Israel’s Urgent Need to Boost Defense Spending

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Israel's Urgent Need to Boost Defense Spending."

Israel’s survival hinges on its ability to confront existential threats with unrelenting resolve. Already allocating an extraordinary 8.8% of GDP—$46 billion annually—to defense, a 65% surge since the October 7 atrocities, Israel must further escalate investments in its military capabilities. This urgency persists despite ranking 15th globally in defense spending and receiving $3.8 billion in annual US military aid, supplemented by wartime emergency packages. The Jewish state faces an unparalleled convergence of adversaries: Iran’s regime—armed with nuclear ambitions, ICBMs, and drone swarms—orchestrates proxy wars through Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, while the United Nations and global anti-Zionist movements wage diplomatic and ideological warfare.

(AI generated image via Gemini)

Israel’s Urgent Need to Boost Defense Spending

Counting the Minutes: Turning To G-d

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Counting the Minutes: Turning To G-d."

The clock is ticking, but are we aware enough to know when it is running out? The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists maintains the Doomsday Clock, and after 25 adjustments over the last 78 years, it currently sits at just 90 seconds to global catastrophe.

(AI generated image via Cyberpunk Generator)

Counting the Minutes: Turning To G-d

Starting Them Off Young

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Starting Them Off Young

Preventing a Future October 7

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "Preventing a Future October 7."

First and foremost, we need more and better capability to think outside the box and see things not only as they appear, but what's behind the curtain as well. War gaming, planning, modeling and simulation, and using artificial intelligence are just some of the tools at our disposal for breaking the paradigm and thinking about what's possible and even what's probable. Most importantly, we need a diversity of thinking to end the groupthink and mind-numbing stasis of seeing things only as we think they are and not as they really are or could be. Whether we employ think tanks and advisory boards; military and intelligence assets; strategic planners, futurists, and statisticians; technologists, scientists, and engineers; psychologists, sociologists, and anthropologists to get into the heads of our adversaries or the realm of the unthinkable, we must break down the barriers to novel thinking and creative solutions. Along with faith in the Almighty and a strong, technologically advanced, and well-trained IDF, this deep planning must become the bedrock of our security preparedness.

(AI Generated Image via Craiyon)

Preventing a Future October 7

A Tale of Love, Food, and AI

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "A Tale of Love, Food, and AI."

So what do love, food, and artificial intelligence (AI) have to do with each other? Well, in this case, I have a number of special anecdotes from this week about getting some behind-the-scenes insight from others on all three topics.

(Credit Photo: Artem Podrez via https://www.pexels.com/photo/man-eating-unhealthy-food-4728849/) 

A Tale of Love, Food, and AI

If Pharaoh Had AI

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called "If Pharaoh Had AI."

From manufacturing to customer service to law enforcement and defense, AI could one day be in the driver’s seat while we are off sunning on some remote beach in the Caribbean. As an example, just imagine a future military in which wars are fought by autonomous drones in the air and sea and killer robots on land, led by a master AI core at the Pentagon in control of all global operations, including our triad of nuclear warheads.

In short, the message for Passover isn’t just the tremendous potential of AI for the good or even the threat it poses of becoming too powerful to control, but what happens when the bad guys (dictators, despots, and megalomaniacs), like the Pharaoh of yesteryear, are dangerously using AI to enslave the world to their vision of hate and contempt for democracy, human rights, and freedom for us all?

(Credit Photo: Ilnur Dulyanov via https://pixabay.com/illustrations/square-soldier-green-red-angry-7871431/)

If Pharaoh Had AI

May The Force Be With You

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

May The Force Be With You

Absolutely Mind Blowing Humanoid Robot

This is definitely an amazing, exciting look into Robots in our future. 

Compliments to Engineered Arts in the UK. 

Gives you something big and visionary to think about over the weekend.  ;-)

Absolutely Mind Blowing Humanoid Robot

Merging Of Man

In light of the shutdown due to Coronavirus and nearly everyone doing 100% telework, this cartoon was particularly funny. 

I can't remember--do I work at home or do I live at work?

Maybe this is the ultimate merging of the two halves of ourselves--the worker and the family man/woman.

