by Jack Holt
When I was a boy, my grandfather taught me a Cherokee Proverb which I have pondered my entire life. It didn’t make much sense to me at the time, but the more I thought about it, and the more I grew, and the more I learned, and the more I did, and the more people I met, worked with, and engaged with, the more I began to see what the proverb meant.
I suppose that’s what proverbs are supposed to do. They guide you toward some universal truth that is unknowable at the time. Unknowable because you haven’t lived the time and it is time that is the critical factor.
While time is the critical factor, experience is the determining factor and thought multiplies the effect for it is what you give your thought to that determines what your experience is and the time you will give to a task and hence what you learn. This is true whether it’s cyberspace time or the “old-fashioned” variety of time!
The proverb stated: “If you listen to whispers, you will not hear screams.” For a close-knit, tribal people this meant paying attention to those around you. Even in a hyper-connected age like the one we experience in cyberspace, it means the health of the whole is the responsibility of the individual. It means an acculturated community. It means seeing the invisible…an invisible that transcends both the tribe and the physical world, if you look and listen closely enough.
Why do we so often miss seeing the invisible? Perhaps because we are looking and listening in the wrong places.
What makes people who they are? Why do they do what they do? How can we know such things? Time, experience, thoughtfulness: just as my grandfather inferred in his proverb.
Listening to people, learning from them, learning all we can about them. What are their proverbs, their poetry, and their music? These are the tools of enculturation: how we learn and apply values of a culture.
To know a people’s language is just the beginning, to know their thoughts is to know them. This is what it means to socialize. This is how we will ultimately exploit cyberspace as a species. In the meantime, let’s listen…
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Showing posts with label time. Show all posts
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Friday, December 10, 2010
Information Operations and Cyberspace: It's “Time” to Chat
By Craig Harm
Last week, Carl Hunt and I had the opportunity to talk about the SENDS effort at the Defining IO/Cyber Spectrum Operations Conference hosted at SPAWAR, Charleston, SC. The conference was conducted by the Association of Old Crows. The conference theme was “Defining IO & Cyber Capabilities in 21st Century warfare”. Keynote speakers were headlined by Vice Admiral “Mike” McConnell, U.S. Navy (retired) who was previously the Director of the National Security Agency and the Director of National Intelligence. This was an important conference!
Discussions the first day centered on the strategic issues of DoD and national cyber operations and defense efforts. While we heard how each of the military services is reorganizing to make cyber operations a more main-stream activity, we also heard about the complexity of their network management and defense challenges. Senior-level operators expressed their concerns about being unable to see into their own networks. The speakers included an Army general officer, a reservist on active duty, who has also worked in senior leadership positions in the commercial sector.
Many of the senior-level presenters on the first day talked about their efforts to secure their own networks. As would be expected from those with such responsibilities, they all seemed to focus on the key areas of management, oversight, accountability, command and control and roles and missions. These points were highlighted by recurring mention of organizational studies, effectiveness inspections, committee formations and “way-ahead” talks.
The second day was focused more on the “tactical” level and network operations. A key point about network dependencies was brought up during these discussions. The upshot of all of the presentations was that despite the talk of Net Centric Operations and Warfare, the DoD is really Net Dependent, and it is this Net Dependency that presents the most opportunities for vulnerability; this creates a driving force behind the requirement for secure networks. With over 1.4 million DoD users on the network (including an increasing mobile presence), the challenge for network operators is building the culture to ensure users are protecting data and the network.
Yes, despite the leap in technologies and accessibility, it is still a culture issue – a people issue.
Although the details and the content of most of the discussions about Information Operations (IO) were classified, there were some key points of interest we can discuss here. The first and foremost to me is the incongruence of the definition of Information Operations and what it is composed of. Even today, there is still debate about what IO is and how it’s done. The conventional DoD definition of IO includes both electronic warfare (EW) and computer network operations (CNO). While some of these discussions look and feel “new”, such as computer network operations, the main themes are not, as I point out below.
The third and last day was conducted as a panel forum on new technologies. The panel members were asked to address “What are some new technologies on the horizon, and how are these technologies transitioned to the warfighter? What are Cyber and Net-Centric Warfare, and how will these capabilities help the warfighter?”
