{"id":7711,"date":"2012-04-10T14:11:48","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T14:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=7711"},"modified":"2012-04-10T14:11:48","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T14:11:48","slug":"recommended-reading-107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=7711","title":{"rendered":"Recommended Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top Billing! Global Guerrillas –Drones and Operational Maneuverability<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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….Drones are currently in the process of being outfitted with insect mobility — bees to ants to fleas. \u00a0However, that mobility is of diminished use given the limitations on decision making complexity (beyond what’s required mobility). \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

That decision making limitation will be fixed in the next decade, as inexpensive computing horsepower and bio-mimicry allows us to outfit drones with more complex mammalian behaviors (think rat). \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, given that this decision making capacity will become merely a function of inexpensive hardware\/software, it will become a throw away feature. \u00a0You can turn it up or down depending on need without any thought the expense involved. \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

This implies a pretty efficient combo of dumbed down drones operating as part of a swarm, reacting to\u00a0stigmergic signalling<\/a>, and more rodent like behavior when operating as individuals.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Glittering Eye –\u00a0Alien vs. Predator<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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When I read\u00a0this comment<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t see it that way. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s about race, I think it\u2019s about his status as a member of the Ivy League elite. He doesn\u2019t understand \u201ctypical white people\u201d but then neither does Mitt Romney.<\/strong><\/p>\n

my immediate reaction was \u201cYeah. 100% of blacks in America were raised by white people in Indonesia and Hawaii.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Carl Prine –General\u00a0Discontent<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0The emails began circulating yesterday, all extolling\u00a0the brilliance of retired U.S. Army LTG David Melcher as a good example of the \u201cdisruptive thinker<\/a>,\u201d his Ranger-honed brain sculpted by the best of the Army and unleashed now as a titan of entrepreneurship, his eyes burning as green as sawbucks in the jungle of Wall Street\u2019s night.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well, can you blame them?\u00a0 I know I can\u2019t.\u00a0 Their applause for Melcher\u2019s bio arrives\u00a0at a historical\u00a0moment, one that finds too many current and former soldiers intoxicated with a bit of maverick humbuggery\u00a0championed by Lt. Benjamin Kohlmann on Small Wars Journal\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u2013 an argument so\u00a0clumsy that he, no joke, suggests that the best way to shake up the stifling complacency of the military bureaucracies is to send junior officers to business school, most especially the one at Harvard.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

….To sell the innovative fusion that apparently occurs whenever we link \u2013 again, no joke \u2013 \u201ccryogeneticists with F\/A-18 pilots,\u201d Kohlmann\u00a0rambles on about fripperies\u00a0as diverse as the iPhone, its godfather with deep pockets Steve Jobs, science fiction writer Orson Scott Card, dead USAF Col. John Boyd, the Myspace\u00a0of living USN Adm. James Stavridis, three-named mediocrity Joshua Cooper Ramo, then some jumbled half-thoughts about crowdsourcing, terrorists and swarming drones all designed to answer a question he doesn\u2019t really ask:\u00a0\u00a0 Why do it?\u00a0 Who already benefits from today\u2019s hidebound bureaucracy?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Granted, I don\u2019t think that even one of Kohlmann\u2019s examples of Harvard\u2019s entrepreneurial spirit ever attended HBS, but perhaps their accountants and personal wealth managers did.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

SWJ (Peter J. Munson) –Disruptive Thinkers: Defining the Problem<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Benjamin Kohlmann\u2019s essay, \u201cThe Military Needs More Disruptive Thinkers,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0struck a chord like no other essay published recently in the\u00a0Small Wars Journal<\/em>.\u00a0 In brutal honesty, I have to say that the many sniping comments struck exposed flesh.\u00a0 While an ardent fan of Kohlmann\u2019s essay, I have to agree that his argument was more akin to birdshot at maximum range than a mailed fist to the throat of the problem.\u00a0 Perhaps a better analogy is that his was a marking round lobbed in the general vicinity of the problematic enemy fire.\u00a0 Whatever it was, it was a wildly popular read.\u00a0 For all the comments on the article, the one that rang truest with me came from commener \u201cNull Hypothesis\u201d and asked, \u201cWhat problem are we trying to solve again?\u201d\u00a0 This was absolutely the right question.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Kohlmann called for disruptive thinkers, but the real question is why?\u00a0 And what are we disrupting?\u00a0 We cannot waste time with harassment and interdiction fires.\u00a0 We must define what targets we are servicing….<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Infinity Journal (Frank Hoffman)<\/strong>–\u00a0The Myth of the Post-Power Projection Era<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

CTOvision (Alex Olesker) –Fighting Cyber Crime with Transparency<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wilson Quarterly – Pakistan’s Most Dangerous Place<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Recommended Viewing:<\/p>\n