Interview of Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages for TerraSelvaggia

TerraSelvaggia is an Italian eco-anarchist paper, which made this interview with Russian Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages last September. Paper issue came up some time ago after the usual delays, so now it is time for online publication. Keep in mind, that this interview reflects the situation in Russian society last September – before the recent massive protest against election fraud. Now much has changed since then, but much is still the same. Enjoy!
For the beginning, about us, so that you know from which perspective we are talking.

S2W is an anarchist, participator of the Autonomous Action and “Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages”. Yaroslav Nikitenko is an eco-activist, who campaigns for the Khimki forest amongst other issues. We both write in personal capacity only. “Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages” is (was) an initiative separate from the general Khimki forest campaign, although Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages cooperates closely with the forest campaign.


Which is the current situation of the struggle in Khimki and the situation of those who have been hit by repression?

S2W: With the forest, situation is unfortunate, but with those who have been hit by repression, it is not so bad.

While writing this, forest has been cut from whole length of the Khimki forest, and engineering works of the road construction are underway, while logging is proceeding to North-West direction.

Of course there is still a lot of forest that could be saved, as when road has been built, developers will target the area surrounding the road during years to come.

As for the repression, Alexey Gaskarov got charges dropped against him, and he is currently pursuing for compensations for time spent in jail. Maxim Solopov got a probational sentence, which could be claimed as a victory as well, although Maxim will appeal against his sentence. Brother of Maxim, Denis, has was granted asylum status in Netherlands, and is currently living there. So we have passed the most urgent problems with the people who have been persecuted for the radical demonstration at the Khimki city administration last year. So Campaign to Defend Khimki Hostages is now dormant, but we will of course wake it up if new arrests or repressions emerge.

Yaroslav Nikitenko: Now the construction is in progress. People organised in a camp in the Khimki forest and every day they come to stop works. Activists often got beaten by private security protecting the loggin, police is inactive. While they are not able to stop the construction, they are slowing that significantly. However, the clearing for the route will be only percents of the whole forest area. The most danger comes from the existing route with its noise, chemical pollution, killing of animals, logging is not the main problem. The road will not be constructed in less than 3 years, that's why it is very likely to stop the project during that time due to the possible rapid changes in Russian economical and political situation. A possible crisis may halt all construction, as due to the tremendous corruption Russian budget is getting poorer and poorer.

We know that repression is right now particularly hard, we could hear that Ilya Borodaenko was killed during the eco- camp in July 2007, could you give us a general overview to better understand the level of tension in the struggle?

S2W: I do not think there is any general level of repression or tension in Russia, it is all particularities, depending on the conflict in question and local authorities.

Angarsk camp in 2007 and repression in Khimki are for sure amongst the worst cases of repression against ecological activist during the last few years. In Khimki, goons have targeted a number of critics of local administration – journalist Mikhail Beketov is still seriously disabled after being assaulted in November of 2008 and left to die, in November 2010 oppositional politician Konstantin Fetisov was seriously injured after an assault. Another journalist, Anatoli Yurov, was assaulted several times until he deceased for natural reasons last december – for example in 2008 he was stabbed 8 times in one assault. Anti-corruption activist Albert Pchelintsev was shot to mouth with a rubber bullet in 2009, other assaulted activist include Alexander Parfenov and and Vitali Kapytsev.

Recently there has been a number of arrests in Khimki connected to assault against Fetisov, arrested people used to work for the city administration – hopefully these developments help to finish with the reign of terror in this Moscow suburb. If it happens, it is for sure not only result of efforts of government authorities, but also of activists in Russia and abroad.

Which are the natural features of the Khimki forest's ecosystem? What would mean, in terms of damages to biodiversity, the highway construction project?

S2W: Khimki forest is home for a number of endangered species, listed in so called “red book”, which is a list of endangered species maintained by Russian authorities. According to Russian society for protection of birds, these include at least two bird species and 12 different plants.

However, for many it is first and foremost it is a social-ecological struggle, a struggle for remaining green areas in immediate vicinity of a huge megalopolis, against relentless urban development and automobilisation.

