Hacking Structure, Culture and Ethics

Just some thoughts I had on how strategy could be used to counter hacking. These are from an edited form of a comment I made in Oliver Stone’s post on Medium https://medium.com/@TheOliverStone/the-russians-are-coming-eef3697e548b#.mde6jb8q0. I just stuck them up here so I could think about them some more.

“A hack should be considered getting inside a society’s structure, culture and ethics and letting that society see betrayal and trust where in truth there is none. There is no strategy in a hack other than that which is structural. A hack operates on the basis of observation and I would say that transparency is the key in defending and undoing a hack.”

“But transparency has to be accomplished strategically. As I said, hacking is not strategic, so those on the defence needs to act in a strategic manner. They need to release transparency through trusted sources only and, as betrayal and trust is targeted in a hack, this is not easy to accomplish, and needs much thinking in the process.”

Trump drops Twitter bomb on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet

“Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!” Trump tweeted Thursday.

There is no comparable F-18 Super Hornet to price-out. The F-35 has shown an ability to shoot down non-planer aircraft (non-airplane aircraft), which, I think, makes it a generation or two ahead of the F-18 Super Hornet. The F-35 is built to be a 5th generation fighter and the F-18 was built to be a 3rd generation fighter.

What gives the F-35 its designation as a 5th generation fighter (if developed–a big if), the F-35 doesn’t rely on a plane of air to maneuver on.

The F-35 maneuvers in  directions other than parallel to the plane it is on and without having to change the direction of that plane in flight. Most other aircraft and all airplanes are dependent on one plane of air and maneuvers by bending that plane.

In other words, the F-35’s maneuvering is not dependent on a linear plane. The F-35 flight can be considered, in that context, to be nonlinear. It is a 5th generation fighter jet. If Trump’s administration is figuring to prepare to fight a tactical (1st generation) nuclear war as stated, then probably the F-18 Super Hornet is the machine to go for. If his administration is planning to participate in the 4th generation war we have, then they should really think about getting serious about developing the F-35.

Part of this ability of nonlinear flight of the F-35 is in its structural design. The F-35 has an interior center of mass that gives it symmetry similar to that of a flying saucer. Coupled with an engine that is virtually able to move in all directions enables the aircraft and all targeting systems to revolve around the center of mass. In that sense, the F-35 should be able to target an aircraft behind, or any other direction, as easily as it is able to locked on and destroy the aircraft in front. This seems to me, if developed, to be some kind of an advantage and what, at least in part, gives the F-35 its status as a 5th generation fighter.

The other ability of the 5th generation F-35 fighter (and there may be more) that makes it a non-nonlinear fighter depends on it hooking into the virtual world of the world wide web and connecting that world to its real world in realtime, in all directions, in all environments, and all at once.

And while the F-35 has not proven itself in simulated dog fights with fighters of lesser generation, other fighters, as far as I know, haven’t proven themselves able to fight a battle waged in 5th generation  war. I think the F-35 has, at least in a small way. It was used to successfully shoot down missiles in flight.

That is the war the F-35 is created for and the war we are fighting right now today. So to me it comes down to being able to fight the war we have, or fighting the war the Trump administration apparently wants.

President-elect Donald Trump elevated his criticism of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter today, saying he’s asked Boeing to explore pricing for an alternative to the costly fighter jet.

Now “alternative” is another narrative. In warfare or in the context of a political solution, i.e. one State/ Two State solution?

 

Source: Trump drops Twitter bomb on Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter jet – POLITICO

Stealth Jets Return To The Air Following Engine Snafu

“What is different is that this airplane has accelerational characteristics with a combat load that no other airplane has, because we carry a combat load internally,” Lockheed exec Tom Burbage told aviation reporter Dave Majumdar last year.

OK enough! They are building an aircraft that has the characteristics,  if not the look, of a flying saucer. It’s all in the z-axis baby!

OK!! There I’ve said it. Now can’t we, or at least shouldn’t, we just stop talking about all of this. 🙂

via Stealth Jets Return To The Air Following Engine Snafu — For Now | Danger Room | Wired.com.

The Project: Final Remodel

I have begun the final remodel. I am in the Data phase, and the data almost killed me, as I added knowledge. I ended up with a fractured spine and one rib.

It was nothing that needed any medical attention except for some ibuprofen (drop that oxcondone as quick as you can), then go on muscle relaxers until you can feel that the bleeding has stopped.

I don’t know if this “cheep trick” works or not, but my pain is more real now and I don’t think that it is caused by spasmodic bleeding. I have stopped taking spasm medicine, and trying my back out.

But that is what knowledge is all about, pain, unless you handle the taking of all that data carefully.

