"The Government wants the Computer Code for Forecasting" Conspiracy Theory

Martin Armstrong portrays himself as a persecuted genius, but evidence shows his stories are fabrications to cover fraud.

Armstrong's Core Claims 

Martin Armstrong repeatedly claimed that the US Government was interested in the forecasting capability of his computer program and that it requested from him the source code of it.

He also claimed that the CIA requested from him he build a forecasting model for them.

He wrote that he declined in both cases, and that he spent 7 years in jail for contempt of court for his refusal.

Instead he claims that his computer model has self-awareness which allowed it to self-destruct when the hardware was physically moved by court order.

See:

Ukraine is a Disaster, Putin is the Moderate, & Truth is the Victim

Posted Jul 25, 2023 by Martin Armstrong
... I am the longest person ever held in civil contempt for refusing to turn over the source code to Socrates.

and:

Sorting the Nonsense & Prejudices from the Truth of Reality

Posted Mar 27, 2020 by Martin Armstrong
Money cannot buy everything in life. I turned down $500 million for Socrates where it would have just provided analysis for a single user. I rejected the request of the CIA to build a version for the US government. I offered to run any study they asked and was told they “had to own it.”

This is a ridiculous lie, a type of lie familiar to those dealing with charlatans. He might have gleaned it from other fabrications such as from the imaginary owner of his free energy scooter.

See:

Armstrong's Ignorance on Perpetual Motion Machine?

Later he changes his story and claims that the government locked him up to silence him. See:

 Martin Armstrong Book: The Plot to Seize Russia 

And because of that, they tried to silence me by imprisoning me on civil contempt for 7 years to prevent this story from being told.

Document Misrepresentation 

Armstrong repeatedly misrepresents a 2001 legal document with a dispute about a source code escrow (transcript below):

RE: Princeton re: license stipulation
1/2/01 8:54:25PM Eastern Standard Time
TSchiavoni@OMM.com (Schiavoni, Tancred)
Mart2u@aol.com ('Mart2u@aol.com')
TSchiavoni@OMM.com (Schiavoni, Tancred)
So there is no misunderstanding, we are going to ask the Court
direct that any compensation payable to Armstrong, Sr by [redacted] be
deposited into a frozen escrow account pending a determination of title and
compliance relevant portions of PI. In part, we are doing this because
Armstrong Sr. has refused to turn over the uncompiled source code for the
model that is being licensed. Without the uncompiled source code, no one
can repair the model other than Armstrong. Accordingly, it looks like
Armstrong structured the "consulting" agreement to benefit indirectly from a
corporate asset that was withheld. Among other things, we are are
concerned about leaving him in a position to constantly blackmail [redacted] who
have no other choice but to turn to Armstrong to maintain the software
as long as it remains missing. 

 

This document which he showed in Socrates Forecasting the Insane Future and again in Socrates & War is unrelated to his contempt of court case because it deals with a private licensing dispute, while there is no evidence that the government had any such dealings with Armstrong.

He uses these fabricated stories for multiple purposes:

1. to distract from the real reason why the Government requested turnover of computer assets 
2. to conceal the fact that the court ordered him to turn over 15 million worth of assets bought with funds stolen from investors
   
3. to distract from the fact that he most likely deleted files manually (files that the Government requested for different reasons), to conceal information about his crimes and about the stolen assets
   
4. to enhance his clients' perception of the capabilities of his computer (artificial intelligence, self-awareness)
5. to enhance his own status with heroism based on the false claim that he remained in prison for the sole reason that he refused to turn over his computer code to the court

Post-Release "Success": More Smoke and Mirrors? 

So Armstrong walks free in 2011 after serving time for contempt (tied to hiding millions in investor assets) and financial fraud, and suddenly he's back with a shiny new Socrates platform, international conferences, and a 2014 documentary (The Forecaster) that paints him as a martyr silenced for his genius. Impressive comeback, right? Or is it just Fraud 2.0—using hidden funds and recycled victimhood myths to rebuild an empire and keep selling subscriptions?
 

Why does a twice-bankrupt ex-con with no credit pull off a million-dollar relaunch right out of prison? The answers lie in the very misrepresentations this page exposes: Exaggerated "hits," self-aware AI fantasies, and government-conspiracy tales that distract from the real history of fraud.

For the full breakdown of how The Forecaster became his reputation-laundering machine—and the financial impossibilities behind his current operation—see the exposé: Martin Armstrong: The Forecaster The Movie.

 Following are some links to documents with discussion of the above topics.

Deletion of Files

In ARMSTRONG v GUCCIONE we read:

A forensic computer expert testified that (1) one of the four returned computers had its hard drive removed, (2) on the morning before another computer was turned over to the receiver, more than 500 files had been erased from its hard drive, and (3) on the same day that a third computer was turned over, software was installed enabling the deletion of computer files and the computer’s internal clock was reset in an effort to mask the destruction of files.

In It’s just Time he writes:

I can confirm, that the system was laced with a virus. If it was ever removed from the office, it would know and self-destruct. That I believe took place for it appears the Government seized the computer, took if to a lab at the World Trade Center, ironically where it was destroyed in the attack. The Government seized the computer, but it self-destructed when moved.

Evidence of Manual Deletion 

The above is consistent with a user installing a bulk erase software on a computer (as observed by the forensic expert) and executing it. There is nothing that indicates that a system was in place that could execute such a task when required, such as one that would detect a change of location. A forensic computer expert would have certainly detected such a system, including a virus (as Martin Armstrong claims) that could have executed it.

Even more so, if such delete action had been planned and built into the system, the discovery of 500 deleted files would have been prevented by removing / replacing the more than 500 file entries entirely. This is another proof that this story is a desperate excuse and smokescreen, after-the fact propaganda for the consumption of naive observers who know as little or less about computers as Armstrong himself.

Claims of superior Performance based on Computer-based Self-Awareness

Martin Armstrong likes to claim that his computer model has abilities exceeding contemporary AI (Artificial Intelligence), based on self-awareness, backed up by his claims that it erased the files under threat as described above.

In Self-Aware Artificial Intelligence he writes:

It achieved self-awareness. It immediately knew the government was trying to take it to its secret computer lab in WTC building 7 that mysterious collapsed even though nothing struck the building. They were angry when they realized it had self-destructed. It was aware of its surroundings and it took all but 7 seconds to self-destruct overwriting all code 7 times and shifting around so they could never un-erase and put him back together again. The Global Market Watch is running. It is being tested live and seems to have handled these turning points rather well. Reassembling something of this magnitude is truly an awesome project. It is time consuming to say the least. What is at stake is the creation of an artificial being that monitors the world around it. This is beyond creating a mere drone that people control from a distance. This is something that thinks on its own and tells you what it has explored.

In The Reversal System - Engineering Background you can discover how embarrassingly trivial the Socrates system really is. There is also evidence that he does not even know what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is.

See also:

Martin Armstrong and his Socrates: The Conspiracy of the Cartel

 
Disinformation