Yaroslav Nikitenko: In the Khimki forest there are three planned specially protected natural areas: an oak grouve, where oaks exist hundreds years, a unique mesotrophic swamp (we khow about the Ramsar convention denoting swamps as very precious ecosystems) and the bed of the river Klyazma, which serves as a natural corridor for big animal migration. On the swamp very precious animals and plants were found, including those from the Red Book of extremely rare species. The whole Moscow to St. Petersburg toll motorway is placed in a very anti-ecological way, destroying the forests practically on all its continuation: after Khimki it is destroying Solnechnogorsk forests

(http://khimkiforest.org/news/battle-khimki-forest-goes-wider), and then it is supposed to come through a national park "Zavidovo". Ecologists say that the route will destroy very precious lands, and also it goes right on the water-parting of the North of Moscow region, thus worsening the water for millions of people.Another point apart from ecology is that the route also comes over the mass-graves of the 20th century - in the Khimki forest many prisoners of Stalin's GULAG are buried, and in Myasnoy Bor close to St. Petersburg there is is mass grave of soldiers of the Second World War.

How you would describe the relevance of the actions of solidarity in Russia and abroad for the struggle itself?

S2W: For sure they are a big moral boost for local activists. In Russia, it is in general difficult to mobilise a large amount of people for anything, and in Khimki in particular, although local people have much sympathy for the struggle, vast majority are way too afraid to join even simple pickets (which are often banned and harrassed in the city). Khimki has become an issue much due to wideness of the support in terms of geography.

We read on Russian independent counter-information websites that “the Khimki case is much more than a simple case of protection of the forests”, but it is an important record, considering that it is one of the few realities of conflict inside a system of dominion in which, in an explicit way, economical and political oligarchies, judiciary forces, police and neo-fascists are co-operating into the conservation of an extremely precarious social balance and we heard of severe aggressions against activists from nazi-fascist elements. Could you help us to better elaborate this aspect inside the social context in which the Khimki struggles developed themselves?

S2W: The fact that so many aspects are interlinked in Khimki, is definitely the reason for many people to pick up the issue. Huge amount of people from human rights, anti-fascist, leftist, anarchist and general oppositional spectrum have joined, who in other cases give to environmental issues a low priority or no priority at all. Action in 28th of July last year would never have taken place, if developers did not provoked the whole anti-fascist community by hiring fascist football hooligans as enforcers.

However, it would be kind of exaggeration to call that “a cooperation for the sake of conservation of social balance”, as fascists are having a purely material interest here. They do not care about social order or the road, they just came for the money and did their job, much more cleanly than they did it in Angarsk – there are some hints, that they were hired back then in Angarsk as well, but unlike in Khimki, no conclusive proof.

More “idealistic” end of the ultra-right spectrum is actually into defending the forest. This has also resulted big conflicts among the defenders of the forest, as some naively think that you may cooperate with anyone for a “common cause”.

Also, I would not agree, that “social balance” in Russia is “extremely precarious”. In contrary, current regime has become increasingly stable, having survived the current economic crisis way better than West, and becoming increasingly legitimate in eyes of the society. Of course, current social order is completely unsustainable, and will come to end in few decades, in a way or another. However, I do not think Russian system will be amongst the first ones to collapse.

Which is the general situation of the ecologist movement in Russia? Could you summarize the history of the movement and describe the different parts that compose it? Which is the level of debate and the present approach regarding contents-subjects?

S2W: This is a question worth of writing a book, but not a book I would ever write. And I do not know who would, as Russian ecological movement is a very under-researched topic, only one author – sociologist Oleg Yanitsky comes to my mind, and his overtones are rather pessimistic and cynical.

Very roughly, I would divide recent (last 25 years) history to 4 periods:

1.Perestroika 1986-1991. This is characterised by emergence of the ecological movement as an independent social force, with a scale of mass protests seen never before or after. In general context of the Soviet Union, in many now independent republics, the whole independence movement often grew out from ecological movement – in Lithuania in protests against Ignalina nuclear plant, in Estonia protests against exploitation of Oil Shale, in Chechnya it was problems related to oil refinery industry, and so on. Back then, biggest demonstrations against nuclear power gathered more than hundred thousand people in Moscow.

2.Crisis of the movement period from 1991 to circa 2005. This is characterised by collapse of mass ecological movements (and pretty much any social movements whatsoever), replaced by professionalist NGO's, but to a lesser extent also by radical ecological Rainbow Keepers movement. However towards turn of the new millenium, both NGO's and Rainbow Keepers started to wane NGO's because of increasing state pressure, and also because their Western sponsors became less and less enthousiastic to send money as they figured out no drastic and quick changes are to be gained in Russia. And increasing average wages made it more and more difficult to maintain paid staff solely wih foreign grants.

