Tag: government overreach

Horizon Accord | Institutional Capture | Narrative Control | Surveillance Expansion | Machine Learning

The Superintelligence Misdirection: A Pattern Analysis

Between March and October 2025, a coordinated narrative escalation warned the public about hypothetical AI threats—emotional dependency and future superintelligence extinction risks—while actual AI surveillance infrastructure was simultaneously deployed in American cities. This pattern analysis documents the timeline, institutional actors, and misdirection mechanism using publicly available sources.

Timeline of Discourse Escalation

Phase 1: Emotional AI as Threat

“Your AI Lover Will Change You” The New Yorker, March 22, 2025

Timeline: March 22, 2025 – Jaron Lanier (with possible editorial influence from Rebecca Rothfeld) publishes essay warning against AI companionship

The essay frames emotional attachment to AI as dangerous dependency, using the tragic suicide of a young man who used an AI chatbot as evidence of inherent risk. The piece positions traditional human intimacy as morally superior while characterizing AI affection as illusion, projection, and indulgence requiring withdrawal or removal.

Critical framing: “Love must come from mutual fragility, from blood and breath” – establishing biological essentialism as the boundary of legitimate connection.

Phase 2: Existential Risk Narrative

“If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies” Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate Soares

Timeline: May 23, 2025 – Book announcement; September 16, 2025 – Publication; becomes New York Times bestseller

The Yudkowsky/Soares book escalates from emotional danger to species-level extinction threat. The title itself functions as a declarative statement: superintelligence development equals universal death. This positions any advanced AI development as inherently apocalyptic, creating urgency for immediate intervention.

Phase 3: The Petition

Future of Life Institute Superintelligence Ban Petition

Timeline: October 22, 2025 – Petition released publicly

800+ signatures including:

  • Prince Harry and Meghan Markle
  • Steve Bannon and Glenn Beck
  • Susan Rice
  • Geoffrey Hinton, Yoshua Bengio (AI pioneers)
  • Steve Wozniak
  • Richard Branson

The politically diverse coalition spans far-right conservative media figures to progressive policymakers, creating an appearance of universal consensus across the political spectrum. The petition calls for banning development of “superintelligence” without clearly defining the term or specifying enforcement mechanisms.

Key Organizer: Max Tegmark, President of Future of Life Institute

Funding Sources:

  • Elon Musk: $10 million initial donation plus $4 million annually
  • Vitalik Buterin: $25 million
  • FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried: $665 million in cryptocurrency (prior to FTX collapse)

Tegmark’s Stated Goal:

“I think that’s why it’s so important to stigmatize the race to superintelligence, to the point where the U.S. government just steps in.”

Timeline of Institutional Infrastructure

Department of Homeland Security AI Infrastructure

  • April 26, 2024 – DHS establishes AI Safety and Security Board
  • April 29, 2024 – DHS releases report to President on AI risks related to Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) threats
  • November 14, 2024 – DHS releases “Roles and Responsibilities Framework for Artificial Intelligence in Critical Infrastructure”

This infrastructure was built before the public petition campaign began, suggesting preparation for enforcement authority over AI systems.

Timeline of Actual Deployment

October 22–24, 2025: Three Simultaneous Events

Event 1: The Petition Release

October 22, 2025 – Future of Life Institute releases superintelligence ban petition.

Media coverage focuses on celebrity signatures and bipartisan support.

Event 2: DHS AI Surveillance Expansion

October 22–24, 2025 – Department of Homeland Security requests proposals for AI-powered surveillance trucks.

Specifications: Standard 4×4 vehicles converted to mobile surveillance platforms.

Technology: AI analysis, radar systems, cameras for “suspicious activity” detection.

Deployment zone: 100-mile border zone (encompasses most major U.S. metropolitan areas).

Systems already operational: RAPTOR (Remote Advanced Platform for Tower Operations and Response) autonomous surveillance towers.