I knew better than to use the top step of anything, much less of a 20+ years old step stool. but then I did use it as a platform to do my data-taking from.

Despite the knowledge that I had on how dangerous it is to work from a position of no leverage (top step), I kept using the top step of the stool because I didn’t want to stop and think what I really need in resources, to gather this data safety. I was neither craftsman nor a good manager.

Most people don’t understand that the real job of a millwright (my former job) is safety, and that means not only working with your hands, but ones mind.

In project class in college I was categorized as a mastermind. In one project I was the only one in class (including my team, ouch!) that wrote up the correct answer, and I think my experience as a millwright helped in that effort to categorize me.

I often wondered if anyone was interested in the answer, but nobody asked me about it, so it was hard to tell.

So, go ahead and start that narrative with data gathering, but understand that the odds of getting hurt can catch up with you as you gain knowledge, as I did when I found myself on the floor, on my back, above the edge of the stairs, and with my legs on the steps below me. Talk about a position with no leverage!

Beginning with the right “tempo” is very important in reducing those odds of getting hurt. With tempo you can find the time to become both an organizer and a millwright, a very safe position to be in.

I am just now getting in position to find were my advantage, at least in not getting hurt, will come from.

The Remodel

I have begun the final remodel. I am in the Data phase, and the data almost killed me, as I added knowledge. I ended up with a fractured spine and one rib.

It was nothing that needed any medical attention except for some ibuprofen (drop that oxcondone as quick as you can), then go on muscle relaxers until you can feel that the bleeding has stopped.

I don’t know if this “cheep trick” works or not, but my pain is more real now and I don’t think that it is caused by spasmodic bleeding. I have stopped taking spasm medicine, and trying my back out.

But that is what knowledge is all about, pain, unless you handle the taking of all that data carefully.

I knew better than to use the top step of anything, but then I did use it as a platform to do my data-taking from.

Despite the knowledge that I had on how dangerous it is to work from a position of no leverage (top step), I kept using the top step of the stool because I didn’t want to stop and think what I really need in resources, to gather this data safety. I was neither craftsman nor a good manager.

Most people don’t understand that the real job of a millwright (my former job) is safety, and that means not only working with your hands, but ones mind.

In project class in college I was categorized as a mastermind. In one project I was the only one in class (including my team, ouch!) and I think my experience as a millwright helped in that effort to categorize me.

I often wondered if anyone was interested in the answer, but nobody asked me about it, so it was hard to tell.

So, go ahead and start that narrative with data gathering, but understand that the odds of getting hurt can catch up with you as you gain knowledge, as I did when I found myself on the floor, on my back, above the edge of the stairs, and with my legs on the steps below me. Talk about a position with no leverage!

Beginning with the right “tempo” is very important in reducing those odds. I am just beginning to find mine.

What I Found Interesting This Week 2/2/2013

Unfortunately, many farmers markets are duds.  The prices are too high, the selection is mediocre and many of the vendors sell store brought produce/products.  In contrast, real farmers markets are run by organizations that rigorously maintain standards and recruit/scout/visit participants (to increase supply, competition, and variety).  They hum with life, variety, and are price competitive.

Yes, and this is all because we don’t have a decentralized market, ho, hum.

Well “real farmer markets” are distributive networks that each needs the other.

So while Robb’s decentralized network decentralizes into nodes towards an edge, the distributive market has no outside edges and forms a center of gravity called a community.

Where this “center” forms is any ones guess, but Robb has no clue, because he is looking for an edge, and not a community. He still thinks he is a part of the cure, i.e., a resilient community, and not the problem, too much distribution and not enough decentralization, ha!

So I guess that is what a community organizer does, he organizes all the nodes into a community without edges.

via What I Found Interesting This Week 2/2/2013.

Unimaginable Statements and Signs of Surrender

Brett Friedman said it best. “Can you imagine a USMC 4-Star ever saying “we’ll be unprepared’? Never”

Oh how we long for the days of the NeoCons, when what our generals said didn’t matter.

Perhaps Friedman should ask the General what we will be prepared for, because the General has obviously given that some great thought. That is what generals do; they think.

But more than just thinking, a general adds strategy to the thinking process and his/her strategy has two ends to think about and prepare for: the beginning of the end (which the General says we are not prepared) and the end of the end, which I am betting he is prepared for.

So either seek the advice of the general that tells you that “we’ll be unprepared”, or become a Republican 🙂

But on the other hand, if we somehow bite-the-bullet and Decide to Act according to how we are Oriented (we are a consumer economy) and pay for the debt that we have accrued in the world, perhaps we should take advantage of the environment that we have positioned ourselves in, and opt out.