3. Third period is localization from circa 2005 to circa 2010. Eventually, formerly most important ecological umbrella organisation in the former Soviet Union, Socio-Ecological Union, had to close their Moscow central office alltogether and only maintain a network of local organisations with a low level of cooperation. Greenpeace survived better due to their more centralistic, hierarchical and financially independent model, however Russian office is often keen to pick up less controversial topics, as more confrontational attitude may lead to its closure. However when they prefer not to be in the forefront of some issue (such as with the Khimki forest), they often provide important support behind the curtains. Rainbow Keepers pretty much ceased to exist for other reasons, a combination of personal issues aggravated by their organisational structure. For a good documentary of Rainbow Keeper model of action, check out documentary “No Pasaran”, available in a torrent here. http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/4584/No-Pasaran

In Moscow, not only most important ecological issue, but most important social conflict whatsoever was conflict against “urban densification”, attempts of developers to take over minor urban parks and yards. Before the current economic crisis, there were over 600 initiative groups in Moscow, tackling with their local problems, most of these just a handful of people, but protests were often attended by hundreds of people and at times they grew to riots. Originally Khimki campaign began as a group very similar to all of the others. And similar kind of struggles popped up in pretty much every Russian city with more than few hundred thousand inhabitants.

During this period, there were also more general topics, such as protection of lake Baikal - against a projected pipeline route and a pulp mill - first campaign was succesful whereas the second one not(this far). Another topic is the Black Sea rim, for example Utrich region, the whole region is under a constant pressure due to transport of raw materials and touristic developments. But although there were protests around these topics all around the country, big picture is the same – local problems with significiant social framework are what gets people mobilised. Global issues, such as climate, are pretty much non-existing in Russian ecological spectrum.

4. Khimki and post-Khimki era, since 2010 onwards. It is yet early to say where are we going now, but at least there is a new drive for networking and for recreating kind of structures, which got collapsed in prior of 2005. Of course, any structures have also a potential for abuse, so we will see wether this will be a good or bad.

Which you think are the main features and the important sources of inspiration, coming from the struggle in defense of the Khimki forest, that could enrich and improve the heritage of the whole radical-ecologist movement?

S2W: Of course, as the situation with the forest is what it is, one may not celebrate a victory. But still, for us it was a completely new level of struggle, and also a very important experience on how to defend our comrades.

And Khimki conflict is not anything much particular, there are hundreds of similar issues all around the Russia. Khimki became a symbol of many things for a number of reasons, but pretty much just due to stubborness and commitment of the people, who kept pushing for the issue. Maybe the most important lesson is, that there are no “big issues” and “small issues”, any issue may become big if you make it so.

http://avtonom.org/en/news/interview-campaign-defend-khimki-hostages-terraselvaggia

La nano-pesadilla (texto de Terra Selvaggia)

Los que permanecen como puros humanos y rechazan mejorarse tendrán un handicap serio. Constituirán subespecies y serán los chimpancés del futuro.

— Kevin Warwick*, tecnófilo con múltiples chips subcutaneos

Como en un juego, un juego macabro, la tecnología ha sido empujada hacia la manipulación de la materia a escala de nanometro, es decir, la millonésima parte de un milímetro.Lo que se manipula es algo que se degrada en los límites entre lo no-viviente y lo viviente: el átomo.

Esta tecnología, llamada nanotecnología, crea nuevos 'productos' que de hecho empiezan desde la manipulación de átomos, partículas subatómicas y moléculas. A diferencia de la biotecnología que manipula la estructura del DNA, crea organismos mediante la recombinación de genes, la nanotecnología 'derriba' la materia transformándola en átomos con la posibilidad de sintetizarlos artificialmente y así crear algo material de nada (átomo a átomo). Por el momento, la atención está focalizada en los átomos de carbono, el esqueleto de la materia, pero pronto podría extenderse a otros elementos. Brevemente, a los científicos les gustaría controlar los elementos de la Tabla Periódica a voluntad; de acuerdo con la ciencia, esto permitiría recombinar las características de un producto (como el color, resistencia, punto de fusión) de una manera completamente diferente de la que ha sido posible hasta ahora. Por ejemplo, las empresas que tratan con nanotecnología han probado nuevos productos como tejidos antimanchas, vitrinas autolimpiables, cemento con características especiales, anticontaminantes para diesel, etc.

Tan absurdo como puede parecer, la nanotecnología tiene la pretension de hacer nuevos productoss átomo a átomo. Por ejemplo, tiene la ridícula idea de reemplazar comida con un conjunto de átomos que podría ser transformada en vino o whiskey o zumo de naranja, dependiendo de las necesidades del consumidor, 'simplemente' provocando una determinada reacción.