These days were seeing a lot of mergers like this: 

- Man-machine with embedded technology, robotics, and AI
- Man-environment with environmentalism and greening technologies
- Man-media with social media and other 100% always-on social computing

So why not Man Family-Work, it's just another merger of near equals in our day-to-day lives. ;-)

Merging Of Man

Am Yisrael Chai!

I love the Merkava IV, Israel's main battle tank. 

The shape, the versatility, the power! 

Complete fighting awesomeness. 

The new "Merkava IV Barak" (scheduled for deployment in 2021) will even have artificial intelligence (AI) for advanced battle management systems. 

I wish we had the Merkava during the Holocaust and could've given the Nazi bastards what they rightfully deserved. 

Never again! ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Am Yisrael Chai!

Israel 2020: Day 5

Went to the Holon Design Museum (south of Tel Aviv) today. 

They had exhibit called States of Extreme.

I found some really cool exhibits and ideas there.

Sort of felt my mind being expanded by it, which is I suppose one of the purposes of going to this. 

Two of my favorite from today:

1) The chair with people legs and 

2) The Fanuc robotic arm feeding the baby in the crib.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did. 

And Shabbat Shalom to everyone from the Holy Land!

(Credit Photos: Andy Blumenthal)

Israel 2020: Day 5

3D Printed Octopus: "Shabbat Shalom"

This is a 3D Printed Octopus.  

The bendable legs are cute. 

It's sitting on a camera and tripod. 

Soon 3D Printed Objects will even talk, and when they do, this one will say: 

Shabbat Shalom!

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

3D Printed Octopus: "Shabbat Shalom"

Robot Warriors Kick Human A*s

This is one incredible parody video of what robotic warriors of the future will be able to do. 

The robot takes an incredible beating and never misses a shot!

They even hit him numerous times with a battering ram for Pete's sake. 

Also, amazed that none of the actors in this video ended up taking a bullet or two. 

Wow, the future is going to be amazing. ;-)

(Thank you to my wonderful son-in-law for sending this to me)

Robot Warriors Kick Human A*s

Shootings in El Paso and Dayton

Another bloody weekend...this time in El Paso and Dayton. 

With at least 29 dead and 53 injured in mass shootings.

We still don't seem to be able to get a state of security in our country. 

Whether it's gangs and violence in our decaying cities (yes, like Baltimore). 

Or mass shootings by racists and nut jobs attacking our schools, houses of worship, shopping malls, and places of work. 

People can buy assault rifles with mega mags of ammunition and go crazy.

And they do!

While I was impressed with the response in Dayton especially, they killed the perpetrator within 30 seconds of the start to his killing spree, in other cases it takes considerably longer,

Moreover, while generally the first responders are brave and heroic in going after and taking out the bad guys, in places like the Parkland shooting, the officer apparently hid behind a tree while the students got massacred. 

We need a rethinking of how we deal with these terror situations. 

Can technology help (and I know these may sound crazy, but we have to think out-of-the-box at some point)?

We have the ShotSpotter technology to pinpoint where shootings are occurring. 

Why can't we have persistent armed drones on patrol with AI ready to swoop in (even through an open door or window) and respond and neutralize the shooter (while law enforcement makes their way through our busy city streets). 

Other ideas...embedded chips in humans (yes, it is coming) that would drive the privacy wonks nuts, but can identify occurrences of extreme violence and potentially stop it.  

I am sure there are other technology ideas out there.

Certainly, we do need to balance privacy with safety, and it will be tricky to make sure the AI is getting it right, but as we figure this out, tragically there are fathers, mothers, children not coming home because they are dead.  ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Shootings in El Paso and Dayton

Retro Cool Digital Watch

Wow, I love this retro digital Computron watch from Bulova. 

I remember when the first digital LED watches with the red numbers like this first came out in the 1970s. 

They were quite expensive then!

Part of the computer revolution. LOL

I remember my uncle had something like this and I thought how cool it was--no moving hands to read.

Also, has a little of that sci-fi Battlestar Galactica red (moving) light effect from the cybernetic enemy, Cylon visors. 

What's old is what's new.  ;-)

Retro Cool Digital Watch

Gotta Love FANUC

I love FANUC industrial robots. 

They are made by a secretive company in Japan and they are #1 in workplace automation worldwide! 

They have over half a million installed industrial robots around the world.