There were discussions and presentations on adaptive antenna technologies, text and video content extraction, as well as Information Management systems: the technologies of cyber-enabled operations, if you will. It was in these sessions that Carl presented the SENDS Project. His was the only presentation of the entire conference to specifically address the need to understand the human part of cyberspace, the linkage between “new” and “old” thinking about Information Operations (see below).
Many of the presentations during the conference alluded to the human element, but none called it out specifically. In addition to giving a basic overview of the SENDS philosophy and the concept of the Science of Cyberspace, Carl talked of how the biggest source of both gratification and aggravation in the growth of cyberspace is in innovation….persistent, emergent innovation, a human process, by the way.
There is a paradox of sorts, where the ultimate uses of technologies and policies in many cases deviate to a use that was not the original intent. This, Carl pointed out, is the manifestation of emergence from human, technological and cultural exchanges. Cyberspace is a breeding ground for adaptation and innovation. People interacting with other people, often through cyberspace technologies, show us daily how adaptive and yet unpredictable we truly are: this also helps explain why social science, while making progress, still has a long way to go!
After hearing three days of talk about the importance of Information Operations, the tremendous focus and effort within the DoD towards these operations, and the monumental challenges DoD has to overcome to implement them I began to wonder why this seems so new to people. Information, communication, connectivity and secure lines of communication have historically always been important, vital parts of our lives as humans.
Several in the conference pointed out that during the revolutionary war, it was George Washington’s tremendous human network for gathering information that enabled him to outmaneuver the British and keep the Colonial Army intact. While moving to intercept Robert E. Lee's army of Northern Virginia, Union soldiers from George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac discovered a misplaced copy of Lee's detailed battle plans wrapped around three cigars; even though McClellan failed to exploit the discovery to victory, he was still able to achieve a tactical draw at Antietam (interestingly, some of the first “cyberspace” technologies such as the telegraph, linked people during that time). World War II saw the dependence on wireless transmission, another manifestation of cyberspace. The Allied exploitation of Japanese codes and the German Enigma machine gave a significant advantage to the Allied war efforts.
So why is there the sudden emphasis on Information Operations? Why is this different now, in the 21st Century, than it has been in the past? Why are these operations drawing so much attention from our national leaders in the last few years?
I believe what is really making this different is rooted in the effects modern cyberspace connectivity brings to operations. Near-ubiquitous human connectivity and the massive quantities of data, interacting through the technology of cyberspace, have a transformational temporal impact. It is really about time, and the massive human-human, human-machine and machine-machine interactions that modern, fast-paced flows of information enable. SENDS is attempting to gain an understanding of these same themes through the study of exchange, emergence and self-organization.
These elements that cyberspace brings to Information Operations makes things different now, more than at any other period in history. And it is these elements, including the effects of time, through which we must gain a more fundamental understanding before any study, reorganization or new policy will ever have any significant impact.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Cyberspace's impact on our perception of time
by Craig Harm
Cyberspace has and is changing the way we look at and deal with time. I would like to open with a short overview of how cyberspace has developed to produce an environment that is making us rethink our perspectives on time. Then, as food for discussion, I am proposing a couple of specific areas where our perspective of time is changing due to cyberspace. My intent is not to compose a comprehensive research piece on time and cyberspace but instead I hope my thoughts stimulate discussion.
From the first humans counting on their fingers, we have looked for better and faster ways to help us with increasingly complex mathematics. While the early abacus and the slide rule were crucial developments in man’s calculating tools, they were still analog devices. The advent of mechanical adding machines in the 17th Century and their offshoot, the cash register in the 19th Century were some of the first mechanical systems to help us with faster more complex calculators. Then in 1944, Howard Aiken at Harvard University built the first electromechanical machine. While it was very slow and huge, it could be called the first computer as its function could be altered by its programming.
These first steps in development occurred over centuries. In only the half century that has followed; gears and motors were replaced with relays, the relays were replaced by electronic switches and the switches replaced with circuits. While the history may be of interest to some, it is important to note that the interest and motivation for the development of these systems all seem to have been driven by the same desire to do more and more complex problem solving faster. The rate of change cyberspace undergoes is continuing to increase at exponential rates: it was just 15 years ago that e-mail came into being—today, it is a major workflow tool.
