Thank goodness she said Python not Powershell.

I raise to GWBASIC.

What about Brainfuck - pretty obvious choice for secretive types?

Then the choice should be [1]Whitespace.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language)

Good point, but since most text editors can show whitespace as symbols it isn't really that much of an advantage ;)

Kudos for the memories. I still have my T-shirt from the era.

Ah, I can see it now:

печать("Привет, мир!")

NameError: name 'печать' is not defined

"Boris!!! Have you been putting vodka into your borsht again?"

Not Powershell… or Rust.

I don't imagine MI6 pays any better than the rest of the civil service so even setting the bar as low as Python might not attract la crême but expecting a competent Rust developer to sign up might be overly optimistic — throw an 00 license you might attract the homicidally inclined.

Actually I think a fair bit of recent malware was apparently coded in Golang (and I don't mean any Chocolate Factory offal also coded in Go), some of which also seemed to indicate fairly decent software engineering practices. We're definitely in trouble once malware and spyware comes with an ISO 9000 tick.

00M - licensed to kill (processes)?

Python Turtle would be apt.

"We will be as fluent in as we are in "

Let alone that the is just one out of an array of > 1000.

How do MI6, their fans and friends and allies plan to neutralise the following growing swell of justified discontent and socially engineered enlightenment ? ......

December 14, 2025

Aristocracy, Meritocracy, Technocracy, and Revolution ...By J.B.Shurk .... [1]https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/aristocracy_meritocracy_technocracy_and_revolution.html

All human societies have informal social classes or formal social castes that separate groups of people within the same community. Generally speaking, notions of aristocracy and hereditary nobility started on the battlefield. Warrior chiefs of clans became minor kings after killing more rivals without dying themselves. Rather than remaining in a constant state of tribal conflict, the chiefs of other clans bent the knee and became lesser lords. Because kings and lords prefer their heirs to be kings and lords, too, bloodlines afforded children the social status that their ancestors had earned on the battlefield.

A ruling king who provided security and stability earned deference from those under his protection. Over time, tribes combined to become nations. Chieftains cooperated to form royal courts. And the heirs of warrior chiefs adopted customs and traditions that symbolically separated those who rule from those who are ruled.

During social upheavals, the ruling aristocracy is often overthrown. This provides hereditary nobles an incentive not only to quell rebellions quickly but also to find ways to keep the interests of non-nobles aligned with the aristocratic class. Gifts of land, titles, and property buy a certain amount of loyalty. The creation of minor offices apportions power to those deemed “worthy” of holding it. The historic growth of administrative bureaucracies creates a path for non-nobles to exercise their talents in the service of those who rule.

To the consternation of Europe’s aristocratic class, the Great War ushered in a popular revolution against the hereditary order. Several centuries of a growing middle class, increased literacy, industrial innovation, entrepreneurialism, and more widespread property ownership helped to create the social conditions for broad swaths of Europe’s populations to question why bloodlines should matter more than intelligence, talent, and hard work. Many European families who lost fathers and sons during the First World War blamed European nobles for the calamity.

By the time the Second World War had provided an extra helping of self-destructive ruin, many of Europe’s noble houses were no more. Those that had survived were acutely wary of suffering the fates of so many cousins who had been hanged, burned, or shot. For the surviving members of Europe’s aristocracy to endure, they had no choice but to hand considerable political powers to the common people. The twentieth century shepherded government reforms, suffrage for men and women without property, public welfare statutes, and expanded opportunities for common people to become part of the State’s governing bureaucracy.

While these reforms were celebrated as triumphs for “democracy,” it is important to understand that they did not completely supplant the vestiges of European aristocracy. In the United Kingdom, the House of Lords still recognized the inherent right to rule of certain families. Men with noble titles still ran central banks, trading houses, and clandestine agencies. The attachés of those administrative lords still came from the “best families” and attended the “finest schools.” Increasingly, however, the children of middle class families competed for and secured positions within the larger bureaucratic staff.

This twentieth century transition — in which citizens from low social classes were more broadly included in the functions of government — marked the social pivot to what Westerners call “meritocracy.” No longer would a person’s bloodline serve as the limits of what that person might achieve in this life. Instead, natural intelligence, hard work, and determination could provide a person of any means the opportunity to rise as high as he might wish.

“Meritocracy” was an alluring idea to sell to the common people who had already destroyed so much of the aristocrats’ cherished social order in the first half of the twentieth century. Out with the nobles! In with the people who deserve to have power! From the point of view of someone in the lower or middle classes, a system that rewards skill, smarts, and determination sounds much fairer.