Their robots are on assembly lines making everything from "cars and smartphones to beverages and drugs."  They also are in Tesla and Amazon...so you know they are pretty much everywhere. 

FANUC has customers in 108 countries supported by 263 service locations. 

Their robots are made by...that's right other robots...80% is automated. 

These robots are strong, fast, and precise, and they can do dangerous work. 

This company is the future of jobs, productivity, efficiency. 

But of course, people are still the brains behind the brawn.  ;-)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Gotta Love FANUC

10-Steps To Common Sense Defense

(Source Graphic: Andy Blumenthal)

10-Steps To Common Sense Defense

Why Isn't The U.S. Keeping Up Militarily?

The United States is ranked as the most powerful country in the world:

But the U.S. spends more than the next 7-8 countries COMBINED!(See below chart from Forbes 2016)

In fact, military spending is more than half of all U.S. federal discretionary spending. 

So the question is why are we spending so much more than everybody else, is the United States getting its money's worth, and most importantly are we able to defend ourselves? 

The U.S. defense budget is going up and has been approved at $717B for 2019. 

All the other 28 NATO countries together spend less than half ($296B) as much as the U.S. alone. 

If you add NATO spending as a complement to the U.S. then the total spend on our mutual defense approaches $1 trillion!

Russia ($69B) China ($146B), North Korea ($6B), and Iran's ($16B) military spending in total pales in comparison at just $237B.

NATO as a whole is outspending Russia + China + North Korea + Iran by a factor of 4 times yet these countries are still considered major threats to us!

Despite all the truly incredible brave, hard working, and excellent men and women that serve with distinction in our military, 

Therefore, again why is it that the U.S. is spending more on what others seem to get for cheaper?  Is there significant fraud, waste, and abuse in the system?  Are we as a rich capitalistic nation simply getting fat, lazy, and stupid?  

Notwithstanding the outsized spending by the United States, incredibly from today's Wall Street Journal, there is another article about our inability to defend ourselves:

"These are admissions that the U.S. cannot proportionally and equally defend itself in space, cyber, and response to tactical and nuclear weapons except through the threat of escalation and intrusion into other domains."

Some poignant examples given:

- Our stationary land-based nuclear missiles are no match for Russia and China's mobile-based ICBMs.

- Our ten busiest U.S. ports do not have an adequate defense against an underwater nuclear missile launch.

China and Russia variously are beating us out in:

• Quantum Communications
• Anti-Satellite Weapons
• Directed Energy 
• Hypersonics 

In fact, it was just reported that China conducted its 8th hypersonic test of a plane--with this one said to capable of Mach 10--and that it is capable of carrying nukes! 

Further, our carrier group fleet and land forces are at risk with respect to Russia and China's hypersonic weapons.

Of course, EMP weapons can fry our electrical grid and a large cyber attack could disable our critical infrastructure.

Let's not even talk bioweapons--think Black Plague from the Middle Ages that wiped out 30-60% of Europe. 

Yes, some of these are asymmetric warfare, but why are we still thinking and fighting so kinetic and conventionally. 

If we are fighting the wars of yesteryear instead of the battles of today and the threats of tomorrow then what good is our military investments and assets.

To become a more capable fighting force that is less vulnerable, more capable of defending this country, and making better use of our large investment dollars here are 10-steps we need to take to transform our military; we need to transition as follows:

1. From static land-based nuclear missiles to a fully mobile platform.
2. From vulnerable fleets of large ships and planes to "unstoppable" swarms of miniaturized lethal drones. 
3. From a preponderance of earth-based kinetic weapons to space-based energy directed weapons. 
4. From having to generally choose between speed or power to using the power of speed as an "unstoppable" force of nature. 
5. From projecting a time and space bound visible presence to a persistent invisible existence.
6. From attempting to defend limited points of presence to establishing a "impenetrable" umbrella shield of multi-layered defenses.
7. From reactively identifying and stopping cyber threats to proactively hunting and destroying them. 
8. From knee-jerk instinctive putting of human lives in harm's way to matter-of-factly sending milbots (military robots) to the front lines. 
9. From relying on the heroics and genius of individual human brainpower to harnessing in realtime "the collective" augmented by artificial intelligence into a hive.
10. From relying on escalation of a "bigger, badder gun" to being able to fight capably in every battle arena, win in each and dominate holistically. 

