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I had to look this up. From Wikipedia: Stargate Project was the code name for a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defe

I had to look this up. From Wikipedia: Stargate Project was the code name for a secret U.S. Army unit established in 1978 at Fort Meade, Maryland, by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and SRI International (a California contractor) to investigate the potential for psychic phenomena in military and domestic intelligence applications. The Project, and its precursors and sister projects, went by various code names—GONDOLA WISH, GRILL FLAME, CENTER LANE, SUN STREAK, SCANATE—until 1991 when they were consolidated and rechristened as "Stargate Project".

txsh 8y ago
Chevron 7...will not lock. :(
- stephengillie 8y ago
  Were the movie and TV show named after the project for plausible deniability? Ironically, this is something the TV show itself suggested. https://youtu.be/gT-Vf_x4Dc4 https://youtu.be/gT-Vf_x4Dc4
  - sandworm101 8y ago
    No. The whole secret stargate agency, the one in all those bunkers, was a creation for the series. The original movie didn't involve a giant secret operation. It was a basic take on the whole 'ancient aliens' concept. They expanded everything to make room for the series long after the name. I think gate was more to do with star trek and wars, but by that same logic the government program could be named after trek and wars. The people picking names for secret government programs like to play jokes. They are all scifi geeks too. See Skynet and Reagans Starwars. I'd be 100% behind calling the new 'space force' the Starfleet. There is no harm in making a name fun.
    - stephengillie 8y ago
      > I think gate was more to do with star trek and wars, but by that same logic the government program could be named after trek and wars. [Strategic Defense Initiative] was derisively nicknamed by the media as "Star Wars", after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas.[0] In political domain specific languages, StarGate could refer to a controversy involving the SDI. [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
      - a_e_k 8y ago
        "Stargate" was also the name of a 1981 arcade game. [1] It was the sequel to "Defender." On that basis, I wouldn't be shocked if it were named for the game. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(video_game)
      - kuschku 8y ago
        There’s also the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), and many other similar names. The US government has perfected creating such pop-culture references in names of laws and projects.
        paulie_a 8y ago
        Someone was paid actual tax dollars to come up with that hacky acronym.
        stephengillie 8y ago
        A "hackronym", if you will.
        sandworm101 8y ago
        Better than "Operation Iraqi Liberation". That acronym didn't last long.
    - deleted 8y ago
      [deleted]
- gunnarde 8y ago
  INDEED
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
danbruc 8y ago
The really interesting thing to me is how recently those experiments were conducted. I find it somewhat mind-boggling that the US still searched for witches in the 1980s.
- dmix 8y ago
  The benefits of black budgets and zero public pressure for measuring ROI. They probably invented some ridiculous justification about "not being able to disprove the unknown" and that every abstract hypothetical threat we can invent should be taken seriously, something something Ruskies.
  - jessaustin 8y ago
    Probably most of the investigations were conducted by shell companies owned by sisters-in-law etc. Just another way for TLA assholes to line their own pockets.
  - njstraub608 8y ago
    This. The Pentagon buried a McKinsey study detailing out $125 billion in waste with almost no pushback from the public and then comes a proposal for an additional $300 billion budget increase with no effort to optimize existing processes. Going to the cloud and modernizing technology will only solve some of the problems, the rest are non-technical (bureaucratic).
    - hospes 8y ago
      For the reference https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3302e52bf561 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-burie...
    - hospes 8y ago
      Just to put things into perspective, if pentagon optimizes it's spending and saves $125 Billion, all public colleges can be tuition free and government will still have ~$62 Billion left. [1] Side note: Public colleges can also be made tuition free if government scraps financial aid programs that it has (~$69 Billion) and directly pays for all students that go to public colleges. [1] [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-e...
gnode 8y ago
I have to wonder whether the "SCANATE" name was inspired by the film "Scanners".

txsh 8y ago

Chevron 7...will not lock. :(

stephengillie 8y ago
Were the movie and TV show named after the project for plausible deniability? Ironically, this is something the TV show itself suggested. https://youtu.be/gT-Vf_x4Dc4 https://youtu.be/gT-Vf_x4Dc4
- sandworm101 8y ago
  No. The whole secret stargate agency, the one in all those bunkers, was a creation for the series. The original movie didn't involve a giant secret operation. It was a basic take on the whole 'ancient aliens' concept. They expanded everything to make room for the series long after the name. I think gate was more to do with star trek and wars, but by that same logic the government program could be named after trek and wars. The people picking names for secret government programs like to play jokes. They are all scifi geeks too. See Skynet and Reagans Starwars. I'd be 100% behind calling the new 'space force' the Starfleet. There is no harm in making a name fun.
  - stephengillie 8y ago
    > I think gate was more to do with star trek and wars, but by that same logic the government program could be named after trek and wars. [Strategic Defense Initiative] was derisively nicknamed by the media as "Star Wars", after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas.[0] In political domain specific languages, StarGate could refer to a controversy involving the SDI. [0]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
    - a_e_k 8y ago
      "Stargate" was also the name of a 1981 arcade game. [1] It was the sequel to "Defender." On that basis, I wouldn't be shocked if it were named for the game. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(video_game) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_(video_game)
    - kuschku 8y ago
      There’s also the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI), and many other similar names. The US government has perfected creating such pop-culture references in names of laws and projects.
      - paulie_a 8y ago
        Someone was paid actual tax dollars to come up with that hacky acronym.
        stephengillie 8y ago
        A "hackronym", if you will.
        sandworm101 8y ago
        Better than "Operation Iraqi Liberation". That acronym didn't last long.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
gunnarde 8y ago
INDEED
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

danbruc 8y ago

The really interesting thing to me is how recently those experiments were conducted. I find it somewhat mind-boggling that the US still searched for witches in the 1980s.

dmix 8y ago
The benefits of black budgets and zero public pressure for measuring ROI. They probably invented some ridiculous justification about "not being able to disprove the unknown" and that every abstract hypothetical threat we can invent should be taken seriously, something something Ruskies.
- jessaustin 8y ago
  Probably most of the investigations were conducted by shell companies owned by sisters-in-law etc. Just another way for TLA assholes to line their own pockets.
- njstraub608 8y ago
  This. The Pentagon buried a McKinsey study detailing out $125 billion in waste with almost no pushback from the public and then comes a proposal for an additional $300 billion budget increase with no effort to optimize existing processes. Going to the cloud and modernizing technology will only solve some of the problems, the rest are non-technical (bureaucratic).
  - hospes 8y ago
    For the reference https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-buries-evidence-of-125-billion-in-bureaucratic-waste/2016/12/05/e0668c76-9af6-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3302e52bf561 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/pentagon-burie...
  - hospes 8y ago
    Just to put things into perspective, if pentagon optimizes it's spending and saves $125 Billion, all public colleges can be tuition free and government will still have ~$62 Billion left. [1] Side note: Public colleges can also be made tuition free if government scraps financial aid programs that it has (~$69 Billion) and directly pays for all students that go to public colleges. [1] [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-exactly-how-much-the-government-would-have-to-spend-to-make-public-college-tuition-free/282803/ https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/01/heres-e...

gnode 8y ago

I have to wonder whether the "SCANATE" name was inspired by the film "Scanners".