ORB Visualization
On transforming the military
3/26/2004 6:58 PM
Respectfully communicated to
Director CCRP, OSD Pentagon
I look forward to continuing the discussion I had in your office, and ask for support to call a conference of the leading scientists.
My awareness of the current situation reflects an experience that not everyone has.
A personal story is useful, sometimes. An e-mail criticism of Poindexture’s group at TIA and of General Alexander’s senior scientist lead to my having to resign (in 2002) a position where clear systemic behaviors allowed the development of software that was sexy in theory and appearance but which was far more dysfunctional that anyone from the outside could possible imagine.
The criticism I made in my email was because I knew better than to accept what was being sold by contractors to government clients. This was not so much a moral position as one where I had the background in mathematics, computer science and natural science to see what was incorrect. Others, including CEOs and presidents of consulting companies and technology corporations do not have this background. Few on their staffs has this background, even those with titles Chief Technology Officers more often than not have MBAs and not PhDs. In many cases, having a PhD is not enough. (Respectfully, this is seen to be true.)
We concede that the government was a willing partner in what would otherwise be a clear case of violation of Waste Fraud and Abuse laws. These laws always apply to non-governmental entities. However, some aspects of what we have seen first hand, and have been given as second hand accounts, does not involve willingness by the government. A deception occurs that frames the continued willingness of program managers to support procurements that they know will not be acceptable to IC analysts.
More will be said on the criticism, but let us now examine a solution. We are facing towards the solution space, and are willing to walk away from the past systemic structures that have caused this specific problem space.
A small community of innovators knows how to introduce specific innovations and to integrate these innovations with others. But this class of innovations is not understood; by industry, the clients, or policy makers, at two levels
1) Individuals may actually not understand because there is insufficient background to understand machine algorithms and computer science by management and marketing {+} This is a problem of improper education.
2) A pretense of not understanding is given in order to protect a right to continue to do business as if the technical correctness of the solution was not a problem {+}. This is a problem of fraud.
In order to radically change the quality of the tools available to intelligence community analysts, the “system” has to be able to recognize that there are structural problems in how the system interacts with the science and business communities. As I have said before, if one is to transform the military one first should transform the IT procurement system.
The transformation of the military is essential for many reasons. The cost is one issue; too much of the national budget is spent on maintaining a Cold War military and intelligence structure.
Many primary scientists want to make a positive contribution. We fear for the well being of the nation, and our children.
Many scientists and innovators have suffered personal losses from dedicated efforts made over many years. Our willingness and capabilities to contribute are ignored and marginalized.
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