Flushing Out the Topic of Mobile Personal Tech and Ad Hoc Networks Considered - By Lance Winslow

[Lance Winslow]

By Lance Winslow

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Below is a compilation of a number of articles on the topic of ad hoc networks with regards to mobile communication, cell phones, and social networks. This is a philosophical set of thoughts, you might indeed enjoy:

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The Latest Ad Hoc Mobile Personal Tech Networking Device Patent by Apple

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Every day the smart phone market has something new to say, new to report, or more information to retort. For instance, now Apple is upping the ante on their control over the smart phones they sell, and has decided to apply for a few new patents. Yes, this is all typical in Apple Style, and yet, one of those patents is very telling to us at our Internet style Think Tank, as we are constantly remunerating about such things.

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Great article on August 20, 2010 in ARS Technica entitled; "Apple May Be Looking to Lock Out Unauthorized iOS Users," by Chris Foresman who reported that Apple filed a patent titled; "Systems and Methods for Identifying Users of an Electronic Device," such as heartbeat analysis, photo, voice print, and suspicious behavior uncommon to the known user.

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So, I guess a thief who has stolen the phone would then be giving away his/her picture, voice print, keystrokes, and Global Position (location). The patent appears to also be able to turn off phone, erase hard-drive, and download all information to the "cloud" which is to protect the user. Yes, very nice, but with this technology, the authorities could also shut-it-down if the individual was suspected of being a bad guy, rioter, terrorist, etc. too.

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Now then some folks at Slash-Dot ask, well would this also allow Apple to shut off those who "jail-break" from Apple's proprietary software? A great question posed by SoulSkill (screen name). A very good question, and inquiring minds, like mine want to know. But I also suspect that by having this feature, it means that the US Army would be interested in this for our "Blue Force" tracking in the Net Centric or rather Ad Hoc networked battlespace too. See that point.

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If an enemy gets a hold of one of their mobile devices, boom! – it is shut off and we have a picture of the enemy's camp, and what questions are asked, and the position of the soldier or device? Wow, now that is what I call using privileged information during interrogation. It also helps Apple sell its devices to the US Government over competitors like Motorola, Nokia, HTC, Google, and Blackberry too.

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Unfortunately, this will totally fuel new conspiracy theories and NSA fringe seekers living in old cold war missile silos waiting for the apocalypse or Terminator's SkyNet to take over? Is this more big brother, or just upping the stakes in the world of personal tech, and government, military security for communication devices? You decide, I've already decided for myself.

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Mo bile Ad Hoc Networks for the Consumer; the Power of Privacy

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For anyone who studies flows it seems that the hub and spoke system of distribution is alive and well. Much of this is because of the brilliance of the Fred Smith, founder and chairman of FedEx, when he wrote a Harvard business school report and business plan on transferring large Federal Reserve notes by aircraft and distributing them to the various that banks. I believe on his infamous college report he got only a C grade.

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Although later, this spoke and hub concept went on to become the distribution model for FedEx, at the Memphis sort. It is often cited in business books as rather ironic because as we know this became one of the greatest companies of all-time, and FedEx has revolutionized the over-night shipping business and all of the distribution industry for that matter.

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However, eventually FedEx also realized that taking packages all the way to the Memphis Sort and back again was not always the most efficient way to do it once they had many regional offices. Instead, it made sense to send some of those packages directly to the next regional office nearby, bypassing the hub. In doing so, they reverted some of their distribution to the point-to-point model, which has also re-taken hold in recent years, perhaps the reason why Boeing is building 737s (backlogged orders for years in advance in fact) still, and Airbus went for the A380 which can hold more people than a 747.

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Now then, let's talk about how cell phone in data-packets move around, and are distributed. When you are on your cell phone it sends that data to the nearest cell tower, and at cell tower the data either goes to a landline, and takes the information across the country, to its intended destination, which may be another cell tower to another mobile user, or to someone with a landline.

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Okay so, what if all the data went from your personal tech smart-cell-phone-device to another personal cell phone device directly, bypassing the cell tower? What if there were other phones in the area and you were making a local call, it might hop three-or-four cell phones to get there, never once going to the cell tower; like a walkie-talkie, rather than a trunked two-way radio.

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That would make sense because most cell phone calls are local calls, and nowadays the people using their cell phone are calling or texting someone nearby them in the same city within a 3 mile radius, and it just happens to be about the same radius for the cell towers. If you will recall before 3G wireless, the cell towers were 10 miles apart, and then they were 3 miles apart.

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But even if the person you are contacting was 15 miles away, the data-packets could go from your cell phone, to someone else's cell phone 3 miles away, to someone else's cell phone 3 miles away, and then to the cell phone you are calling, and each time it would bypass the cell tower completely, unless the intended receiver was at a landline. But why would you wish to do that you ask?

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It's simple really, because you can put more users on the network, if you are using the cell towers less. As in 20-times as many, and that's a lot of data flow, and a much more efficient model, for at least a good chunk of the traffic. Major cost savings is an understatement.

