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Jeremy Naydler, Ph.D. is our guide as we explore what a full-scale deployment of 5G may mean for humanity at this critical time... and how we can help create
a better
alternative. New View, 90 (January - March 2019), pp.33-40 as "5G: The Final Assault".
This fleet will be in addition to a smaller SpaceX fleet of 4,425 satellites, already authorized earlier in the year by the FCC, which will orbit the Earth at a height of approximately 750 miles and is set to bathe us in frequencies between 12 GHz and 30 GHz.
The grand total of SpaceX satellites is thus projected to reach
just under 12,000.
FIGURE 1 Satellites beam down 5G.
(ZdNet.com)
Some beam down commercial GPS (or "SatNav"), some provide TV, some provide mobile phone services, and some bounce radar back and forth to produce images for meteorologists and military surveillance.
The Earth is thus already comprehensively
irradiated from outer space.
The SpaceX satellite fleet is, however, just one of several that are due to be launched in the next few years, all serving the same purpose of providing global broadband services.
Other companies, including
Boeing, One Web and Spire Global are each launching their own
smaller fleets, bringing the total number of projected new broadband
satellites to around 20,000 - every one of them dedicated to
irradiating the Earth at similar frequencies (fig. 1). 1
it is the creation of the conditions within which electronic or "artificial" intelligence will be able to assume
an ever greater
presence in our lives.
The new satellite fleets are contributing to a concerted global effort to "upgrade" the electromagnetic environment of the Earth. The upgrade is commonly referred to as 5G, or fifth generation wireless network.
It has become customary in tech circles to talk about the introduction of 5G as involving the creation of a new global "electronic ecosystem". It amounts to geo-engineering on a scale never before attempted.
While this is being sold to the public as an enhancement
of the quality of video streaming for media and entertainment, what
is really driving it is the creation of the conditions within which
electronic or "artificial" intelligence will be able to assume an
ever greater presence in our lives.
The 20,000 satellites are a necessary supplement to this land-based effort, for they will guarantee that rural areas, lakes, mountains, forests, oceans and wildernesses, where there are neither buildings nor lampposts, will all be incorporated into the new electronic infrastructure.
Not one inch of the globe will be free of
radiation.
In the national media,
we do not hear voices questioning the wisdom, let alone the ethics,
of geo-engineering a new global electromagnetic environment...
whether we also want increasingly intense exposure of the natural environment and all living creatures, including ourselves,
to more and more
electromagnetic radiation.
And who doesn't want progress?
Almost everyone loves their sleek and seductively designed
phones, pads and virtual assistants, and regards them as an
indispensible part of their lives.
Be assured that they do not just bounce off us! They travel into the human body...
The degree to which they are absorbed can be precisely measured in what is called the Specific Absorption Rate, expressed in Watts per kilogram of biological tissue.
Do we really believe this could be completely harmless?
FIGURE 2 The colors indicate the Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) of mobile phone radiation. The SAR is the amount of power absorbed by tissue, measured in watts per kilogram, shown here with red as the highest value, blue the lowest. 2
If you could see and measure their wavelengths, you would find that they are many centimeters (or inches) long.
The introduction of 5G will entail the use of considerably higher frequencies than these, with correspondingly shorter wavelengths.
Up to the
present time, Extremely High Frequency (EHF) electromagnetic radiation has
not been widely propagated, and its introduction marks a significant
step change in the kind of electromagnetic energy that will become
present in the natural environment (fig.3).
FIGURE 3 Frequencies and wavelengths
of smartphone, Wi-Fi and 5G.
This means that there can be
much broader "bandwidth". Broader bandwidth means that larger
quantities of data can be transferred and the speed of transfer of
the data will be significantly faster.
But in so doing, it also enables a greater seamlessness between the data accessible from virtual sources and our perceptions of objects in the real world, as is required, for example, in Augmented Reality (AR) applications.
Greater seamlessness
means that we more effortlessly inhabit the natural and the
electronic worlds as if they were a single reality.
will have a large number of tiny antennas,
grouped together
in one unit.
This is why it is necessary to have so many more new phone masts or "base stations".
They will need to be spaced at 100 meters apart in cities because beyond this distance their signals weaken and are therefore less able to penetrate buildings, and connect with the devices inside.
As well as being more closely spaced, the 5G base stations will operate at much higher power than current phone masts, in order to ensure that the signals are sufficiently strong.
Qualcomm's millimeter wave antenna array module for a 5G smartphone. It has four antennas that can accurately point towards the nearest 5G base station. Phones will have four of these modules,
i.e.
sixteen antennas.
4
A single 5G transmitter/receiver will have a large number of tiny antennas, grouped together in one unit.
An array of just over a thousand such
antennas measures only four square inches, so will easily fit into a
small base station on a lamppost, while the smartphone in your
pocket will probably have sixteen (fig.4).
that any living creature that gets in the way of such a concentrated beam will be subjected to a powerful dose
of extremely
high frequency radiant electricity.