For centuries human communications networks remained unchanged and stable. There were two ways to transfer information, by land or by sea. The key element in the time to transfer information was the geographic distance between the two parties. With the advent of the telegraph and the telephone, distance was no longer a factor; rather, volume and information retention become the more dominate factors, often restricted by human memory and note-taking. Now, the interconnection of increasingly fast high-volume computation capabilities which created cyberspace bridges all those gaps. Now, geographic location and distance have become negligible factors; the technical inhibitions against transfer and storage of information have also been largely overcome. Broadband is only now empowering the majority of society’s connectivity, and we are just the first few years into the social networking phenomena.
The former ways of knowledge accumulation and transfer were tried and true and had been in use for so long humans could not imagine alternate methods until cyberspace was discovered. Now the 21st century is well underway and many of us have become so accustomed to the rates of change of new communications methods nothing seems to surprise us any longer. Nonetheless, human behavior introduces constant surprises. These changes and surprises, and the profound impacts on human culture and emerging societies, both physical and virtual, demand in-depth and systematic formulation of cyberspace understanding and knowledge. Connected collectivity, operating at the speed of cyberspace still presents challenges to perception and understanding, however.
So as we consider our perceptions of time and how cyberspace is changing that perception consider how business is conducted in today’s cyberspace-enabled environment and how our expectations and management of time are changing as well. Enabled through a connected network of computers we conduct almost any transaction instantaneously. Multi-task capable computers enable applications to run simultaneously. Mathematical problems too complex for the human brain to process are done in the blink-of-an-eye. Functions and capabilities are developing so fast we often are found in a dilemma to buy a system now or wait for the next generation system to be released. Communications have become so easy and so pervasive we are suffering from overload.
What has all this done to us?
I am sure there is much more to this topic than what I have expressed in this blog. In fact, the availability of this blog and your interest in reading it is causing changes to your own perceptions of time. You may be thinking of time related questions about this SENDS blog. What is the frequency of postings? How often does it need to be checked? Can I set up a reminder to help me manage my reviews? Are the topics still viable or have they already been overtaken but subsequent items that compete for my interest?
I look forward to your comments and discussions.
Cyberspace has and is changing the way we look at and deal with time. I would like to open with a short overview of how cyberspace has developed to produce an environment that is making us rethink our perspectives on time. Then, as food for discussion, I am proposing a couple of specific areas where our perspective of time is changing due to cyberspace. My intent is not to compose a comprehensive research piece on time and cyberspace but instead I hope my thoughts stimulate discussion.
From the first humans counting on their fingers, we have looked for better and faster ways to help us with increasingly complex mathematics. While the early abacus and the slide rule were crucial developments in man’s calculating tools, they were still analog devices. The advent of mechanical adding machines in the 17th Century and their offshoot, the cash register in the 19th Century were some of the first mechanical systems to help us with faster more complex calculators. Then in 1944, Howard Aiken at Harvard University built the first electromechanical machine. While it was very slow and huge, it could be called the first computer as its function could be altered by its programming.
These first steps in development occurred over centuries. In only the half century that has followed; gears and motors were replaced with relays, the relays were replaced by electronic switches and the switches replaced with circuits. While the history may be of interest to some, it is important to note that the interest and motivation for the development of these systems all seem to have been driven by the same desire to do more and more complex problem solving faster. The rate of change cyberspace undergoes is continuing to increase at exponential rates: it was just 15 years ago that e-mail came into being—today, it is a major workflow tool.
For centuries human communications networks remained unchanged and stable. There were two ways to transfer information, by land or by sea. The key element in the time to transfer information was the geographic distance between the two parties. With the advent of the telegraph and the telephone, distance was no longer a factor; rather, volume and information retention become the more dominate factors, often restricted by human memory and note-taking. Now, the interconnection of increasingly fast high-volume computation capabilities which created cyberspace bridges all those gaps. Now, geographic location and distance have become negligible factors; the technical inhibitions against transfer and storage of information have also been largely overcome. Broadband is only now empowering the majority of society’s connectivity, and we are just the first few years into the social networking phenomena.