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This could save tens of billions of dollars in the construction of new cell towers for the up-and-coming 4 G & 5G wireless strategies which will be our future system in mobile technologies. Since cell phones are already a send and receive device, this could easily be accomplished. And as long as everyone had extended battery life of their personal communication devices such as iPad or smart phone, companies like Verizon, Sprint, and AT&T could make more money and have less capital expenditure.

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This would relate directly to greater quarterly profits, and perhaps a good size reduction in everyone's cell phone bill. In doing this, it would give consumers more privacy, because their data would never go to a cell tower where it could be compromised, or intercepted by those who wanted access to it. Such as our government for instance, and so let's talk a little bit about that:

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Whenever we leave backdoors in our technology to allow the good guys to look at the data, or information that is flowing through, we inadvertently gives access to the bad guys, as they search the software code for those secret gates which allow our intelligence agencies in, in the first place.

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By sending the data packets of information from phone to phone, where they will be accumulated by the receiving phone as they come in, each packet would be highly dispersed, and unreadable, or irrelevant in and of itself. However all the data packets coming together in the receiving phone would display the message, or the voice phone message for the intended user.

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There are pros and cons to not being able to monitor all that data, such as this use of smart-phone technology by; smart mob protesters, ELF homegrown terrorists, or even terrorists planning an attack, or planting roadside bombs. This is because you couldn't intercept the cell phone transmission by its electronic serial number or ESN at the cell tower anymore, as most of the traffic would bypass.

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Now let's consider the issues where a group of terrorists with machine guns tried to take over a hotel in Mumbai, since they were all using cell phones, the government of India could have intercepted that information at the cell tower, and therefore they could've caught them and prevented that chaos before the terrorists had started. But, if also cell phones are working like walkie-talkies on steroids and more like the Internet model in sending their packets of information all over the place all coming together any individual terrorist cell phone as they communicated, they be virtually unstoppable.

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You can see that's a serious problem, however, you can see where it would be wonderful to be able to expand the number of users on any given cell phone network, freeing up frequencies, and have each of the phones talking to each other delivering the data as if they were a node or mote in a system of distribution which used cell towers sometimes, and peer-to-peer personal tech device at other times, or a combination thereof. Actually rerouting traffic with whatever was best for the network at the time, which is almost like how the Internet works anyway isn't it? Almost but not quite.

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Therefore, if we used a strategy of point-to-point, plus hub and spoke, we get the best of all worlds, and we can increase network traffic, as perhaps 70 or 80% were freed up. Thus, we could take on more data too, allow more onboard data transfer for video projection, holographic movies, downloadable movies on the go, etc. However, there are also problems with this, which need to be addressed, along with the increased efficiency, and added privacy for the end-user. Please consider all this.

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Mobile Ad Hoc Networks for Real-Time Price Check Shopping Clubs

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Did you know that a number of higher-end retail stores now have cell phone blockers, in other words they have frequencies which disrupt cell phones, so that while you're shopping in their store you cannot get a phone call, which might interfere with the salesperson trying to pitch you, and will not allow you to go online using your 3G or 4G wireless system to check the Internet for better prices.

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Many restaurants are also blocking cell phone signals, so therefore their clients and customers don't have to listen to someone jabbering away on their cell phone, and disrupting other's lunch or dinner. Some movie theaters have started doing the same thing as well, because people still forget to turn off their cell phones during movies. But did you know that Sam's Club is doing the opposite?

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That's right, they've just announced they have WiFi capability in all of their stores, in case you want to go online and check for a lower price because they feel confident that they have the lowest price, and they are not worried about it one bit. Will this cause other retailers in time to follow suit? Will the competition go for it or will it cause fear amongst other retailers if they do not do the same.

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It is my contention that Sam's Club should go one step further. A few years ago, some members of our think tank were discussing how to make shopping at the large box stores a lot easier. And after this discussion, I had considered a kiosk at various points inside of Wal-Mart, you could walk up to it, and pronounce very carefully the item you are looking for, and it could tell you where you are in the store with a little red X [You Are Here], and exactly how to get to the department where the item was which you wanted, and where on the shelf it was located.

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However, with the advent of mobile ad hoc networks, and real-time price checking in such Shopping Clubs, perhaps you could use your smart-phone to do the same thing? In other words, your smart phone would be connected to the retail store's eCommerce Website, and you would have a complete layout of the store, and you could merely type in the type of item you wished to purchase, and it would tell you with a map of the store where that product was. It would also tell you the price.

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This would help all consumers navigate big box stores, and it would save a tremendous number of hours of employees trying to help people get what they wanted, or take up their time for customer service. Now then, some people would rather talk to a real live person, but most of us are so busy, we just as soon use our personal tech device to tell us exactly where it is, what it costs, and how to get to it as quickly as possible.

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And once you gathered the items you wanted to buy, you and your mobile smart phone device, interfaced with the online retail store would go up to the front and pay using your cell phone, as the Kiosk register quickly analyzed all the RFID tags which were inside of your shopping cart. And that's my opinion on this future technology, and a pretty good application for it.

