> The problem was that the OTA was reality-based and reality has a well-known liberal bias.
Speaking about bias ...
Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#22> The problem was that the OTA was reality-based and reality has a well-known liberal bias. Speaking about bias ...
Thats a satirical line from Stephen Colbert.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#23Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that PhDs from Boeing or FFRDCs are going to real strangers to "real-world research problems."
At the same time, are they experienced in CRUD apps? Probably not. Solve the right problem with the right people.
What in the world difference would it make if they're familiar with CRUD apps? They're not writing code for government infrastructure
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#24An OTA, if it still existed, wouldn't hire college-dropout Facebook engineers. It would be staffed with mid/end-career PhDs who came up through Boeing, IBM, etc. Because that's what the government hiring process considers "qualified." You think they are going to see eye-to-eye with the tech industry on hot-button issues like copyright, patents, etc?
The tech industry has demonstrated supreme amounts of power in the political sphere.
I'm not crying for the political ills of Zuckerberg or Apple or Google. Furthermore, the tech industry is far removed from blue-collar middle class America, with an average of twice the wages and relatively insulated from the ills of globalization.
Just remember: Technocrats are a political group just like any other. You and I may be part of them, but remember that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (aka: EFF) is a lobbying group funded by technocrats, with ideologies that don't necessarily match the average (non-technocrat) American.
Again, I'm a technocrat like most others in this site. I am a programmer by trade and generally agree with the issues brought up by the EFF. Just don't get trapped inside of the "bubble" that is Hacker News or even Reddit. There is a big world out there.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#25"The problem was that the OTA was reality-based and reality has a well-known liberal bias." That's cute. No, actually, it's bureaucrats that have a liberal bias. Meanwhile, in the absence of the OTA, we've been busy building laser weapons and missile interceptors.
You (and Boing Boing) are mischaracterizing what OTA said about the Star Wars program. They never claimed it would be impossible to shoot down a missile or that any of the technologies involved could not be made to work. Instead, OTA found it was unlikely a program that would be effective against a large scale Soviet first stike could be deployed within the desired timeline. History has proven them correct. You can r…
You can read the actual reports here:
http://fas.org/spp/starwars/ota/
Actually, I can't, for all the links are dead.
So I don't know how they scored success. I score it:
Integral to winning the Cold War, which we did.
Deterring a first strike, because the Soviets couldn't choose which of their warheads would get intercepted. This is very important because the triad made a successful first strike, that is, one with minimum retaliation, extraordinarily difficult in the first place.
Preventing maximal damage to cities and infrastructure while civilians huddle in their shelters (which we could have built, and stocked with a years worth of food, for 1/3 of the annual DoD budget of the period).
Failing our building shelters, preventing all civilians in their cities and such from getting nuked. That one is iffy, especially since:
At the other end, you could define it as none of the 40,000 warheads in their inventory hitting us, but I know that's not what the proponents of SDI claimed it was capable of.
Note, I was something of a player in this arena during the period in question, including editing the Arpanet ARMS-D mailing list in the 1982-3 period, debating it with the best anti-s MIT had, you're not going to convince me by a raw appeal to authority, especially as filtered through such a notorious organization as the OTA.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#26I don't know, it only takes jason chaffetz 3 tries to say COBOL
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#27An OTA, if it still existed, wouldn't hire college-dropout Facebook engineers. It would be staffed with mid/end-career PhDs who came up through Boeing, IBM, etc. Because that's what the government hiring process considers "qualified." You think they are going to see eye-to-eye with the tech industry on hot-button issues like copyright, patents, etc?
> An OTA, if it still existed, wouldn't hire college-dropout Facebook engineers. It would be staffed with mid/end-career PhDs who came up through Boeing, IBM, etc. Because that's what the government hiring process considers "qualified." You think they are going to see eye-to-eye with the tech industry on hot-button issues like copyright, patents, etc?
Honestly, I'd prefer that to the status quo. No solution is perfect but the current situation is an absurd caricature of a shitshow.
The ignorance displayed is terrifying because these people are professionals at gathering public support.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that PhDs from Boeing or FFRDCs are going to real strangers to "real-world research problems."
At the same time, are they experienced in CRUD apps? Probably not. Solve the right problem with the right people.
The OTA doesn't need devs and Facebook engineers, they're not developing CRUD apps, and they don't need to know what CRUD is. They need to be well educated, qualified professionals who are capable of advising the government on technology issues that affect the whole population. They need to be well-rounded and capable of seeing things both from many perspectives, including those of tech company engineering departments, federal law, and scientific pursuits.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
You (and Boing Boing) are mischaracterizing what OTA said about the Star Wars program. They never claimed it would be impossible to shoot down a missile or that any of the technologies involved could not be made to work. Instead, OTA found it was unlikely a program that would be effective against a large scale Soviet first stike could be deployed within the desired timeline. History has proven them correct. You can r…
You can read the actual reports here: http://fas.org/spp/starwars/ota/ Actually, I can't, for all the links are dead. So I don't know how they scored success. I score it: Integral to winning the Cold War, which we did. Deterring a first strike, because the Soviets couldn't choose which of their warheads would get intercepted. This is very important because the triad made a successful first strike, that is, one with m…
Just delete wws from the links, they will start working fine after that.
Re: Congress is clueless about tech because it killed its tutor
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
At the same time, are they experienced in CRUD apps? Probably not. Solve the right problem with the right people.
The OTA doesn't need devs and Facebook engineers, they're not developing CRUD apps, and they don't need to know what CRUD is. They need to be well educated, qualified professionals who are capable of advising the government on technology issues that affect the whole population. They need to be well-rounded and capable of seeing things both from many perspectives, including those of tech company engineering department…
Thank you! I appreciate the correction!