In the phased array, groups of antennas are coordinated to radiate pulses in a specific direction and in a specified time sequence.
This allows a concentrated beam of radio waves to be
exactly aimed at designated targets, to enable signals to be sent or
received. Because the beams are concentrated in this way, this adds
to their power, which means they are able more easily to penetrate
buildings.
A study published earlier this year demonstrated that certain insects, because of their small body-size, are particularly vulnerable to the millimeter waves of the higher frequencies to be utilized by 5G (fig. 5). 5
Other studies have shown that bacteria and plants are also
vulnerable, and so also (as one might expect) are the skin and the
eyes of animals including, of course, human beings. 6
FIGURE 5 Illustration of the absorption of Radio Frequency electromagnetic radiation in the Honey Bee. At currently used frequencies between 2 GHz (top) and 6 GHz (middle), the wavelength is relatively large compared to the insect. But at 24 GHz, (bottom) the wavelength is closer to the insect's size and
the radiation penetrates further.
7
Either side of the main beam, the time intervals between the pulses are different from the time intervals between those of the main beam, but they may overlap each other in such a way as to produce extremely rapid changes in the electromagnetic field.
This can have a particularly
detrimental effect on living organisms, because instead of the
radiation decaying when it is absorbed into living tissue, it can be
re-radiated within the body.
Research suggests that they can have a significant and highly detrimental impact on living cells. 8
The report stated that there was a lack of "convincing" and "conclusive" evidence for any adverse health effects. 9
It was like giving a blank cheque to the
telecommunications industry to move on into the higher frequencies,
without any heed for the consequences.
to the telecommunications industry to move on into the higher frequencies,
without any heed
for the consequences.
In a forensic analysis of the report, the environmental
health researcher, Sarah Starkey, makes it clear that only a
willful
disregard of the available scientific evidence could explain its
internal contradictions and apparent incompetence. 10
Health and safety
simply do not feature in Government thinking, despite a veritable
mountain of literally thousands of research papers demonstrating
adverse health effects, which continues to grow at the rate of
roughly 350 per year, on average practically one every day. 12
simply do not feature in Government thinking, despite a veritable mountain of literally thousands of research papers
demonstrating
adverse health effects…
There is simply no time to
consider the possible health consequences.
The NIC report repeatedly points out that the
rewards of the "connected future" are to be measured in billions of
pounds worth of revenue.
The
irony that the "connected" future is one in which dizzying profits
stand to be made from technologies that disconnect us more and more
from the real world is entirely missed.
is one in which dizzying profits stand to be made from technologies that disconnect us more and more from the real world
is entirely missed.
Since 1993,
the industry has financed a large number of studies, saving
governments a great deal of expense and at the same time preserving
the convenient illusion that the jury is still out on whether
exposure to Radio Frequency radiation causes harm.
Industry-funded studies are almost two and a half times less likely than independent studies to find health effects. 15
The authors of The Guardian article explain that
the telecoms industry doesn't need to win the scientific argument
about safety, but simply keep the argument running indefinitely by
producing studies with results that fail to verify, or even better
contradict, the research that does find adverse health effects.
is the mammoth, industry-funded "Interphone Study", which managed to conclude that holding a mobile phone to the head actually protects the user
from brain
tumors...!
This study, which is full of contradictions and suffers from
grievous design flaws, is often quoted as the most authoritative to
date, while it has in fact been thoroughly discredited. 16
Needless to say, this suits Government just as much as it suits industry...
To gain a perspective on this,
we should remember that it was not so long ago that the Earth's
electromagnetic field was undisturbed by human-generated
electromagnetic frequencies.
Lightning and
sunlight produce effects in specific, and very limited, parts of the
electromagnetic spectrum.
the energies of the electromagnetic spectrum did not impact on human life,
for they were
entirely dormant
Beyond lightning and
sunlight, the energies of the electromagnetic spectrum did not
impact on human life, for they were entirely dormant (fig.6).
FIGURE 6 Natural background electromagnetic radiation,
showing frequencies in cycles per second.
In antiquity both were associated with gods:
In the later Judeo-Christian era the
widespread sense that these phenomena had a spiritual source
persisted, with lightning regarded as expressive of the divine
wrath, and the light as the garment of the cosmic Logos.
In
the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, both
lightning and light were stripped of their spiritual
numinosity,
thereby clearing the way for an entirely materialistic explanation
of light, and an entirely technological approach to electricity.
In the 1890s, the power lines that delivered the new mains electricity to factories and houses were standardized at either 50 or 60 Hz (or cycles per second).
When
public radio broadcasts began in the 1920s, they were mostly in the
long-wave frequencies under 500 KHz (thousands of cycles per second).
In the 1930s and '40s, medium
and shortwave frequencies (between 500 KHz and 1700 KHz) were
utilized, while in the 1950s the Very High Frequencies (VHF) of 30-300 MHz (or millions of cycles per second) were employed for both
radio and TV broadcasting.
up to 70 GHz envisaged, yet more power will be required for effective transmission
of its
millimeter waves.
