Social Intelligence Science

Kandahar. The ancient desert crossroads and, as of fall of 2001, ground zero for the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in southern Afghanistan. In the northern part of the country, the US-supported Northern Alliance has made progress on the battlefield, but in the south, the country is still under the Taliban's bloody hold and al-Qa'ida continues to operate there. With no "Southern Alliance" for the US to support, a new strategy is needed if victory is to be achieved. Veteran CIA officer Duane Evans is dispatched to Pakistan to "get something going in the South." Foxtrot in Kandahar is his story.

The Ghosts of Langley is a provocative and panoramic new history of the Central Intelligence Agency that relates the agency's current predicament to its founding and earlier years, telling the story of the agency through the eyes of key figures in CIA history, including some of its most troubling covert actions around the world. It reveals how the agency, over seven decades, has resisted government accountability, going rogue in a series of highly questionable ventures that reach their apotheosis with secret overseas prisons and torture programs.

A brilliant, invigorating account of the great writers on both sides of the Iron Curtain who played the dangerous games of espionage, dissidence, and subversion that changed the course of the Cold War.

La transición del presidente Donald J. Trump al presidente Joseph R. Biden Jr. es uno de los períodos más peligrosos de la historia de Estados Unidos. Pero como revelan por vez primera el ganador del Premio Pulitzer Bob Woodward y el aclamado reportero Robert Costa, se trataba de mucho más que una simple crisis política interna.

The singularity is the emergence of artificial general intelligence (AGI), and the associated transformation of the human condition. Spoiler alert: That transformation will be profound. Despite the importance of the concept of the singularity, the subject receives nothing like the attention it deserves. This book seeks to dispel the confusion, to untangle the distortions, to highlight practical steps forward, and to attract much more serious attention to the singularity. The future of humanity is at stake.

It has become axiomatic to contend that U.S. foreign policy must adapt to an era of renewed "great-power competition." The United States went on a quarter-century strategic detour after the Cold War, the argument goes, basking in triumphalism and getting bogged down in the Middle East. Now China and Russia are increasingly challenging its influence and undercutting the order it has led since 1945. How should it respond to these two formidable authoritarian powers?

Before the cyber age, foreign interference in Western democratic politics played out in a comparatively narrow arena. The explosive expansion of cyberspace has radically altered this situation. The hacking activities of Russian military agents in the 2016 US presidential election and other major incidents demonstrate the magnitude of the contemporary problem. This is a struggle that the West is losing. Lucas Kello delves into recent history to reveal the failures of present policy in preventing and punishing cyberattacks and other forms of technological aggression.

Too often, we are told that Russia plays a weak hand well. But, perhaps the nation's cards are better than we know. Russia ranks behind the US and China by traditional measures of power: GDP, population size and health, and military might. Yet twenty-five years removed from its mid-1990s nadir following the collapse of the USSR, Russia has become a supremely disruptive force in world politics. Kathryn E. Stoner assesses the resurrection of Russia and argues that we should look beyond traditional means of power to assess its strength in global affairs.

PEGASUS: der Investigativ-Bericht über den größten Spionage-Skandal seit der NSA-Affäre. Die Spionage-Software Pegasus, die von der israelischen Firma NSO entwickelt wurde, kann jedes Mobiltelefon vollständig überwachen – und zwar ohne Spuren zu hinterlassen. Genutzt wird die Späh-Software von zahlreichen Regierungen weltweit, darunter autoritäre Staaten genauso wie EU-Staaten. Unter den Ausgespähten sind Journalistinnen, Menschenrechtsanwälte, Umwelt-Aktivistinnen, Geschäftsleute und sogar Staatsoberhäupter.

Künstliche Intelligenz ist die Coming Wave, der nächste technologische Sprung, der sich nicht aufhalten lässt. Wir nähern uns einem kritischen Punkt in der Menschheitsgeschichte. Die Künstliche Intelligenz steht noch am Anfang, doch die Welle baut sich auf, und wir sind darauf nicht vorbereitet. Mustafa Suleyman ist Mitbegründer von DeepMind, dem KI-Pionier, der nun Teil von Alphabet ist, dem Google-Mutterkonzern. Er ist der ultimative KI-Insider. Sein Buch zeigt, was auf dem Spiel steht, und fragt, wie wir von den neuen Technologien profitieren können, ohne die Kontrolle zu verlieren.

