Bionic Bug Podcast

Hey everyone, welcome back to Bionic Bug podcast, episode 4. This is your host Natasha Bajema, fiction author, national security expert and "insecto-phobe".

First off, a personal update. I just finished my second draft of Project Gecko, Book Two of the Lara Kingsley Series. I’ll be sending it to my editor on May 1. I’m thrilled to finally reach this next step in my writer journey. If you’re a writer, you know the constant struggle against the voices in your head. Even though I’ve successfully published Bionic Bug, sometimes I worry about whether that was just a fluke. Well, I’ve about to prove to myself and you all that I can do it again.

I’m really excited about the story in Project Gecko which delves deeper into Lara’s backstory and follows her journey through her grief over the loss of her best friend Sully. Over the next few months, I’ll be rewriting the book several times to finalize the manuscript in August. I expect to release it on Kobo in September so stay tuned for further updates.

Let’s talk tech. The headline that caught my attention this week is a doozy. It’s from April 27 on CNN online: "Police used free genealogy database to track Golden State Killer suspect, investigator says.” Before I talk about this, I need to make a few points for context.

For the past decade, most of us have signed up for free gmail from Google (or other services) and interacted with Facebook and other social media for free. It’s important to understand that these services are not really “free” in practice. Yes, you don’t have to pay for them, but there are hidden costs. I can’t count the number of times I’ve downloaded an app or signed up for an online service where I simply clicked that little box, agreeing to accept the terms and conditions without even reading them.

I’ve peeked at the terms and conditions a few times and then quickly moved on. Let’s be honest… even if we read those agreements, they’re full of lawyer-speak, wordy, extremely long, and difficult to understand. That’s why we just click yes and move on. The terms are conditions are designed with that intention. Because if you did read through the terms and conditions and understand their meaning, you probably wouldn’t like everything you just signed up for and you might not sign up in the first place.

It’s important to understand that for many of these online services, YOU are the product. The company offers you free services because they are getting something from you. Something that is extremely valuable. That something is data about YOU. It’s time for us to become more cognizant of the data that we’re offering. At least when you’re aware of the costs and benefits, you can make the best decisions for yourself.

Every time I talk about emerging technologies, I poll the audience for the number of people who have sent their DNA samples to companies like 23&Me or AncestryDNA to find out more about their genetic background. Every time, there are at least a few hands. Then I ask them if they’ve read the terms and conditions. No one raises their hand. When you submit your DNA sample to these companies, you give them ownership of that sample. They can sell it to other companies. That’s your genome. You don’t have another genome. You can’t change your genome. It’s not like a credit card.

Let’s go back to the headline for today.

Police think they have caught the Golden State killer, believed to be responsible for killing 12 people and raping more than 50 women in the 1970s and 1980s. Police used the GEDmatch database to match DNA found at the crime scene. GEDmatch database is free to use and publicly accessible. In that sense, it’s not a paid service like 23andMe or AncestryDNA. People enter their own DNA profile they receive from these paid services to find other possible family members.

Police entered DNA thought to be from the killer into the database to locate potential matches and were able to identify relatives of the suspected killer. More than 100 users matched as a distant relative. Police began contacting distant relatives of the killer. After four months of studying online family trees, they came up with Joseph James DeAngelo, 72 years old, as a potential suspect. They retrieved a discarded DNA sample from his garbage and matched it to the culprit’s DNA.

This genealogy database is yet another example of us offering up our data without thinking about the long-term consequences. If you want to understand some of the implications, you should watch the film Gattaca again with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. In the film, health insurance and employment decisions are made based on the presence of certain health risks illuminated by your genome. The basic premise of the movie is that your DNA is not your destiny.

If you’re interested in learning more about the risks posed by personal data, I recommend reading the book Future Crimes by Marc Goodman. But you should probably not read this right before you go to bed.

Last week, in Chapter 3, Lara goes after Sully who was in the stands at Nationals Park operating some sort of device and possibly interacting with the drones. She finds him out in the corridor of the baseball stadium. He’s stumbling around as if he is drunk or sick. She follows him into a dark hallway and finds him convulsing. Right before he dies, the tries to talk to her and give her his keys.

Read “The Townhouse” (Chapter 4).