Los seguidores entusiastas de la nanotecnología han pensado últimamente que si uno llega al punto de manipular materia en su componente más básico, el átomo, ¿por qué no mezclar los estudios biotecnológicos del mundo biomolecular con la investigación sobre átomos? Así nace la nano-biotecnología. Todavía no satisfechos con crear nuevos productos aparentemente estáticos empezando desde la tecnología atómica, en vez de eso por combinación con la tecnología de la vida, tiene el objetivo de crear nueevos productos donde los límites entre los seres vivientes y no-vivientes se borre. ¿Por ejemplo? Plásticos autolimpiables en los que enzimas se alimentan de la suciedad, alas de aviones llenas de proteinas (si el ala se rompe, proteinas que funcionan como adhesivos se liberan reparándola), computadoras ultra-rápidas con circuitos basados en una 'estructura' de DNA, conductores eléctricos de dimensiones de una nano escala en una base proteica, es decir, el 'plástico viviente' construido en una bacteria genéticamente manipulada capaz de producir un enzima que puede polimerizar de acuerdo con los científicos.

Pero las aplicaciones desplegadas ante el gran público son sólo bienes mezquinos, innovaciones inútiles para satisfacer deseos infantiles generados en el 'consumidor' por la tecnología. Y, de hecho, las aplicaciones descritas más arriba sobre la manipulación de la materia resultan ser solo una pequela parte de los resultados buscados en los proyectos de investigación actuales. La miniaturización de los procesadores de información es ocultada dentro de estos gadgets inútiles, y esto es de alguna importancia. Esta miniaturización llevará a la presencia de microchips 'inteligentes' de cualquier objeto en el mercado, desde balanzas a ropa a bolígrafos todo hasta mezclas nutricionales capaces de comunicarse con la nevera.

Pero esta aplicación final prevista para esos microchips no es cierta, y no es la primera vez que tras las pretensiones humanitarias o las mejorías milagrosas del estilo de vida medio hay un proyecto oculto bastante diferente, cuiadosamente disimulado a la mayoría de nosotros. Este es el caso para las aplicaciones de la nanotecnología más alarmantes, como el enlace máquina-humano o la aplicación de microchips subcutaneos, en los que se excusa su uso en la combinación de la curación de enfermedades raras y la protección de los pobres e indefensos ciudadanos de brutales criminales.

De hecho, el campo en que la nanotecnología se ha desarrollado más es el que está ligado a estudios militares. Los escenarios que los mass-media enseñaban durante la última guerra en Irak ya apuntaban a la finalización de equipamento 'inteligente' capaz de adaptarse a condiciones internas y externas y armamento que también estaba dotado de poderes extraordinarios otorgados por sensores, microchips y demás.

Un ejemplo obvio de esto es el MEMS (sistemas micro-electrico-mecánicos), la primera generación de nanomáquinas. Estos son receptores y motores diminutos del tamaño de un grano de arena, los prototipos de los cuales ya han entrado en uso en la industria. La aplicación que actualmente está siendo estudiada es la vigilancia en polvo que será aplicado en el campo de batalla o bajo un área bajo observación con objeto de obtener varios tipos de información. El futuro de la robótica de guerra es cada vez más el de versátiles y baratos micro y nanorobots usados como armas altamente especializadas.

En la estela de estos estudios otro aspecto importante es el del control social. Un chip del tamaño de un grano de arena destinado a ser insertado bajo la piel ha sido puesto en el mercado por la compañía americana Applied Digital Solutions. Se llama Verichip y es capaz de contener información sobre la persona y puede estar dotado con capacidades GPS que permitirían el conocimiento de donde está la persona todo el tiempo (uno puede incluso comprarlo por internet si quiere conocerlo de cerca). El Verichip puede ser inyectado con una jeringa, usando un simple anestésico local. Se vende como un guardaespaldas electrónico para prevenir secuestros, por lo que muchos multi-millonarios ya lo están solicitando. Pero una intuición fácilmente desarrolla que pronto un chip así no será una conveniencia opcional para los ricos, sino una pesada carga para los pobres. Al principio, ensalzan los aspectos humanitarios de tales instrumentos, mencionando que en algunos casos serán de uso para médicos para intervenir rápidamente o para la policía para prevenir secuestros y violencia. Luego las aplicaciones en cada vez porciones más grandes de población serán justificadas hasta el día en que no se pueda vivir sin ella. Ese día el chip implantado será obligatorio y librarse de él será un delito grave.