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Nothing or Nowhere Would Be a Great Place to Store Stuff or Hide in My Opinion

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There is no such thing as nothing, and anybody that says that they know nothing is wrong. You can't "know nothing" because if you know something it exists, even if it only exists in your mind. You see, if there is nothing, it can only be nowhere, and it can be no place that has a name. However, if the concept of nothing is a reality, and it is nowhere, then, I just bet it would be a great place to hide stuff, to store stuff, to put secret information for instance, or to drop off my opinion. Let me explain.

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In the future, there will be mind reading machines, and they are going to expect every citizen of the world to think alike and not get out of line, and to become one with the neural network, kind of like a system of thought swapping social network on the Internet. Everyone will be connected all the time, and you don't dare think something that is out of bounds, because if you do the thought police will come and get you. This is why you are going to need in the future to send your mind nowhere, so you may think for yourself, and have private thoughts.

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Of course others believe that the best place to hide is in broad daylight. In other words, they won't hide their thoughts at all, they will share them with friends, family, and their social network, and therefore government, and everyone else in the world as well. They might use the nursery rhyme strategy, and although everyone knows humpty dumpty was pushed and all the kings horses and men are incompetent to put him back together again, they will still be able to recite that poem and think about it.

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Of course, the system will curtail any thoughts that are deemed unthinkable as they associate in their collective thought swapping social network. Are you beginning to see the problem with privacy issues, ad hoc networks, telephone wiretapping, computer keystroke logging, spyware, ad aware, and their advanced algorithmic cookies?

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Indeed, you may be living in the last era of privacy. You may currently be living in the greatest era of mankind. The time period, which came just before the thought police; and if that thought doesn't scare you, I don't know what would. Please consider all this and think about it.

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Do Swarming Species Form Neural Mind Swapping Connections or Organic Ad Hoc Networks?

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Not long ago, I was discussing with an acquaintance the reality of ad hoc networks and the various commercial applications. For instance, smart phones talking with each other and passing information along regardless of the location. Forwarding packets of information and working together rather than sending the information to a routing system, WiFi location, or a cell tower. Well, that makes sense right?

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Our satellites should operate this way, just as our brains most likely do. Speaking of brains, how do we know that insects during swarming do not form ad hoc neural networks, it's possible. How so you ask? Well, consider if you will that insects when they swarm make a buzzing sound, a separate and unique resonance frequency, we know this is something that they can we do. That unique frequency could easily be a communication device.

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And such a communication device could be powered by chemicals in their brains and bodies, which they make naturally, due to their genetic code. Since all the swarming insects are of the same, they would make the same chemicals, in the same ratios, and thus they would be present at the time of swarming. Now then, have you ever been at a coffee shop when you're drinking caffeine and other people are also drinking coffee and you get into a conversation with someone you've never met, but all of a sudden you're able to finish their sentences and they yours.

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Often we say that we are on the same wavelength with another person, is it by accident that we use this terminology, because it does accurately describe what is possibly happening. How do we know insects cannot do this as well, it would almost be an evolutionary "survival of the fittest" skill. We know that large groups of bacteria can do this, as that has been proven. And since the bacteria of any given species would live in most members of that species, perhaps the overall biosystem of the more complex species is using this symbiotic relationship for communication.

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If the bacteria within our bodies is communicating with itself, it should be able to communicate with nearby bacteria in another member of the same species nearby. Therefore, when insects swarm in creating certain resonance that could help trigger the bacteria causing a chemical release in all the other members of the swarm. Now then, let's consider how we might create this using modern technology, or use the same type of scheme or strategy.

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Interestingly enough, we already do this in a way, for instance when people use their cell phones to create Smart mobs to converge on a single location all the same time or when all the Chinese protestors converged to disrupt the government in Tianamen Square. In the US, smart mobs, are mostly for entertainment, but the strategy is no different than swarming insects in nature. The only difference is the communicators are working through a central system, not personal tech device to personal tech device.

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Now then, there is a reason why this strategy works (swarms), why it is so efficient and why it also must be tempered with protections. We know that mass mobs are very dangerous amongst humans, as we've seen how people get out of control in large groups and riots.

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Not only can we use these strategies to perhaps stop a terrorist event, or use reverse 911 cell phone calling to warn people, but we also have to make sure that we can counteract the bad guys when this happens. In other words, we need to be able to turn off the social network, shut the cell phones down, and prevent the cell phones from talking to each other apart from the network. Otherwise we cannot protect our civilization from major disruptions from anarchy groups, terrorists, or from guerrilla warfare.

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Swarming techniques work well in warfare, in sports, and in politics, as they are able to overwhelm the opponent. We need to be thinking here and use the swarming methodology to solve problems in times of need, and prevent attacks on the stability of our system, or from disruptive challenges like viruses or bad bacteria. Perhaps we could learn a lot from how the insects use there swarming networks, when designing our own electronic ad hoc networks. Please be thinking here.

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Always, open for further discussions on these topics.

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Sincerely, Lance Winslow

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