Let’s go behind the scenes. Why did I choose a beetle as the object of horror for my first book? My earliest childhood memory involves a beetle. My first memory as a child dates back to my third year. I was playing in my sandbox in the backyard. A giant beetle entered my sandbox. I remember it being the size of my fist. Since I was 3 years old, it probably was close to that size since everything is relative. I panicked and ran to my mom screaming in terror. My mom took a shovel, scooped up the beetle and tossed it into our neighbor’s yard. I’ve been somewhat terrified of insects ever since.

The idea for the first story in the Lara Kingsley Series came to me as I was reading through lists of emerging technologies for my research at National Defense University. I came across an article published in 2009 by the MIT Technology Review about a remote-controlled beetle being developed by scientists at the University of California for the U.S. Army and funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to support surveillance and search and rescue missions.

Advances in microelectronics, in particular the miniaturization of microprocessors and batteries, have made it possible to create “insect-computer hybrids” also called cyborg beetles blending a beetle’s natural capabilities and blend insect with machines.

Beetles have several advantages over other insects and their electronic alternatives such as microdrones.

First, beetles require only a small amount of energy to power the microelectronics. Beetles use their own energy to fly, do not run out of energy mid-flight and can replenish their energy supply by consuming food. Drones of the same size require far more energy to produce life and stabilize their flight. Moreover, these small drones can only carry tiny batteries, limiting their flight time and thus range.

Second, beetles are heaver than other insects and can carry heavier payloads. In addition to the microelectronics package, beetles can carry small heat sensors or cameras to support surveillance or search and rescue missions.

Finally, with the exception of the tiny microelectronics package and electrodes, there is no assembly required. A downside of using beetles instead of micro drones is their limited life span.

The microelectronics package designed by scientists at the University of California and National Technical University of Singapore looks like a tiny backpack. It contains a microprocessor, a radio receiver, a battery, a circuit board, and six electrodes. The electrodes are implanted into the optic lobes and wind-folding muscles to control the beetle’s flight.

Photo Credit: National Technical University, Singapore

Electrical signals are delivered via electrodes to command the beetle to take off, turn left or right, hover, and land. Commands are sent over a radio-frequency transmitter from a nearby laptop. Scientists managed to control the flight of cyborg beetles for the first time in 2015. Although they had previously understood the potential, it took additional study to enable control of free-flying beetles within the laboratory environment.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Welcome to episode number 3 of the Bionic Bug podcast. Before we get started, a quick reminder. The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

First off, I have a personal update. This past week, I hosted my first-ever book launch party and book signing for Bionic Bug at Wicked Bloom, a cool bar in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of Washington D.C. Thanks so much to everyone who made it out on a weekday evening. I also want to say a special thanks to Amber, the owner of Wicked Bloom, John, the manager, Chris, one of Wicked Bloom’s fabulous bartenders and everyone else who helped make it such a special event.

There were awesome drink specials and cool drink names—the Buzz Kill, Beetle Juice and Black Death. You might also note that the first episode of this podcast was called Wicked Bloom. That’s because the first chapter of Bionic Bug takes place at the Wicked Bloom, which is Lara and her fellow PI and best friend Sully’s favorite local bar.

Okay, let’s talk tech. Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing as it’s more commonly known, is a digital manufacturing process that uses 3D digital files to produce parts. Unlike traditional manufacturing processes such as CNC machining or milling, which begin with a block of material and remove material to form parts, additive manufacturing builds 3D parts layer by layer. It’s often called "manufacturing for the masses” because all you need to get in the business is  a computer, an Internet connection, a digital file, a 3D printer, and materials. As a digital technology, it will get easier to use over time. With 3D printing, all you need is you can make and share physical objects over the Internet. This will change the world as we know it.

The variety of available materials is expanding like gangbusters. In the 1980s and 1990s, the first materials included thermoplastic, resins, and metals. Now, you can print with ceramics, gold and silver, cement, bioink, nanocomposites, glass, and even food. Someday scientists believe we’ll be able build structures on the moon from the material that is already there.