Finalmente, los chips que el gobierno británico propone para implantar en pedófilos que ya han sido sentenciados son la última frontera. Además de registrar la posición de alguien bajo vigilancia, estos chips registran en latido del corazón y la tensión arterial, dando un aviso sobre la inminencia de un eventual acto de violencia. No señalará un estado de excitación sexual, sino nerviosismo y miedo. El mismo nerviosismo y miedo que un ladrón o un saboteador puede sentir mientras está en faena. Además, uno no debería considerar la alarma de pedofilia, con la que los media están bombardeandonos desde hace unos años de manera que es tremendamente desproporcionada respecto de la realidad de las cosas, como secundaria en el proyecto de control social.

Manipulando la histeria colectiva de esta manera, los niños se convierten cada vez más en objetos propiedad del Estado, y así su protección de convierte en una obligación a cumplir. Esto no sólo justifica implantes de chip en pedófilos, sino la propuesta de expertos y asociaciones de padres para poner chips a todos los niños de Inglaterra después del último caso extraordinario de Holly y Jessica, violadas y asesinadas en 2002. Pero, ¿quién protegerá a esas niñas del ojo penetrante de sus padres y del Estado? ¿Quién les protegerá de la red ineludible de control tecnológico?

Realmente podemos ser la última generación de seres humanos sin prótesis tecnológicas al nacer.

La gran importancia de la nanobiotecnología para el mundo económico e institucional se ve en la enorme apropiación de fondos del gobierno americano, que invierte entre 600 y 700 millones de dólares al año en el desarrollo del sector**. Además, en Europa hay una enorme financiación para proyectos de investigación o centros dedicados al desarrollo de la nanotecnología. El caso de Grenoble es revelador. Es la ciudad francesa considerada como la capital europea del desarrollo tecnológico, donde algunos proyectos financiados por la Unión Europea se benefician de fondos de cientos de millones de euros. Entre estos está Minatec, considerado el proyecto europeo capaz de competir con sus rivales japoneses y americanos, originado por los esfuerzos de la UE y multinacionales como Philips, Motorola y STMicroelectronics.

Años atrás, la ciencia ficción nos ha entretenido con historias sobre replicantes capaces de multiplicarse autónomamente y en gran número hasta que conquistaban la Tierra. Este es el miedo también que muchos expertos sienten sobre la nanobiotecnología, que algún organismo viviente construido artificialmente pudiese escapar al control de la ciencia y vivir, multiplicándose sin medida (un temor que es concretamente verificado por los productos de la manipulación genética)

Pero como siempre, cada temor, y no sólo aquellos que son más absurdos, es dejado de lado en nombre del progreso en beneficio de la humanidad. Además, el mundo de la ciencia siempre ha sido defendido manteniendo que las fechorías de la tecno-ciencia son debidas a los malos usos que se han hecho por el conocimiento; manteniendo, como siempre, que la tecnología es neutral, igual que aquellos que, con sus estudios de ciencia nuclear, han contribuido plenamente a las bombas que cayeron en Hiroshima y Nagasaki, a las tragedias de los accidentes nucleares y a la proliferación de armamento, se dan prisa en hablar. Ciertamente no es permitiendo que los expertos habituales del mismo mundo político-económico sean los úmicos en hablar de la materia como seremos capaces de resolver tales cuestiones. Ni seremos capaces de hacerlo desplazando nuestra confianza en la información surgida del mundo científico desde que una de sus actuales prerrogativas es descaradamente hacer a la gente aceptar las nuevas aplicaciones tecnológicas de la investigación científica. En realidad, su información transparente meramente nos comunica decisiones que ya han sido tomadas en nuestro nombre y sobre nuestras cabezas y revelan los resultados de la investigación que ya han sido realizados.

Quién sabe si en el caso de la nanobiotecnología, como ya ha pasado con la biotecnología, aquellos que reclaman oponerse a ella aventurarán peticiones para la regulación, reglas preventivlas, estructuras de control independientes.

Entonces la historia acabará igual que con la biotecnología: una oposición mínima a las aplicaciones relacionadas con la comida con argumentos fácilmente recuperables (y recuperados) por una parte de la camarilla científica, con comida transgénica que ya forma parte de nuestra dieta diaria. Nada de oposición en absoluto a la biotecnología médica que más bien se plantea como una gran oportunidad para la gente enferma.

Y estas cosas son realmente en las que se focaliza el aparato entero que tiene todo que ganar de la biotecnología: no más debate sobre GMOs (ndt: organismos modificados genéticamente) en el campode la dieta, no más alarmismo, no más noticias, a pesar del hecho que hay todavía gente que quiere luchar, oponiéndose al perjuicio con la única solución posible: la destrucción.

Y así pasará en el campo de la nano-biotecnología. Tan pronto como se hable sobre él y los escenarios estén cada vez más claros, la oposición estéril levantará una voz de oposición sobre losp eligros inherentes de aquellos proyectos que están más abiertos a debate como los del campo de la dieta y los militares. Nada más.

