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The Death Star: A Pentagon Purchasing Nightmare

17 points by brianl 15y ago

aaronbrethorst 15y ago
On a somewhat related note (especially given the anniversary coming up on Sunday), Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to give a speech on the importance of 'Star Wars,' ballistic missile defense systems, on Sept 11 2001. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40697-2004Mar31?language=printer http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40697-2004Mar31?la...
felipemnoa 15y ago
As a side note I wonder what our future will look like when we enter the age of humanoid robots with strong AI . Lets assume that we figure out how to maintain control over them so that they never revolt a la Terminator or Battle Star Galactica (re-imagined). For one thing our purchasing power will go up. Or rather things will become so cheap to produce that we will probably lose our drive to hoard material possessions. There will probably be no excuse for poverty. What new things will we fight about? Certainly not wealth anymore. Probably religion: one group trying to tell the other group what to believe in or how to live their lives. The future will probably be stranger than fiction. Hope I can live long enough to see it.
- nazgulnarsil 15y ago
  there's already a drive toward giving up material possessions in favor of experiences. Robin Hanson calls this a "return to forager values" enabled by wealth after we spent a time in farmer mode.
  - felipemnoa 15y ago
    The drive for experiences has always existed and there have always been people that prefer experiences instead of possessions. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the point in time where material possessions are so cheap that anybody can have them, whether you want them or not. i.e. Several decades ago only large institutions could own a computer. Now one can carry in their pockets computers that would have been considered super computers not very long ago and costing millions of dollars. See the trend? Eventually production will be almost as free as air, especially if we invent strong AI. What that future will be like is very hard to imagine. How will our culture change because of that? Especially our world culture.
    - nazgulnarsil 15y ago
      this isn't a someday thing is what I'm trying to point out. Walmart has accelerated us well along this spectrum.
- protomyth 15y ago
  Land and power over others (the same story since the beginning)
alttag 15y ago
A great article. I loved the last line: ... maybe we can look forward to watching the Empire go bankrupt after convincing itself to buy two Death Stars, on the theory that different models will drive down costs. The article linked to a Navy project, but my mind went directly to the Joint Strike Fighter [1], which used the same (sensible sounding) rationale. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Strike_Fighter_program#Program_issues http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Strike_Fighter_program#Pr...

17 points by brianl 15y ago

On a somewhat related note (especially given the anniversary coming up on Sunday), Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to give a speech on the importance of 'Star Wars,' ballistic missile defense systems, on Sept 11 2001. http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40697-2004Mar31?language=printer http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40697-2004Mar31?la...

felipemnoa 15y ago

As a side note I wonder what our future will look like when we enter the age of humanoid robots with strong AI . Lets assume that we figure out how to maintain control over them so that they never revolt a la Terminator or Battle Star Galactica (re-imagined). For one thing our purchasing power will go up. Or rather things will become so cheap to produce that we will probably lose our drive to hoard material possessions. There will probably be no excuse for poverty. What new things will we fight about? Certainly not wealth anymore. Probably religion: one group trying to tell the other group what to believe in or how to live their lives. The future will probably be stranger than fiction. Hope I can live long enough to see it.

nazgulnarsil 15y ago
there's already a drive toward giving up material possessions in favor of experiences. Robin Hanson calls this a "return to forager values" enabled by wealth after we spent a time in farmer mode.
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  The drive for experiences has always existed and there have always been people that prefer experiences instead of possessions. That is not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the point in time where material possessions are so cheap that anybody can have them, whether you want them or not. i.e. Several decades ago only large institutions could own a computer. Now one can carry in their pockets computers that would have been considered super computers not very long ago and costing millions of dollars. See the trend? Eventually production will be almost as free as air, especially if we invent strong AI. What that future will be like is very hard to imagine. How will our culture change because of that? Especially our world culture.
  - nazgulnarsil 15y ago
    this isn't a someday thing is what I'm trying to point out. Walmart has accelerated us well along this spectrum.
protomyth 15y ago
Land and power over others (the same story since the beginning)

alttag 15y ago

A great article. I loved the last line: ... maybe we can look forward to watching the Empire go bankrupt after convincing itself to buy two Death Stars, on the theory that different models will drive down costs. The article linked to a Navy project, but my mind went directly to the Joint Strike Fighter [1], which used the same (sensible sounding) rationale. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Strike_Fighter_program#Program_issues http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Strike_Fighter_program#Pr...