I promised to give you the headlines that MOST caught my attention so don’t hate me with this one. I couldn’t help but read this headline from April 9, 2018, “Engineers Want to 3D Print Stuff in Space using Recycled Astronaut Poop.” Yes, this is an actual headline and not from the Onion. I read the article and thought it was gross so I’m not going to talk about it. But if you want to read more, you can see the article for yourself on digitaltrends.com.

While we’re on the topic of 3D printing, there’s a new trend called 4D printing, which is applying the principles of additive manufacturing but using dynamic materials rather than inert material. Dynamic materials are those materials that change or evolve after printing such as bioinks to print living tissue and organs and conductive inks to print electronics. The fourth dimension is time.

On April 5, 2018, 3dprint.com reported that a “Professor Uses 4D Printing to Manufacture Curved Components without Moulds.” Researchers at Dartmouth College developed a “smart 3D printable ink” that can change shape and color. This process allows for the production of curved shapes more quickly and economically. A potential application of this new material would be satellites which are subjected to extreme temperature changes. A structure built from such materials would open up during the day and collect solar energy and close up at night to protect the internal electronics from extreme cold.

My final headline for the week is from April 9, 2018, “Descent of the Machines: Aussie Firm Boasts of Underwater Drone Swarms.” If I could, I’d cue some scary music here. An Australian company claims it has developed a fleet of underwater drones capable of swarming the seas. The drone weighs 1.7 kg (3.7 pounds), is 75cm long (2.5 feet) and can dive down to 50 meters (164 feet). Note - I did the conversions live quite accurately except for that last one (whoops!).

So, why is this a big deal? Underwater naval operations typically focus on detecting submarines and gathering environmental data. The oceans have long been the domain of nuclear submarines which depend on secrecy for their locations and movements. Nuclear submarines play a critical role in nuclear deterrence, providing a reliable second-strike retaliatory capability. This is the idea that if a nuclear nation strikes first with nuclear weapons, they will experience massive retaliation on their cities. This mutual assured destruction will deter a first strike in the first place--hence, deterrence.

I want to thank my newest patron—Clark. It means so much to have your support. If you would like to support my time and costs of producing in show for only a few dollars a month, please go to patreon.com/natashabajema.

In the second chapter, Lara attended a baseball game at Nationals Park with the Nationals facing off against the Atlanta Braves. The game determined which team would get to advance to the world series. During the 7thinning stretch, hundreds of drones flew into the park. To the crowd in the stadium, it looked like a drone show organized by the park management. But Lara knew better. Let’s see what happens next.

Read Chapter 3 - The Drone Show.

Let’s go behind the scenes. In Chapter 3, Lara notices her friend Sully operating some sort of device. It looks like some sort of rugged remote control for operating drones. It could also be a jammer or a spoofer. Later, the device turns about to be a spoofer. This is significant since it’s not legal for private citizens to use  jammers or spoofers, which could interfere with signals of cell phones and emergency communications.

One of the many issues surrounding the rise of drones is our limited ability to counter them. Drones will increasingly become a problem for local law enforcement. There are some interesting options under exploration (for an in-depth discussion, see the work by the Center for the Study of the Drone at Bard College).

Most off-the-shelf drones receive and transmit radio frequency or GPS signals . A jammer disrupts the radio or the GPS signals controlling the drones. When a drone loses its signals, it is programmed to enter into its safety protocols, which means it will either hover in place, attempt to land or return to its original locations. A spoofer sends false GPS signals to a drone in an attempt to confuse it and take control of its navigation system.

There are a few destroy options. Laser or directed energy weapons destroy the drones midair, causing them to crash. Also, law enforcement officials can simply shoot them out of the air like Saudi security forces did just a few days ago.

There are also a few capture options. There are guns that shoot nets into the air to entangle drones and bring them to the ground. My favorite counter-drones system, however, is the training of birds of prey to take drones out of the air. A Dutch firm called Guard From Above is training eagles to capture drones in flight. According to company, the eagles wear protective shin-guards in order to shield their legs from the drone’s rotors and have a 95 percent intercept rate.

This is not science fiction. The drones are coming. If you needed further evidence, my friend sent me a photo this morning (April 22) from the Grand Rapids Press, my hometown’s local newspaper. Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan is now offering two courses on drones.

The drones are coming.

Welcome back to the Bionic Bug podcast. This is episode number 2. My name is Natasha Bajema. I’m a fiction author, national security expert and your host for this podcast.