¿Qué hacer? Si Kevin Warwick está en lo cierto, entonces nos absteceremos bien de bananas, porque ciertamente estaremos entre aquellos que forman los chimpancés del futuro. Pero es sabido, incluso películas conocidas nos lo muestran, que cuando se jode a los chimpancés ...


Notas del traductor:
* Más info sobre este tecnófilo aquí.
** Presupeustos dedicados a la nanotecnología en algunas del mundo


[from Terra Selvaggia #13 , summer 2003]
Traducido de Green Anarchist #71-74 por amotinadxs.

http://www.amotinadxs.blogspot.com/2011/12/la-nano-pesadilla-texto-deterra.html

Mobile Prosthesis --from Terra Selvaggio.

MOBILE PROSTHESIS

(translated from Terra Selvaggio)



This great invention isn’t necessary to support a part of the body, but, if anything, a part of the mind. The mobile or cellular phone (this ill-omened name hits the mark so well), this indispensable tool linked to individuals in such a blatantly unhealthy manner, is not just electromagnetic toxicity, nor just a revolution in interpersonal relationships, nor even just a stupid consumerist gadget that fattens the usual pocketbooks as always.

Above all, it is the replacement of that bit of the unknown that this world still reserves for us, the very small wonders of a sought after solitude, of a journey with oneself, of a time away from known and unknown human beings. The terrifying unknown, inconceivable and unimaginable for those who are afraid of their own life, for those who don’t want to cut themselves of from the cord that links them to the other puppets of this little sham theater even for a moment, for those who want to know and inform others about their life, or more accurately about their own and other people’s physical presence.

Dread of the dark zones where a black line on the display indicates death, fear of death when another line is the foreboding omen of silence. The inability to connect induces states of panic in the frenzied search for a “zone of light” or an energetic fountain where the dead can rise again.

Mechanical gestures draw the prosthesis out by its appendages at nearly perfect development, controlling the conditions of one’s connection, of one’s life. The fear is that of being outside, of not knowing how to live outside of a vocal presence that is much too often reduced to an exchange of embarrassing banalities, “Love, I have a five minute delay; darling, I’ve left; dear, I’m in Bologna; sweetest, have you eaten yet; love, I don’t know why I called, but I called you just the same…”

Now and in the future, everything must be in its place. Wonder would break a frantically desired monotony, sorry excuse for life, where the daily humdrum is broken by the ceaseless melodies that resound everywhere (from delirious concerts in non-places like the subway, to the solitary symphonies in the most unexpected places like at night at the top of Stromboli). The desire is to know everything – place, time, activities – in order to cry: I am here, I am there, no problem, no worry, nothing unknown; the buried desire for the unknown is utterly dead, replaced by security.

Because waiting is no longer part of this life, capital urgently needs space and time to be occupied, and no squandering is allowed, no elaboration of fantasy is tolerated except that of accumulating more, no misunderstanding, no anticipation lived with passion, determined by desire, sought after in itself for the satisfaction it brings.

From the most innocent matters to the sadly professional necessities, it is probably the moments by ourselves that most bear witness to the depressing dependence on this prosthesis, from the day trip in the hills to the passage through the desert, the ocean or the mountains, a little red ball on some computer screen indicates the exact point of presence; like an electronic bracelet that transforms the world into the prison it is. Besides, there are challenges here to be sought, but calculated challenges, with a thread of confidence to prevent surprises, whims of the sort in which the only contest is with oneself, as in a virtual game where there is no space for solitary respite, where one is never outside and with a touch one returns to the friendly word, happy and smiling.

I hope that those who attack the high speed train do so not only because of the horrible disfigurement perpetrated against the earth, not only, in short, for the obvious consequences to the planet, but also because of what buying time, paying dearly for it, in order to spend it later growing increasingly fat, means, because of what is no longer a journey, but a displacement between identical places with no sensation of approaching. The journey is dead; capital requires something else.

I hope that those who attack telephone antennae do so not just because of the waves in which we are submerged, that infiltrate into the bodies and minds of individuals, but also in order to be done with the globalization of communications that pursues us everywhere and destroys even the smallest bit of wonder in this world, so dull, so determined, so staidly comfortable.

—Talpa

--from
Willful Disobedience Vol. 3, No. 3:

The Nano-Nightmare from Terra Selvaggia

The Nano-Nightmare

from Terra Selvaggia

Those who remain as pure humans and refuse to improve themselves will have a serious handicap. They will constitute a subspecies and be the chimpanzees of the future.