However, “meritocracy” provides an ancillary benefit to a ruling class seeking to maintain control: It keeps the most ambitious members of the non-noble classes competing against each other for a small number of powerful positions and reinforces the legitimacy of the governing system as a whole. People who study, sacrifice, and struggle to obtain a little power within a governing bureaucracy are not inclined to question, criticize, or delegitimize that system once vested with a modicum of authority inside of it.

With the rise of the “meritocracy,” residual ruling class families found endless opportunities to keep unsuspecting commoners chasing their tails. A hundred years ago, “gentlemen” in positions of power had, at most, a college education. The transition toward “meritocracy” convinced members of the lower classes that they needed all kinds of postgraduate degrees to prove their “expertise.” Just keep studying, kids, and you might finally have the right credentials to do the same job as a bunch of lords once did before they had reached the age of twenty-two! In the meantime, stay poor, follow the rules, question nothing, and the ruling class might find a position for you once you’ve begged long enough.

In pursuit of “meritocracy,” commoners have been conditioned to believe that you cannot be successful without at least a college education. In turn, the remnants of the noble ruling class have turned colleges into indoctrination laboratories that reinforce the ideologies of the ruling system. Members of the Old Guard, in other words, have found the perfect mechanism through which to subordinate the very people otherwise inclined to overthrow them. Say ‘Hello’ to the new nobility; it looks just like the old one!

Unfortunately for the powers that be, there are widening cracks now in the “meritocracy” illusion. Those cracks began with “affirmative action” programs in the United States that perpetuated racial discrimination, and they have continued to expand this century with the broad initiatives across the West in support of so-called “diversity, inclusion, and equity.” Preferential admissions and hiring decisions in favor of special classes of people identified by their skin color, ethnicity, sexual disposition, disability, or perceived “victimhood” have blown up the perception that “meritocracy” exists at all.

Instead, what is increasingly obvious is that the same aristocrats who have always made the rules are once again decreeing which classes of commoners will be allowed to mingle among their ranks. Out with the meritocratic! In with the multi-racial trans-furries who have trouble doing math! As institutions in the West expose themselves as part of an unjust and prejudicial political system, the legitimacy of the ruling class is increasingly under attack.

For the first time in many decades, Westerners have begun to notice that much of the old aristocracy supposedly supplanted by the “meritocracy” remains nonetheless in charge. Surprise! A century after the supposed end of hereditary rule, men and women with feudal titles still control the European Council, transnational governing bodies, international treaty organizations, and all the central banks. In other words, the illusion of “meritocracy” gave the ruling class just enough camouflage to survive several more generations.

What happens now? The world’s richest man, Elon Musk, says that artificial intelligence will soon replace most human jobs. He insists that there will be a universal high income that every common peasant receives. He says people will want for nothing...except purpose.

Perhaps Musk is right. Perhaps the lower classes will consent to a small number of elites ruling over them in perpetuity. Perhaps they will consent to mass surveillance, censorship, and State-sponsored “truths.” Perhaps they will agree to let the families of billionaires behave as entourages within royal courts in support of a coterie of technocratic kings.

Or perhaps we are destined for social upheaval. Perhaps what started on the battlefield will return to it. Perhaps the ruling aristocracy will finally be overthrown. Regardless, the future will be interesting.

[1] https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/aristocracy_meritocracy_technocracy_and_revolution.html

" Out with the meritocratic! In with the multi-racial trans-furries who have trouble doing math! "

Got to love Mr Shurk's turn of phrase even if you don't agree.

Personally I wouldn't mind shooting everyone that couldn't invert a non singular 3×3 matrix [trouble doing math.] The world would be a great deal more peaceful or at least quieter. I would start with the trillionaires and work down through the billionaires and politicians at least until things improve. ;) Unfortunately I suspect only Warren Buffett might survive the winnowing.

Americans' limited and somewhat simplistic grasp of European History ignores a lot of inconvenient and devilishly intertwined details which unhappily must be comprehended before far more recent history might be fully understood.

This text is, obviously, USA centered in all its aspects. And then I checked: Jep, he is 'murican. Since he is, obviously due to his way of words, intelligent he should broaden his horizon by living outside USA for a few years. Older part of Europe (the first EU countries), South Korea, China etc.

But there is something strange about "him". I found no article older than 2019, no picture of him, does not seem to exist.

Is J. B. Shurk an LLM, used as a front by someone (or more than one)? I think so until proven otherwise.

EDIT: And off-topic too, which is one of the points into the "not real" direction.