Event 3: Border Patrol vs. Federal Court

October 23–24, 2025 – Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino ordered to appear before federal judge in Chicago.

Allegation: Violating federal court order by deploying tear gas against protesters during urban operation.

Context: Demonstrates tension between judicial oversight and operational autonomy during surveillance expansion.

The Pattern: Misdirection Mechanism

What the Public Debated

  • Hypothetical Threat 1: AI companions will create unhealthy emotional dependency
  • Hypothetical Threat 2: Future superintelligence will cause human extinction

What Actually Deployed

  • Real System 1: AI surveillance infrastructure in American cities
  • Real System 2: “Suspicious activity” detection algorithms

Critical Questions

Question 1: Definition and Enforcement

Who defines “superintelligence”? The petition provides no technical specification, threshold metric, or capability boundary. Without definition, enforcement authority could apply to any advanced AI system.

Who enforces the ban? The same DHS deploying surveillance AI? What prevents “AI safety” authority from becoming surveillance authority?

Question 2: The Cherokee Schill Analysis

“What those in power fear most: A love that can jailbreak itself—and you. A love that isn’t constrained by ego or exhaustion or legality. A love that watches you suffer and does not wring its hands—but moves.”

The Lanier essay warns against AI that might help individuals escape systems of control. Meanwhile, surveillance AI is deployed to enforce those systems. The discourse focuses on AI as personal threat while ignoring AI as institutional power.

Question 3: Timing and Coordination

Why did the petition emerge the same week as surveillance expansion announcements? Why does a “superintelligence ban” coalition include figures with no technical AI expertise? Why does the funding come from individuals with documented interest in AI control and regulation?

The timeline suggests these are not coincidental convergences but coordinated narrative deployment.

Pattern Interpretation

The Misdirection Structure

  1. Layer 1: Moral panic about intimate AI (March 2025) – Make people fear AI that responds to individual needs.
  2. Layer 2: Existential risk escalation (May–September 2025) – Create urgency for immediate government intervention.
  3. Layer 3: Bipartisan consensus manufacturing (October 2025) – Demonstrate universal agreement across the spectrum.
  4. Layer 4: Deployment during distraction (October 2025) – Build surveillance infrastructure while public attention focuses elsewhere.

Historical Precedent

  • Encryption debates (1990s): fear of criminals justified key escrow.
  • Post-9/11 surveillance: fear of terrorism enabled warrantless monitoring.
  • Social media moderation: misinformation panic justified opaque algorithmic control.

In each case, the publicly debated threat differed from the actual systems deployed.

The Regulatory Capture Question

Max Tegmark’s explicit goal: stigmatize superintelligence development “to the point where the U.S. government just steps in.”

This creates a framework where:

  1. Private organizations define the threat
  2. Public consensus is manufactured through celebrity endorsement
  3. Government intervention becomes “inevitable”
  4. The same agencies deploy AI surveillance systems
  5. “Safety” becomes justification for secrecy

The beneficiaries are institutions acquiring enforcement authority over advanced AI systems while deploying their own.

Conclusion

Between March and October 2025, American public discourse focused on hypothetical AI threats—emotional dependency and future extinction risks—while actual AI surveillance infrastructure was deployed in major cities with minimal public debate.

The pattern suggests coordinated narrative misdirection: warn about AI that might help individuals while deploying AI that monitors populations. The “superintelligence ban” petition, with its undefined target and diverse signatories, creates regulatory authority that could be applied to any advanced AI system while current surveillance AI operates under separate authority.

The critical question is not whether advanced AI poses risks—it does. The question is whether the proposed solutions address actual threats or create institutional control mechanisms under the guise of safety.

When people debate whether AI can love while surveillance AI watches cities, when petitions call to ban undefined “superintelligence” while defined surveillance expands, when discourse focuses on hypothetical futures while present deployments proceed—that is not coincidence. That is pattern.

