by rubbing their legs together. Eventually, most of the bugs die because they cannot survive in the low air pressure on the Earth’s surface, but a scientist keeps one alive in a pressure chamber. 

He successfully breeds the cockroach with a modern bug creating a breed of intelligent, flying super-bugs. Something is unnerving about genetically modified bugs that can fly into your hair and strike a fire.

The movie was based on the science fiction book The Hephaestus Plague where a scientist genetically engineers a carbon eating bug each one capable of emitting a tiny flame, each one mysteriously incapable of reproducing. Their swarm is relentless and unstoppable, leaving a wake of death and charred ruin. Scientists struggle to destroy them before they destroy the earth.

In 1997, I remember a movie that only a handful of people probably watched, The movie was called MIMIC. I especially loved this horror film because the story was about genetically modified cockroaches. In the film there is a disease carried by common cockroaches and it is killing Manhattan children.

The film was directed by Guillermo del Toro,

To stop the epidemic, an entomologist and her husband creates a mutant breed of insect that secretes a fluid to kill the roaches. This mutant breed called the Judas Breed was engineered to die after one generation, but three years later we find out that the species has survived and evolved into a large, gruesome monster that can mimic human form. The form is a tall walking flying bug. 

It attacks at will and there is a huge colony living in the New York Subway.

Large predatory insects are the stuff of nightmares --and thanks to science we have cyber bugs that can be used to keep us up at night worrying that one may fly into the room and spy on you.

Nanotechnologies offer another pertinent example of the complex and dynamic way in which the boundaries between natural and non-natural processes are construed by scientists, policymakers, and technocrats.

The use of cyber insects as an controlled means of dispersing synthetic viruses into the environment could be more easily used for biological warfare than for routine agricultural use.

The history of biological warfare is nearly as old as the history of warfare itself. In ancient times, warring parties poisoned wells or used arrowheads with natural toxins. Mongol invaders catapulted plague victims into besieged cities, probably causing the first great plague epidemic in Europe, and British settlers distributed smallpox-infected blankets to Native Americans.

However, more and more we are learning that secretly, there are genetic engineers developing weapons that are far more sophisticated. Biological weapons that target certain groups of people are becoming more advanced.

The genetically engineered Frankenbug certainly has a highly-lethal potential and can be engineered to resist any environmental influence, but of course, we cannot know the entire story.

Much more alarming, from an arms-control perspective, are the possibilities of developing completely novel weapons on the basis of knowledge provided by biomedical research; developments that are already taking place.

Such weapons, designed for new types of conflicts and warfare scenarios, secret operations or sabotage activities, are not mere science fiction but are increasingly becoming a reality that we have to face.

In debates about genetic engineering and biological weapons, it is often stated that natural pathogens are sufficiently dangerous and deadly, and that genetic engineering is not necessary to turn them into more effective biological weapons.

The same can be said for conventional weapons being deadly and dangerous and yet we have nuclear capabilities, and advanced artificial intelligence capable of launching nuclear warheads at a predetermined target.

Keep in mind that today we don’t need a large nuclear weapon to take out a city – we can genetically modify an insect to carry with it a deadly pathogen to target unsuspecting victims with plausible deniability.