We have positioned ourselves as a nation of great command, but little control. This is what the General is trying to tell you.

We are unable to fight a war against  a nation that is in control of what we want (cool electronic gadgets and games), while at the same time maintaining the demand for those products.

So we are unprepared for war.

At the same time, the advantage we have in the world is our ability  to move our culture in new directions, think  what Jazz, Blues, Rock and Roll, Rap, ect. has to offer.

This ability to create fast transits (OODA) is pissing many people off, and what the General is also  telling you is: we can’t afford to pay for this war against the generation of diversity while at the same time fighting a war against the generation of conformity.

This ability, to generate diversity in our cultures, upsets many people of many orientations.

The greatest Orientation that has been upset has been among our own culture–the Conservatives.

The Conservatives want to enforce conformity, to our past, because it is that Orientation that has been the most successful, in the past.

Unfortunately, the past is no more. We are a nation of command and what control the suppliers of our resources had over us is gone, in a mushroom cloud.

This ability of our culture to diversify does not set well for the party of our culture that demands control, i.e., Conservatives.

The Conservatives want to enforce the conformity of our past on the culture of those generations that are living in the future. These generations are called Liberals.

Liberals want to generate diversity that increase demands, unlike the culture of the Conservatives who want to decrease diversity, to conform to demand.

The problem being: the potential for both diversity and conformity is equal, and so the two structures, the left and Right are at war.

To generate diversity while at the same time enforce conformity will take some kind of strategy over the process, but I believe these two worlds can live together, it is doable.

It’s a game, and you all are invited.

via Information Dissemination: Unimaginable Statements and Signs of Surrender.

Boyd and the U.S. Navy’s Return to History

For him the likely victor was the competitor who best adapted to change while keeping his opponent off-balance. That meant swiftly observing how conditions have changed, orienting to change, deciding how to adapt, and acting on that decision.

via Boyd and the U.S. Navy’s Return to History | The Naval Diplomat.

One problem I have with this quote’s description of the victor’s OODA loop is that you don’t orient to change; “...observing how conditions have changed, orienting to change, deciding how to adapt, and acting on that decision.”

The victor orients towards an advantage in the environment observed.

When the environment changes and you lose or gain an advantage, your orientation destructs and then constructs a new structure that takes advantage of that new environment. Boyd was a genius, because he could destruct and construct a new orientation faster than anyone; they need to re define genius.

The victor’s decision then is not on how to adapt, because both Orientations has changed and to the victor will go the spoils of that adaptation. But the victor does need to decide on Acting according to the victor’s new advantage, or disadvantage. The victor does not always have the advantage in the environment, as Boyd later learned, but, to win, the victor needs to make it his advantage.

The Orientation of both the victor and loser has to change, because of the feed-ahead they are getting from the past environment, of relationships and connections, mixed with the feed-back they are getting from the future environment, of  judgments and potentials, creates a new leaver that either the loser or victor can take advantage of. That leaver is reliant on the momentum at the full-come-point at the moment of inertia.

I mean, one may have more  advantage, in any particular environment than another, but each “others” has momentum that can be used to change the direction of both. Grabbing the momentum first can even change the direction of the one with the most advantage. And, as the one who can take advantage of the momentum first is able to possibly change the directions of both, the one who is able to make Decisions, to Act on the momentum, faster, has a chance of winning.

As most of the time in a OODA loop is spent between Orientation and Decision (building an Orientation and Deciding how to use it) the person who is able to make those decisions (or any decision) quicker has a great advantage, as The Act has already been judged by the orientation an advantage before the Decision to use it is given (OOAD).

Most of the time it is a great enough advantage that it can even make the loser the victor, and to the victor an IQ of 90.

Clarity at Last – Mil Option On Iran

(Means that it is definitely a bluff. Had been unsure until now.)

via Swedish Meatballs Confidential (pNSFW).

I think it is definitely something, but I am not sure a “bluff” is the best description.

I am more inclined to think of “it” as a “Cheap Trick“.

The Obama administration has turned Iran’s nuclear weapon’s program (even if it doesn’t exist) into a cheap trick, which a cheap trick is something both quick and dirty.

This cheap trick has given the power in Iran over to the cleric, and has taken it away from the military, who have been brilliant, up to this point.

The problem is, of course, that a cheap trick is all about structure instead of culture, and culture eats structure.

The advantage of a cheap trick is in the speed it operates at, which is many more times more than culture is able to operate. Culture gets it advantage in the exponent it operates at.

Yet, while a cheap trick is powerful, it is also inconclusive. There is no way of really knowing that a cheap tricked worked, until it is no longer cheap, nor a trick.