daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (07/30/84)
From @MIT-MC:JLarson.PA@Xerox.ARPA Sun Jul 29 17:30:29 1984 Arms-Discussion Digest Volume 2 : Issue 49 Today's Topics: Telephone credit cards and C**3 Robots Against War Info Wars Science News beam weapon article ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 25 Jul 1984 1614 PDT From: John McCluskey <MCCLUSKEY@JPL-VLSI.ARPA> Subject: Everyone should memorize their Telephone credit card number. To: info-cobol@mit-mc ReSent-To: Arms-d@MC ReSent-From: GEOFF at SRI-CSL From: Microwave Journal, July 84, page 97 DoD is still generally closed-mouthed about divulging specifics from lessons learned in the Grenada operation. However we have learned of an incident involving C**3 that is a little offbeat, courtesy of MG David L. Nichols, of the Air Force office of Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs. In the early days of the conflict a small force of US troops was surrounded by Cubans in armored personnel carriers. Although US helicopter gunships that could help the US troops were in the area, the soldiers did not have a way to communicate with the gunships. Using GI ingenuity, one of our soldiers went to a public telephone and placed a long distance call for help to Fort Bragg ***using his credit card.*** Fort Bragg, via satellite, was able to get the word to the gunships, who neutralized the Cubans, thereby saving the day for the good guys. Although the demonstration of US ingenuity is appreciated, the lack of ablity of troops to communicate with supporting gunships is an example of how sophisticated C**3 networks sometimes fail to support simple operational scenarios. -------- ------------------------------ Date: 26 July 1984 23:13-EDT From: Oded Anoaf Feingold <OAF @ MIT-MC> Subject: Robots Against War To: WDOHERTY @ BBNG cc: ARMS-D @ MIT-MC In-reply-to: Msg of 22 Jul 1984 16:30-EDT from WDOHERTY at BBNG.ARPA Okay, what is intrinsically terrible about AI/robotics in the battlefield? I can understand that "technology marketing" of arms to thrid-wrold nations is reprehensible, but I think if one enters a battle one should do so in order to win it. AI/robotix may be a means to that end. Maybe someday conventional wars will be decided by whose robots beat up whose robots, and people don't have to go out and get killed. If you DON'T hold the opinion that the US is automatically on the wrong side, is the seminar still demonstrable against? Odd ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 1984 0747-PDT From: CAULKINS@USC-ECL.ARPA Subject: Info Wars To: arms-d@MIT-MC In Arms-D Vol 2 #48 Richard August quoted an article from Consumer Electronic Monthly about subverting the USSR with electronic gadgetry like VCRs. I think the scheme deserves more than tongue-in-cheek discussion. Consider the following: 1) Neither the US nor the USSR can really afford the nuclear arms race, both sides have felt constrained to spend whatever was required to keep up. 2) Suppose the US embarks on a new 'information war' strategy, designed to exploit the vulnerability of the USSR (and possibly other information- restricting regimes) to the undeniable appeal of modern communication technology. The US, in conjunction with Japan, develops a series of low cost, rugged, small size devices; all should be adaptable to a variety of local power sources and/or batteries and/or supplemenatry solar power. The set of devices might include: 2.1) A Walkman-like audio box for playing and/or recording audio cassettes. 2.2) A VCR 2.3) A word processor/typewriter which could be used to generate text or make copies of text produced by other similar machines. 2.4 A TV set capable of receiving Direct Satellite Broadcast programs. The US manufactures these things in quantity, and distributes them at low or no cost around the borders of the USSR. As a parallel effort a variety of audio and video program material would be produced and distributed. Content should be entertainment with emphasis on popular music, current films, Laverne + Shirley type TV programs, etc. As an adjunct effort we produce and distribute in a simlar manner "dzhins", Michael Jackson posters, makeup + junk jewelry, youth-market clothing and accessories - evry sort of capitalist subversive frivolity. The US pursues this strategy quite openly, asserting that we are diverting money from armaments to this new tactic. We couple the build up of info-war activity with offers to alter or diminish it in return for substantive progress in arms control agreements. This is the kind of race the Soviets not only cannot win, it's something in which they cannot even compete. A difficulty is that they might view it as dangerous enough to merit risky military initiatives to try to pressure us to stop it. ------- ------------------------------ Date: 27 Jul 1984 7:47-PDT From: dietz%USC-CSE@ECLA To: arms-d@MIT-MC.ARPA Subject: Science News beam weapon article A recent issue of Science News has an article on directed energy weapons. Two things the article said were interesting. First, it claimed that neutral particle beam technology is as advanced as or more advanced than (conventional) laser weapon technology. Second, it gave some interesting details on the nuclear pumped X-ray laser. According to the article, the lasing rods are made of carbon, are 1 cm long and 1 micron (!) wide. That's only about 10^15 carbon atoms, which, if all excited and made to radiate X-rays, would radiate only on the order of 1 to 10 joules. ------------------------------ [End of ARMS-D Digest]