First off, I want to share a personal reflection. Last week, after I proudly posted my first-ever podcast, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts and realized that I made an amateur mistake in the closing segment. FYI, the slashes in website addresses are not back slashes, they are actually called forward slashes. #facepalm

I re-recorded the closing segment this week with the correction. I had a good laugh about it. The truth is that I’ve been making a lot of amateur mistakes lately… and I realized it’s because I’m doing many things for the very first time. Again. Since I’m in my forties and have built up a nearly two-decade career in national security, it’s been a long time since I’ve been new at anything. It feels so exciting and adventurous. In some ways, I feel like I’m 20 again.

If you take anything away from this at all, you should know that not only is it never too late to start a new career, but in fact, it’s highly recommended. Being an amateur again is incredibly freeing. It’s given me a fresh outlook on a lot of things.

Okay, let’s talk tech. There were a couple of headlines that caught my attention recently. An editorial on April 4, 2018 in the Richmond Times Dispatch entitled “Cybersecurity is Far More Critical than Border Security."

The Internet was originally created as a network for labs and universities to communicate and share information. The main strength of the Internet is its openness, but this is also its primary weakness. There’s currently much debate against building a wall along the U.S.-Mexican border. I’m worried that we’ll spend billions and it will become obsolete even before it’s finished being built.

For example, organized crime, drug dealers and friends of cellmates in prisons are increasingly using drones to deliver packages across otherwise impenetrable physical barriers. Moreover, cybercrime is on the rise. Criminals are turning to the Internet and the Dark Web, both of which are borderless, to conduct their activities.

The U.S. is more invested in cyberspace than any other nation. Our society is addicted to the Internet. We can’t even imagine life without it. Our military has grown extremely dependent on the proper functioning of the Internet. And this is a major threat to our national security. Every semester, I recommend a few books to my students for reading. The one on the top of my list is called Ghost Fleet by August Cole and P.W. Singer, a particularly troubling vision for how WWIII might go done. If you want to know what keeps me up at night, this is it.

Many of you may not be aware of a recent ransomware attack against the city of Atlanta. On March 22, a cyberattack shut down the city of Atlanta's online systems—affecting the computer systems of 8,000 municipal employees. As long as a week after the attack, officials were struggling to keep the government running without digital processes and services. Residents couldn't pay their water bill or their parking tickets. Police officers were forced to write out their reports by hand. Court proceedings were canceled until computer systems would function  properly. How well prepared are we for such attacks on a larger scale?

I fear the answer is we’re not well-prepared or even aware of the potential threat. Another article written on April 1, 2018 entitled “Cybersecurity Faces Challenges in Congress” notes that Congress is primarily focused on immigration, health care and budget legislation. “Cybersecurity is not necessarily one of the highest policy-making priorities.”

Changing the subject a bit, a headline on April 2, 2018 on Fox News caught my attention: “Company Plans Drones to Carry 400 Pound Payloads.” A Canadian company wants to develop a drone that can deliver packages up to 400 pounds. Well, I’d prefer they don’t fly over my house then. These drones will be able to fly 150 km (93 miles). The company conducted its first tests of the Sparrow drone on March 5. The smaller drone currently has a 5 kg capacity (11 pounds). They’re planning tests for another drone called the Raven with a payload of up to 25 pounds.

Drone delivery is coming. This is a theme of Bionic Bug. Amazon wants to be able to delivery packages by drones. Drone delivery is  currently not legal in the U.S. The timing  depends on when the appropriate regulations can be put into place.

I want to thank my first two patrons—Renee and Cheryl. Thank you so much for your support which allows me to produce the show. If you would like to support my show for only a few dollars a month, please go to patreon.com/natashabajema 

In the first chapter, I introduced some of the main characters—Lara, Vik, Sully and Maggie. Sully was acting strangely. We learned that Lara’s company is in financial trouble. Let’s see what happens next.

Read Nationals Park - Chapter 2

Let’s go behind the scenes. Nationals park is an important setting for Bionic Bug and for me personally. My job is located walking distance from the baseball park. I drive by it everyday and go to a game a few times every year.