Wie demokratisch war Konrad Adenauer? Konrad Adenauer prägte als Gründungskanzler und hochverehrter Staatsmann eine ganze Epoche. Zur eigenen Machtsicherung hebelte der CDU-Chef dabei allerdings die von ihm selbst mitgestalteten demokratischen Spielregeln des Grundgesetzes aus: Über Jahre hinweg profitierte er heimlich von der gesetzwidrigen Ausforschung der SPD-Führung durch den Auslandsnachrichtendienst, die sein Kanzleramtschef Hans Globke und der BND-Präsidenten Reinhard Gehlen eingefädelt hatten.

Artificial intelligence was meant to be the great social equalizer that helps promote fairness by removing human bias from the equation, but is this true? Given that the policing and judicial systems can display human bias, this book explores how the technology they use can also reflect these prejudices. From healthcare services to social scoring in exams, to applying for and getting loans, AI outcomes often restrict those most in need of these services. Through personal stories from an esteemed black data scientist and AI expert, this book attempts to demystify the algorithmic black box.

If you are interested in deepening your emotional awareness and in developing your emotional intelligence in ways that enhance conscious cocreative living, then this book is for you.

They Know Everything About You is a groundbreaking exposé of how government agencies and tech corporations monitor virtually every aspect of our lives, and a fierce defense of privacy and democracy. The revelation that the government has access to a vast trove of personal online data demonstrates that we already live in a surveillance society. But the erosion of privacy rights extends far beyond big government.

En un asombroso viaje desde los pasillos del poder en Washington, hasta algunos de los sitios más remotos y peligrosos del planeta (Afganistán, Somalia y Corea del Norte entre ellos), el aclamado periodista de investigación Ronan Farrow nos explica algunos de los cambios más trascendentales y menos comprendidos en la historia de Estados Unidos.

You are probably not aware, because of their hidden nature, but artificial intelligence systems are all around you affecting some of the biggest areas of your life - jobs, loans, kids, mental health, relationships, freedoms, and even healthcare decisions that can determine if you live or die.

The United States national-security establishment is vast, yet the United States has failed to meet its initial objectives in almost every one of its major, post-World War II conflicts. Of these troubled efforts, the US wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan stand out for their endurance, resource investment, human cost, and miscalculated decisions. In Planning to Fail, James H. Lebovic argues that a profound myopia helps explain US decision-making failures. In each of the wars explored in this book, he identifies four stages of intervention.

Vehement widerspricht Andreas von Bülow der offiziellen Version der Anschläge vom 11. September: Ohne geheimdienstliche Unterstützung war eine solche Operation nicht durchzuführen. Seine brisanten Thesen sind ein Angriff auf die Verlogenheit der CIA. Nur Stunden nach dem Terroranschlag vom 11. September hatte die US-Regierung Fotos und Steckbriefe aller Attentäter, wusste sie Bescheid über alle Drahtzieher und Hintermänner. Und blitzartig war auch Präsident George Bushs Strategie gegen die Mächte des Bösen fertig. Zufall? Bülow, früherer Bundesminister, zweifelt die offizielle Version vehement an.

Covering more than 30 years of history, from the 1980s through Obama's presidency, The Threat Matrix explores the transformation of the FBI from a domestic law enforcement agency, handling bank robberies and local crimes, into an international intelligence agency - with more than 500 agents operating in more than 60 countries overseas - fighting extremist terrorism, cyber crimes, and, for the first time, American suicide bombers.

Waffen, Drogen und schmutziges Geld sind ihnen nicht fremd: Die westlichen Geheimdienste haben in den vergangenen Jahren kräftig mitgemischt bei Drogenhandel, Terrorismus und organisierter Kriminalität - Verbrechen, die sie aber im Namen des Staates verübten. Der ehemalige Bundestagsabgeordnete, Bundesminister und Staatssekretär Andreas von Bülow enthüllt in seiner packenden Darstellung die kriminellen Machenschaften der Geheimdienste BND, Mossad und CIA und zeigt, dass sich die Nachrichtendienste keineswegs auf die Sammlung und Verarbeitung von Informationen beschränken.