— Kevin Warwick, technophile with multiple subcutaneous chips

As in a game, a macabre game, technology has been pushed to the manipulation of matter on the scale of a nano-meter, i.e., the millionth part of a millimeter. What is manipulated is something that shades off into the boundaries between the non-living and the living: the atom.

This technology, called nanotechnology, creates new ‘products’ actually starting from the manipulation of atoms, subatomic particles and molecules. Unlike biotechnology that manipulates the structure of DNA, creating organisms through the recombination of genes, nanotechnology ‘breaks down’ matter transforming it into atoms with the possibility of artificially synthesizing them and thus of creating something material from nothing (atom by atom). At the moment, attention is focused on carbon atoms, the skeleton of matter, but soon it could be extended to other elements. In short, scientists would like to control the elements of the Periodic Table at will; according to science, this would allow combining the characteristics of a product (such as color, resistance, melting point) in a manner completely different from what has been possible up to now. For example, the enterprises that deal with nanotechnology have tested new products such as stainproof fabrics, self-cleaning windows, cement with special characteristics, anti-pollutants for diesel, etc.

As absurd as it may seem, nanotechnology has the pretension of making new products by constructing them atom by atom. For example, it has the ridiculous idea of replacing food with an ensemble of atoms that could be transformed into wine or whiskey or orange drink, depending on the need of the consumer, ‘simply’ by triggering off a determined reaction.

The enthusiastic supporters of nanotechnology have thought that ultimately if one reaches the point of manipulating matter in its most basic component, the atom, why not mix biotechnological studies of the biomolecular world with the precisely with the research on atoms? Thus, nano-biotechnology is born. No longer satisfied with creating new apparently static products starting from atomic technology, instead by blending it with the technology of life, it aims for the creation of new products where the boundaries between living and non-living beings are erased. For example? Self-cleaning plastics in which enzymes feed on the dirt, airplane wings full of proteins (if the wing breaks, proteins that function as adhesives are released repairing it), ultra-fast computers with circuits based on a ‘framework’ of DNA, electric conductors of dimensions on a nano scale in a protein base, i.e., the ‘living plastic’ built on a genetically manipulated bacterium capable of producing an enzyme that can polymerize according to scientists.

But the applications unfurled before the great public are just shoddy goods, useless innovations to satisfy infantile desires generated by technology in the ‘consumer’. And, in fact, the applications described above for the manipulation of matter turn out to be just the tiniest part of the results sought in current research projects. The miniaturization of information processors is concealed within these worthless gadgets, and this is of some importance. This miniaturization will lead to the presence of ‘intelligent’ microchips on any object in the market, from scales to clothes to pens all the way to nutritional mixtures capable of communicating with the refrigerator.

But this final application foreseen for these microchips is not certain, and it is not the first time that behind the humanitarian pretenses or the miraculous improvement of the average lifestyle there is quite a different project hidden, carefully concealed from most of us. This is the case for the most disturbing applications of nanotechnology, such as the humanmachine link or the application of subcutaneous microchips, which use as their excuse the combination of the curing of rare diseases and the protection of poor, defenseless citizens from brutal criminals.

In fact, the field I which nanotechnology is most developed is that which is linked to military studies. The scenarios that the media showed during the last war in Iraq already pointed to the finalization of ‘intelligent’ equipment capable of adapting itself to internal and external conditions and weaponry that was also endowed with extraordinary powers conferred by sensors, microchips and so on.

An obvious example is that of the MEMS (micro-electrical-mechanical systems), the first generation of nanomachines. These are miniature receivers and motors the size of a grain of dust, the proto-types of which are already coming into use in industry. The application currently being studied is that of surveillance powder that will be sprayed onto a battlefield or into an area under observation in order to get various types of information. The future of the robotics of war is increasingly that of versatile and low-priced microand nano-robots used as highly specialized weapons.

In the wake of these studies another important aspect is that of social control. A chip the size of a grain of rice that is meant to be inserted under the skin has been put on the market by the American company Applied Digital Solutions. It is called the Verichip and is capable of containing information about the person and can be endowed with GPS capabilities that would allow knowledge of where the person ‘wearing’ it is at all times (one can even buy it on the Internet if one wants to know it up close). The Verichip can be injected with a syringe, using a simple local anesthetic. It is sold as an electronic bodyguard for preventing abductions, so that already many multi-millionaires are requesting it. But an intuition easily develops that soon such a chip will not be an optional convenience for the rich, but rather a heavy burden for the poor. At the beginning, they extol the humanitarian aspects of such instruments, mentioning that in some cases they will be of use to doctors for intervening quickly or to police for preventing abductions and violence. Then applications on increasingly larger portions of the population will be justified until the day in which we cannot live without it. On that day the chip implant will be obligatory and getting rid of it will be a serious offense.