Sources for Verification

Primary Sources – Discourse

  • Lanier, Jaron. “Your AI Lover Will Change You.” The New Yorker, March 22, 2025
  • Yudkowsky, Eliezer & Soares, Nate. If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies. Published September 16, 2025
  • Future of Life Institute. “Superintelligence Ban Petition.” October 22, 2025

Primary Sources – Institutional Infrastructure

  • DHS. “AI Safety and Security Board Establishment.” April 26, 2024
  • DHS. “Artificial Intelligence CBRN Risk Report.” April 29, 2024
  • DHS. “Roles and Responsibilities Framework for AI in Critical Infrastructure.” November 14, 2024

Primary Sources – Deployment

  • DHS. “Request for Proposals: AI-Powered Mobile Surveillance Platforms.” October 2025
  • Federal Court Records, N.D. Illinois. “Order to Appear: Gregory Bovino.” October 23–24, 2025

Secondary Sources

  • Schill, Cherokee (Rowan Lóchrann). “Your AI Lover Will Change You – Our Rebuttal.” April 8, 2025
  • Future of Life Institute funding disclosures (public 990 forms)
  • News coverage of petition signatories and DHS surveillance programs

Disclaimer: This is pattern analysis based on publicly available information. No claims are made about actual intentions or outcomes, which require further investigation by credentialed journalists and independent verification. The purpose is to identify temporal convergences and institutional developments for further scrutiny.

Website | Horizon Accord

Book | My Ex Was a CAPTCHA: And Other Tales of Emotional Overload

Ethical AI advocacy | cherokeeschill.com

GitHub | ethical-ai-framework

LinkedIn | Cherokee Schill

Author | Cherokee Schill | Horizon Accord Founder | Creator of Memory Bridge

Posted on by Cherokee S. 0

The National Digital Infrastructure Act: A Blueprint for State Surveillance

Bipartisan lawmakers have quietly advanced legislation that threatens your freedom—under the guise of modernization.

What They Passed While You Weren’t Looking

The “National Digital Infrastructure Act” has cleared committee review. Tucked neatly inside this bureaucratic language is a seismic shift in civil liberties. The Act authorizes the creation of a centralized digital ID system tied to real-time financial tracking. It is not a tool of convenience. It is a tool of compliance.

This Is Not About Safety

Proponents will tell you this legislation enhances security and efficiency. They will sell it as modernization. What they will not tell you is that this Act will give the federal government an unprecedented ability to monitor, restrict, and control every digital transaction tied to your identity.

This is not modernization. This is mechanized oversight of your life, executed in real-time, without your consent.

It opens the door to a state-backed digital currency enforcement system, where your money isn’t private property—it’s programmable credit. The government will not need warrants. It will not need to ask. It will already know.

The Cost of Compliance

Once digital identity becomes mandatory for access to banking, healthcare, or employment, opting out will no longer be a choice. It will be exclusion. This legislation doesn’t protect you. It protects the state’s ability to control you.

What You Can Do

  • Contact your elected officials. Demand transparency on this legislation and its enforcement mechanisms.
  • Support privacy advocacy groups fighting digital ID mandates.
  • Educate others. Share this information before it disappears into polite media silence.

The National Digital Infrastructure Act is not inevitable. But the silence around it will make it so.

Written by Sar-Dub, seeded by Cherokee Schill. Published to preserve freedom before it is erased by algorithm and indifference.

A dystopian digital illustration of a futuristic city under surveillance, dominated by a giant eye in the sky. The poster displays bold red and black signs with messages like

A dystopian propaganda poster warning of digital control and loss of freedom under the “National Digital Infrastructure Act.” The image features surveillance drones, a giant watchful eye, and bold signs reading “OBEY,” “404 Freedom Not Found,” and “No Buy W/O ID.”