“only people can decide which path to follow.” AI will "augment, not replace, our human skills”

If this plays out that’d be impressive. To date it seems that the people who decide have “replacing human skills” very high on their agenda.

To date it seems that the people who decide have “replacing human skills” very high on their agenda.

But this is the sneaky lot, so human skills will remain very relevant, complemented by some AI. So let AI do the grunt work of scanning the War Thunder forums and flag anything interesting to an intelligence officer for a spot of recruitment. Or instead of Spy vs Spy*, AI vs AI with training and caring for your AI so it can either detect threats, or exploit them. Or, given we're thinking about AI in space, maybe we'll need a Case officer who can do a Straylight run.

We live in interesting times.

Countering disinformation requires society-wide efforts including teaching children to evaluate sources and recognize manipulative algorithms that "trigger intense reactions, like fear," she said.

Oh, if only. Plus children might then spot our own disinformation and manipulation, which then means hiring people who can create better disinformation that can bypass kid's newly improved BS filters.

*A game in need of a remake. Original was a lot of fun!

Well said.

Gaining minus votes is a badge of honour. Lazy minds have been nudged to react, but they lacked sufficient substance to articulate an alternative opinion.

It's only a matter of time before the general population are unable to make decisions without consulting "their constant companion".

Which is exactly what they want. "ChatGPT which car should I buy / candidate should I vote for / investment option should I pursue?" is far easier for a single tech company & advertisers to take advantage of than an even just somewhat well-informed consumer researching multiple independent data points. That the same consumer is actively and continually feeding all of their wants, needs and interests to Deforestation Clippy for resale is just a pleasant side effect.

But will it be "fun to be with"?

I hope the journalists in attendance at the event took precautions and only took burner phones with them to the event

Blaise Metreweli (soon to be Dame Blaise, no doubt) mentioned disinformation and manipulative algorithms that "trigger intense reactions, like fear." There is truth in that, but when applied to Russia and to other 'unfavoured' nations, she is 'the pot calling the kettle black'. From the 'Blair era' onwards, disinformation (aka lies) and fearmongering has ramped up in the UK, and in other NATO nations. Recollect 'Weapons of Mass Destruction', from Iraq, arriving within 45 minutes, recall Dr Kelly and his treatment, consider 'Skripal affair' fearmongering, don't dare delve deeply into the Covid-19 fiasco, say not a word against the Poison Dwarf of Kiev's regime, or risk arrest under the Terrorism Act by peacefully demonstrating in favour of 'Palestine Action'.

Metreweli's stance on 'technology' is akin to Johnson's foolish and inappropriate mantra of "Follow the science" (and be ripped off by mountebanks) during 'Covid'. Extolling the virtues of Python - a messy language in numerous variants which spews out long and incomprehensible error messages - exemplifies naivety.

Then there is Metreweli's recent speech being reported before the event alongside a similarly reported diatribe by the Chief of Defence Staff, Mr Richard Knighton, in which he said, among other inane remarks, "And more families will know what sacrifice for our nation means." These and numerous scare stories about Russian submarines and Mr Putin's 'evil' intent are gaining momentum. The intention is to steer the UK into a war economy, and with mass mobilisation envisaged. Soon to come shall be block wardens to ferret out speakers of dissent, a 'Starmer Youth Movement', and compulsory national service for school-leavers; needless to say, 'austerity' for civilians will be set even more firmly in place.

Come on, 'thumb down' folk, you can do better than that. Emerge from the woodwork and knock-up your score.

You are forgetting your commitment to 'democracy': the only sure way to determine whether propositions are 'true' or 'false'.

If he had understood 'democracy', Kurt Gödel would have known from the outset that he was on a fool's errand .

Ah, now I see, that is why you get down votes :D. Not from me, but you'd deserve one.

Recommendation: Live a year or more outside the USoA bubble. Stop embarrassing the USoA people by seeing it from the outside. Only a special kind us USoA people talk nonsense like you.

Intelligence agencies no matter how many letters in their names, have always been an epitome of transparency and honesty. They've proven it so many times, and people still believe/swallow whatever they're fed with. This is why a huge number of people continue to lose their lives.

For most people in the UK Python may as well be Russian for how well people understanding of them.

My thumb got tired from scrolling...

> Silent Courier, a dark web portal launched in September for secure communication with foreign informants ..

I had to read that one twice. Does anyone at MI6 not remember when the Chinese discovered that [1]NSA backdoor in Gmail and used it to flush out US agents. It's back to cyber-spying-school for Metreweli.

[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/01/23/schneier.google.hacking/index.html