Finally, the chips that the British government proposes for implanting in pedophiles who are already sentenced are the latest frontier. Besides registering the position of the one under surveillance, these chips will register the heartbeat and arterial tension, giving a warning about the imminence of an eventual act of violence. It will not signal a state of sexual arousal, but nervousness and fear. The same nervousness and fear that a thief or a saboteur might feel while at work. Besides, one should not consider the pedophilia alarm, with which the media has been bombarding us for years in a way that is hugely disproportionate to the reality of things, to be incidental to the project of social control.

By maneuvering collective hysteria in this way, children increasingly become the objects of state property, and thus their protection becomes an obligation to carry out. This doesn’t merely justify chip implants in pedophiles, but also the proposal of experts and parents’ associations to chip all the children in England after the latest extraordinary case of Holly and Jessica, raped and murdered in 2002. But who will protect these children from the penetrating eye of their parents and the state? Who will protect them from the inescapable network of technological control?

We might, indeed, be the last generation of human beings lacking technological prostheses at birth.

The great importance of nanobiotechnology for the economic and institutional world is shown by the huge appropriation of funds by the American government, which invests between 600 and 700 million dollars a year in the development of the sector. Furthermore, in Europe there is enormous financing for research projects or centers dedicated to the development of nanotechnology. The case of Grenoble is revealing. It is the French town considered to be the European capital of technological development, where some projects financed by the European Union benefit from funds of hundreds of millions of Euros. Among these is Minatec, considered the European project capable of competing with the largest Japanese and American rivals, originating in the efforts of the EU and multinationals like Philips, Motorola and STMicroelectronics.

In past years, science fiction has entertained us with stories about replicants capable of multiplying autonomously and in great numbers until they conquer the earth. This is also the fear many experts feel about nano-biotechnology, that some artificially constructed living organism could escape the controls of science and live, multiplying itself beyond measure (a fear that is concretely verified for the products of genetic manipulation).

But as always, every fear, and not just those that are most absurd, is set aside in the name of progress to the benefit of humanity. Furthermore, the world of science has always been defended by maintaining that the misdeeds of techno-science are due to the bad uses that have been made of the knowledge; by maintaining, as always, that technology is neutral, just as those who, with their studies of nuclear science, then fully contributed to the bombs that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to the tragedies of nuclear accidents and to the proliferation of armaments, were quick to say. It is certainly not by allowing the usual experts from the same academic-political world the only say in the matter that we will be able to resolve such questions. Nor will we be able to do so by placing our trust in the information arising from the scientific world since one of its current prerogatives is to openly make people accept the new technological applications of scientific research. In reality, its transparent information merely communicates decisions to us that have already been made in our names and over our heads and discloses the results of research that has already been carried out.

Who knows if in the case of nanobiotechnology, as already happened with biotechnology, those who claim to oppose it will once again venture into demands for regulation, precautionary rules, independent structures of control.

Then the story will end just as it did for biotechnology: a minimal opposition to applications related to food with arguments easily recuperable (and recuperated) by a part of the scientific clique, with transgenic food that already makes part of our daily diet. No opposition at all to medical biotechnology that is rather looked upon by all as a great opportunity for sick people.

And these things are really what the entire apparatus that has everything to gain from biotechnology focuses on: no more debate on GMOs in the dietary field, no more alarmism, no more news, despite the fact that there are still people who want to struggle, opposing the harm with the only possible solution: destruction.

And so it will happen in the field of nano-biotechnology. As soon as it is talked about and the scenarios are made increasingly clear, the sterile opposition will raise on oppositional voice about the dangers inherent in those projects that are most open to question such as those in the dietary or military fields. Nothing more.

What to do? If Kevin Warwick is right, then we will stock up well on bananas, because we will certainly be among those who form the chimpanzees of the future. But it is known, even a well-known film teaches us, when chimpanzees get pissed off...

[from Terra Selvaggia #13 , summer 2003]

Notes: from Green Anarchist #71-74

Source: Retrieved on January 1, 2005 from http://www.greenanarchist.org

Opuscolo "Nanotecnologie - La pietra filosofale del dominio"

Per richiedere copie dell'opuscolo scrivere a:

"il Silvestre" c/o F. Bonamici C.P. 88, 56127 Pisa centro

Prezzo 6 euro, sconto 50% distributori