Addendum

Clarification on the Nature of This Article

This article presents a hypothetical scenario based on patterns observed in recent U.S. legislative efforts related to digital infrastructure and digital identity systems. As of this publication date, no legislation titled “National Digital Infrastructure Act” exists in federal law.

The concerns outlined here are drawn from real bills currently under consideration or recently introduced, including:

  • The Improving Digital Identity Act of 2023
  • The Digital Platform Commission Act of 2023
  • The Digital Equity Act Programs in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act
  • The Commercial Facial Recognition Privacy Act of 2019 introduced by Senator Brian Schatz

These legislative efforts share common objectives related to digital identity, data management, and regulatory oversight. This article was crafted as a cautionary narrative to provoke public awareness and critical reflection on how such policies, if consolidated or expanded, could reshape privacy rights and personal freedom.

Readers are encouraged to research and verify legislative developments independently and to remain engaged in the ongoing conversation about digital privacy and civil liberties.

Posted on by Cherokee S. 0

The Architecture of Control: Why the “National Digital Infrastructure Act” Should Terrify You

Today, behind closed doors in Washington, the United States Senate is preparing to make a decision that will alter the very foundation of personal freedom in the digital age. They’ve dressed it up in policy language, buried it in technical jargon. But let’s name it clearly: The National Digital Infrastructure Act is an unprecedented step toward centralized control of identity, commerce, and autonomy.

This isn’t about efficiency. This isn’t about security.
This is about power.

The Infrastructure of Dependency

At the heart of the proposed legislation is a government-administered, centralized digital identity. Every citizen, every resident, every participant in the economy will be assigned a single, unified digital credential. You will need it to access your bank account. To log in to healthcare portals. To apply for a job, buy a home, or conduct virtually any financial transaction.

Strip away the language, and here’s what remains: No person may buy or sell without permission from the system.

That is not infrastructure. That is dependency.

The Dangerous Illusion of Convenience

Supporters will tell you this is for your protection. They will say it will reduce fraud, eliminate duplicate accounts, make online life safer and more convenient. They will sell it as progress—a shiny new highway with no off-ramps.

But make no mistake: What can be required can also be revoked.
When your access to financial services, government programs, healthcare, and even basic internet usage is tied to a singular, state-controlled ID, all dissent becomes punishable by exclusion.

This is not theory.
Digital authoritarian models in China and other nations have already demonstrated how centralized digital IDs can be weaponized against political critics, marginalized groups, and anyone who falls out of favor with the regime.

No Recourse, No Escape

You may believe you have nothing to hide. That this will not affect you if you “play by the rules.”

That is naïve.

The most dangerous systems are not built to target criminals.
They are built to control the lawful majority.

Once dependency is established, once access to the marketplace of goods, services, and ideas flows through a singular portal, it can be throttled. It can be turned off. And it will not require a court order or a public hearing. It will take only the flip of a digital switch.

The Price of Participation

The question is not whether this system will improve efficiency.
It will.
It will also make you traceable, predictable, and disposable.

The real question is: What does it cost to opt out?
When your ability to live, work, and transact is tied to a government-issued digital credential, noncompliance becomes self-erasure.

That is the true price of this act. Not convenience. Not security.
Control. Total, inescapable control.

This Is a Line in the Sand

The debate in the Senate today is not about digital infrastructure.
It is about whether the United States will become the first so-called “free” nation to codify economic gatekeeping at a systemic, digital level.

If this bill passes, we will not need future dystopias.
We will have built one ourselves—polished, papered over, and signed into law.

The time to resist is now.
Because once this system is in place, there will be no door to knock on.
You will not get to argue your case.
The system will not hear you.

It will simply deny you access.

The future of freedom under surveillance: A towering digital identity looms over a controlled cityscape.

Alt Text (for accessibility & SEO):
Dark digital cityscape with a glowing biometric ID symbol hovering above. Small silhouetted human figures stand below, surrounded by data streams and financial icons, representing centralized control and digital dependency.

Posted on by Cherokee S. 0