With each escalation in frequency, more power was required to transmit the radio waves.
The advent of mobile phones, smartphones and
Wi-Fi,
brought into widespread use the Ultra High Frequency (UHF) part of
the spectrum (300 MHz - 3 GHz) for signal transmission.
Today, poised at the threshold of the new era of an Extremely High Frequency "electronic ecosystem", with frequencies of up to 70 GHz envisaged, yet more power will be required for effective transmission of its millimeter waves. 17
Then
the natural environment will be fully saturated with an invisible
fog of radiation (fig. 7).
FIGURE 7 Human induced electromagnetic radiation,
showing frequencies in cycles per second.
As each one of the new technologies was introduced, human beings
became a little more disassociated from the natural world.
With the advent of the smartphone, the trend towards addictiveness was greatly strengthened, partly because the screen became a portable interface with the Internet, and partly because of the deliberately exploitative policies of Facebook, Google and others to hook people into an addictive relationship to their devices. 18
5G will further accentuate this tendency for people to lose themselves, and it will weaken even more their relationship to nature, for it promises to make advanced immersive Virtual Reality accessible to all.
While VR headsets have been commercially available for some time now, VR is still in its infancy.
The next development in VR technology is to supplement the headset with a "haptic suit", which enables the wearer to experience sensations of touch in virtual reality:
Such opportunities for "total immersion" in virtual reality will lead to an increasing confusion as to which world we really belong:
The use of
Augmented Reality, made possible through special helmets, electronic
glasses, or contact lenses, that overlay virtual content onto the
experience of the physical world, will add to the confusion, as the
virtual is increasingly integrated within the real world. 19
The temptation will be to give their loyalty to that which not only undermines their relatedness to nature but also, through its assault on the imagination, has a corrosive effect on the inner life of the soul.
The confusion will only be exacerbated
by a huge increase in the use of 3D holographics that will give
virtual entities the ability to incarnate electronically in the
physical environment...
to give their loyalty to that which not only undermines their relatedness to nature but also, through its assault on the imagination, has a corrosive effect
on the inner
life of the soul.
The waves themselves are only part of the issue:
The Formation of the
Global Electronic Brain
At the same time as increasingly sophisticated technologies increasingly disconnected human beings from the natural world, a network of electronic "intelligence", global in extent, gradually emerged.
At
first it was under close human supervision, but it has steadily
grown more autonomous.
global in extent, gradually emerged.
At first it was under close human supervision,
but it has
steadily grown more autonomous.
What has been happening over recent decades is the
increasing co-ordination of intelligence-endowed machines, so that
they operate without need of human supervision.
This global electronic
"brain", innocuously called the "Internet of Things", is already
impacting on our lives.
is itself the precursor to what has been called the "Internet of Thinking", in which human beings will find themselves having to live in relationship
to the vast
global electronic intelligence.
But the reality is that The Internet of Things is itself the precursor to what has been called the "Internet of Thinking", in which human beings will find themselves having to live in relationship to the vast global electronic intelligence.
It will be active everywhere in our environment and we shall be obliged to interact with it in order to accomplish the simplest of tasks. 20
In
the Internet of Thinking it is not hard to see the lineaments of an
electronically supercharged totalitarian state, with unprecedented
control over the minutiae of individuals' lives.
For this is what 5G means:
For this is what 5G means: it means putting in place not just an improved telecommunications system, but rather a new "system of systems" - the infrastructure of
electronic
totalitarianism.
The electromagnetic energies that we have summoned, and which promised to give us new 'powers', now appear to be overpowering us, carrying us down into an Underworld realm of hellish entertainment and distraction, of illusion and disconnection from the reality that really matters:
that we have summoned, and which promised to give us new powers, now appear to be
overpowering us
We stand at a dreadful threshold, and yet surrender to despair cannot be the right response.
What can we do?
The best place to begin is the
"International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space", which has
now gathered nearly 30,000 signatures [more than 50,000 now - ed.],
including those of many health professionals, environmentalists and
other scientists. 22
To this end, we need to develop a clear perception
of the moral quality of electricity, the better to recognize the
kind of spiritual entity or entities that it serves.
that needs to be done, and that is to bring spiritually informed understanding to the deeper significance of the global electronic brain
whose emergence
5G will hasten.
One of
Rudolf
Steiner's most helpful insights into electricity was his observation
that it is light in a fallen, degraded state - light that has fallen
beneath nature into the sub-natural realm - and that is why we must
actively guard against an ever increasing dependence on it, for it
threatens to drag us down. 23
It is to rebuild our relationship to
the light, which in its selfless benevolence and purity greets us
every morning, and which, unlike the false and illusory electronic
lights that would lead us into the Underworld, beckons us in a quite
different direction, towards our essential humanity.
which in its selfless benevolence and purity
greets us every
morning
This inner light the
christian tradition knows as the cosmic Logos.
NOTES
Grassroots
Communities & Organizations
Here are several:
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