Over $700B per year should buy us a lot of defense, hopefully in the future we can really use it to defend ourselves. ;-)

Why Isn't The U.S. Keeping Up Militarily?

Impact of Hyperwork on Family

I am seeing this all the time now... 

Parents of little children, or even older children, who are too busy working to pay much, if any, attention to their families.

Call it a disease of the industrial revolution + information technology. 

Whether people worked on the assembly line making widgets or nowadays on the computer and smartphone answering their bosses and colleagues compulsively--it's become a global obsession. 

On one hand, with the impending robot and AI revolution taking over jobs, people need to be grateful to even have a job to earn a living for the families.

On the other hand, with the connections to each other and our work 24/7, the depression-era saying of:

Brother, can you spare a dime?

Has morphed into:

Brother, can you spare some time?

Yes, we all need to be responsible adults, earn a decent living and pay our bills. 

But in the end, it's not money or things that we give to our families that is the most important.  

I would argue money and things are the least important, and what is truly most precious is the love, time, and attention you give to yours. 

As the old saying goes:

Money can't buy love.

But time and attention given to your loved ones can build meaningful relationships that last a lifetime and beyond. 

Yes, of course, people need to work to earn a living and productively contribute something to society, but it is also true that work is used as an excuse to run away from parental and familial responsibilities. 

It's easier to give an Amazon gift certificate or a Gameboy then to actually spend the afternoon with the kids. 

These days, people say ridiculous things like:

I love going into the office to get away from home.  

But you can't run away from your problems at home--you need to work on them and solve them.

The diabolical murderous Nazis used work as a tool to enslave, torture, and exterminate their victims as the sign over the gate of the Auschwitz (and many other) concentration camps read:

Arbeit Macht Frei  (or Work Sets You Free)

But as we all know inside, true freedom is being able to give generously from your time and effort to your loved ones, and slavery is not being able to let go of your work. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Impact of Hyperwork on Family

Twitter BESTS Facebook

Here are six reasons why Twitter bests Facebook and we ain't seen nothing yet:

- Unadulterated News & Messaging 
Twitter is where you can hear it from the President's mouth or the Kardashians or anyone else for that matter with no media bias and filtering (their very mission is information sharing), while Facebook is often about reposting stories, pictures, and videos that we find of interest already on the web. What's even more amazing is that anyone of us can tweet back to @realDonaldTrump or @SpeakerRyan...that is some unbelievable access we now have. 

- Speed of Information To Market
Twitter is now considered the fastest way to get the latest (and greatest) on what's happening.  From the US Airways jet crash into the Hudson River to up-to-the-minute updates on the Mumbai terrorist attack. You could even watch the election debates or the Walking Dead and get a real-time running commentary. 

- Our Very Social Identity
Twitter is now part of our very social identity, so that everything from our blog writings to our resume has our Twitter handle. Mine is @AndyBlumenthal.  

- It's Populism As A Movement
Twitter, while not technically as popular in terms of number of users as Facebook, is more popular in terms of the cultural impact. Politicians are putting out policy debates online and fighting it out there too, while celebrities and athletes are sharing personal updates, and the world is truly communicating directly and succinctly in 140 characters or less what's really important to them. 

- Operating On A Global Open Platform 
Twitter feeds are open to anyone who follows them and tweets are searchable on the web as opposed to Facebook which is predominantly a closed system to the web and you've got to be "friends" to get the real scoop with someone. Whether the Iranian Green Revolution or the Syrians Being Bombarded in Aleppo it's open and on Twitter. 

- Get Your BIG Data and Feed Your Artificial Intelligence
Twitter has about 500 million tweets a day or about 200 billion a year.  Even pulling out the ridiculous "What I had for lunch today" tweets, there is still an unbelievable amount of data to mine for analysis and artificial intelligence. Talking about a potential treasure trove of information and sentiment from over 317 million users, and computer algorithms are already churning through it to make the big data intelligible and usable for decision making. 

Certainly Twitter (and Facebook) need to get their virtual arms around fake news and profiles, but the good thing about it is that others can call b.s. as soon as they see it in 140 characters or less. ;-)

(Note: I am so impressed with Twitter's prospects, I am putting my own money where my mouth is.)

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Twitter BESTS Facebook