When I go to games, I marvel about the openness of the stadium. I was attending a game with my parents who were visiting me in D.C., and I couldn’t get the image out of my head, the image of hundreds of drones flying over the top of the stadium walls and into the park. What should I think? What would I do?

The drone show in Bionic Bug was inspired by a YouTube video I saw several years ago of a 100-drone light show designed by Intel. It was the first of his kind. The drones moved and blinked their lights to the music of Beethoven’s 5th symphony. The half-time show of the 2017 Super Bowl also featured a drone show. More recently, Intel broke their world record at the Olympics opener with a drone show involving a swarm of 1,200 drones.

Most off-the-shelf drones today can carry only a small payload – maybe a few pounds. But as you can see from these drone shows, with swarming capability, the potential for scale is unlimited – instead of lights, think about this. What if each of these drones carried a small explosive and were delivered to a target?

The views expressed in this podcast are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

Welcome to the first episode of the Bionic Bug podcast! My name is Natasha Bajema. I’m a fiction author, national security expert and your host for this podcast. I’m so thrilled that you’re tuning in.

I started this podcast in part to get my first novel into audio format, but I also wanted to share some of my insights behind the book as well as my perspective on where we’re headed in the future. Each week, I’ll kick the episode off with a technology news headline or two that has caught my attention that week. Then I’ll read a chapter from my book. Each episode will conclude with behind-the-scenes technical information.

So, if you’re interested in technology, in reading fiction or want to write fiction based on future technology, you’re in the right place.

Before we get started, I need to offer two caveats:

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.

I am not a professional narrator. Please note that I will not attempt to read in an Australian or Indian accent because I’ll be terrible and you’ll hate it.

In this episode, I kick things off with a technology news headline: AI Cardiologist Aces its First Medical Exam. During the last week of March, I attended Synapse: Innovation Summit 2018 in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Bernard Meyerson, IBM’s Chief Innovation Officer took the stage to talk about IBM Watson machine learning tools being used across the country in the field of medicine to assist doctors with complex diagnoses.

A machine learning tool is a series of algorithms programmed to analyze input data and predict specific outcomes. Today’s machine learning tools are designed to mimic the way the brain works called deep neural network. As a result, computers can often do specific tasks better than humans.

Computers are better at digesting vast amounts of data and discovering complex correlations among them. In a matter of minutes, a machine learning tool can analyze hundreds of thousands of medical research articles to provide doctors with a possible diagnosis and treatment plans. Machine learning tools are especially effective for complex or rare cases. Whereas a machine learning tool can instantly peruse everything that exists on a topic, doctors may only be able to read several new journal articles per month.

In this episode, I read “Wicked Bloom” chapter 1 of Bionic Bug which takes place in Washington D.C. in 2027. To conclude the episode, I discuss behind-the-scenes information about the book.

In Chapter 1, Sully mentions that the kidnapper in his case threatened to kill his hostage with ricin, a toxin produced from the pulp of castor beans. Ricin is a biological agent and a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). In the U.S., the FBI is the lead agency for dealing with WMD.

If you’re writing a novel with a domestic WMD incident, you should definitely bring in the FBI.

In 2006, the FBI stood up the WMD Directorate, which works to prevent and prepare for WMD attacks. Prevention is carried out at each of the FBI’s 56 field offices through special agents who serve as WMD Coordinators.

These WMD Coordinators conduct outreach with the local community and law enforcement and are on the frontlines of any case related to WMD.

In Bionic Bug, Special Agent Robert Martin, Lara’s ex-boyfriend, is a WMD Coordinator at the Washington Field Office.

In Chapter 1, I introduce the concept of driverless cabs and self-driving cars.

In Bionic Bug, the D.C. Council has passed an autonomy mandate requiring all drivers to operate their vehicles in autonomous mode. Motorcycles are exempt because of severe objections by the motorcyclist lobby, which claimed it would be the end of the biking industry.

Recently, I’ve had several discussions about the dawn of self-driving vehicles and have several thoughts. First, the technology is not there yet as evidenced by recent Uber and Tesla accidents. Second, even if the technology is possible in a couple of years, there’s the issue of technology adoption and societal acceptance. Communities like the National Capitol Region will have greater incentives to give up the freedom of the road.

The views expressed on this podcast are my own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government.