https://cognitivecarbon.substack.com/p/exascale-computing-what-can-be-done
...”With this sort of “simulated society” stored in some digital realm, inside an exascale computer with zettabytes of storage —one could model all sorts of potential future scenarios—political or otherwise—and try to forecast and predict how things will likely progress by studying the interactions of the “virtual clones” of a large number of people in advance of the real-world scenario.
If such a model were constructed, “they” would already know what the most probable outcome of some event might be.
It has been said recently that we all “live in a simulation”. The intent behind that statement is usually something completely different than what I’m getting at here; it comes from some radical ideas about theoretical physics, about whether the Universe is “real” or is the product of some “simulated game” run by an advanced intelligence.
But now you can start to imagine how “societal level simulations” might be possible. Another kind of “simulation” with troubling implications.
If I were thinking fancifully, I might come up with a clever name for something like this: A Looking Glass. A way to “forecast” the future by modeling every human on earth digitally, using the information they save in their phones, and predicting how they will behave.
Is this what they really do with all that data and raw supercomputing power at the NSA Utah facility? Who knows—but do you think it is in your best interests NOT to know what they are doing with exascale supercomputers and 5 zettabytes of storage capacity?
Do you really think that those who do these things—all around the world these days— act purely out of concern for your well-being or safety?
The political events of the past 5 years should completely obliterate that naive thinking.
Time for a Great Awakening.”