The former ways of knowledge accumulation and transfer were tried and true and had been in use for so long humans could not imagine alternate methods until cyberspace was discovered. Now the 21st century is well underway and many of us have become so accustomed to the rates of change of new communications methods nothing seems to surprise us any longer. Nonetheless, human behavior introduces constant surprises. These changes and surprises, and the profound impacts on human culture and emerging societies, both physical and virtual, demand in-depth and systematic formulation of cyberspace understanding and knowledge. Connected collectivity, operating at the speed of cyberspace still presents challenges to perception and understanding, however.
So as we consider our perceptions of time and how cyberspace is changing that perception consider how business is conducted in today’s cyberspace-enabled environment and how our expectations and management of time are changing as well. Enabled through a connected network of computers we conduct almost any transaction instantaneously. Multi-task capable computers enable applications to run simultaneously. Mathematical problems too complex for the human brain to process are done in the blink-of-an-eye. Functions and capabilities are developing so fast we often are found in a dilemma to buy a system now or wait for the next generation system to be released. Communications have become so easy and so pervasive we are suffering from overload.
What has all this done to us?
- Our ability to send and receive communications has driven us to an expectation of immediacy. There was a lag-time expectation when letters and “snail-mail” communications were the norm, we would measure the time with a calendar in days or weeks. With omnipresent e-mail in today’s society that lag-time as dwindled to something we now measure with a watch or stop-watch in minutes or hours. Even the famous Miss Manners now says you should always respond to e-mail or find a suitable method to acknowledge receipt within one business day. This almost instantaneous response culture is forcing us into habits that make us feel disposed to focus more on e-mail response time than content.
- If we want something now, we can get it now. Well maybe not physically, but intellectually. The connected- connectivity of cyberspace seems to make omnipotence just a search and a click away. And each search should only have to last a few minutes at most. We expect to find what we are looking for at first glance, and if we can’t we move on. We see this expectation manifested in advertising. The Netflix family “The Right-Nows” who expect and do everything “right-now. The Bing TV commercial about search overload is a satirical example of how the immediacy of information availability is changing how and when we think of things.
- The responsiveness, agility, and volume Cyberspace provides are driving us culturally to shorter and shorter attention spans. Think of how we read and review our e-mail. With the volume, diversity and frequency of e-mail traffic we no longer have time to compose or read lengthy, explanatory notes. If something does not immediately capture our attention, we tend to disregard it and move on. We simply have to move on or we cannot get through the information. With the advancement of computer volume and speed, the diversity of topics and the ease of access to our interests we can easily become distracted away from those things that need extended, devoted time. The immediacy of news and information about any subject imaginable is driving us to move from one topic, issue or event to another with very little dwell time. As they say, old news gets boring and our propensity to look for new topics causes us to soon forget ongoing issues. Cable news may have been the first to bring this phenomenon to the forefront, cyberspace exasperates it. YouTube, FaceBook, news feeds and blogs are just a few of the cyberspace environments that experience this phenomenon of short-lived information.
- Our willingness to wait for new technologies is becoming more and more tolerable. The time between version updates, computing advancements, and technology implementation is continuing to grow shorter and shorter. With the costs of older technology dropping as new technology comes out, there is an inclination to wait, as maybe the existing prices will drop with the release of the new technology. Or the converse is true; the old technology will soon become obsolete so we may as well wait. Think of the rush and push for the release of Windows 7. With warnings of ending support for older Windows versions coming out from Microsoft, the retail industry moving to sell new machines loaded with Windows 7 and our interest in the new capabilities promised many people withheld buying new hardware and software until Windows 7 was released.
- Cyberspace has added a completely new element into our time management. The activities available within cyberspace, the connectivity cyberspace provides and ease of access are increasingly adding to our daily lives and tasks. Just because it is out there or available does not mean it can fit into the existing priorities of our daily lives. Complaints about the volume and management of e-mail ring from the business world, academics and our personal lives. Compound that with keeping up with news feeds, social networks and web-based entertainment and you have the makings of a true crisis in daily time management.
I am sure there is much more to this topic than what I have expressed in this blog. In fact, the availability of this blog and your interest in reading it is causing changes to your own perceptions of time. You may be thinking of time related questions about this SENDS blog. What is the frequency of postings? How often does it need to be checked? Can I set up a reminder to help me manage my reviews? Are the topics still viable or have they already been overtaken but subsequent items that compete for my interest?
I look forward to your comments and discussions.
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