Well the end of civilization is here. DARPA

[UglyCasanova]

I think a lottery style program would have been interesting.

 

[UNCjigga]

What with this and the RIAA becoming Republican lap-dogs, I can just feel Republican support in these forums crumbling. I really think a 3rd party candidate might actually have a chance (i.e. a moderate conservative who isn't a Bush-fan??)

 

[Mani]

Unbelievable. It is infuriating beyond words that such an idea could even have been entertained, let alone almost implemented.

 

[Dudd]

I have to say, this could have made a great Simspon's episode. Remember the episode where Martin goes to the futures market, running around "Soy, Soy, Soy!"? Right now, I have that image of him in my head, only he's yelling Shah, Shah Shah! Now that it's been canceled, I find that image to be very funny.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Originally posted by: Dudd
I have to say, this could have made a great Simspon's episode. Remember the episode where Martin goes to the futures market, running around "Soy, Soy, Soy!"? Right now, I have that image of him in my head, only he's yelling Shah, Shah Shah! Now that it's been canceled, I find that image to be very funny.

The Simpsons were cancelled?

 

[dtmbb92]

Originally posted by: Eli
WTF?

 

[Dudd]

Originally posted by: UglyCassanova

Originally posted by: Dudd
I have to say, this could have made a great Simspon's episode. Remember the episode where Martin goes to the futures market, running around "Soy, Soy, Soy!"? Right now, I have that image of him in my head, only he's yelling Shah, Shah Shah! Now that it's been canceled, I find that image to be very funny.

The Simpsons were cancelled?

No, the terrorism futures market. So now we can joke around about it.

 

[Feldenak]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i read the article and it didn't sound like bush directed them to do this. sounds pretty retarded tho

Yeah, I read it too. Didn't sound like it was backed by any Republican or Democrat, some folks in DARPA have lost touch with reality.

 

[Howard]

It's somewhat funny, in a sad sort of way.

 

[Miramonti]

Compassionate Conservatism at its finest.

 

[gopunk]

i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas.

i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas.

i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

 

[Cyberian]

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas.

i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

That's basically what I heard on NPR, but I don't have a transcript.
How does a person become a DARPA employee?
Civil Service, appointment, election?

 

[FeathersMcGraw]

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas.

i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism.

I've got no problem with DARPA trying to be innovative. They pretty much created (albeit somewhat inadvertently) the business sector I work in. Good job, guys.

However, the "experts only" part that's starting to creep into stories now sounds like spin to me. Particularly when one of the aspects of the program that was heavily stressed was its ability to mine events that the intelligence community would not be aware of. I don't see how they would be able to do this by limiting the pool of participants to experts and analysts if the intent is to tap the greed of people who know people who know people who may be up to No Good.

 

[MeanMeosh]

if it were around and i was allowed, i'd play in it... personally, i think the idea was fascinating.

 

[her209]

Tehy suk

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: Cyberian

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas.

i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

That's basically what I heard on NPR, but I don't have a transcript.
How does a person become a DARPA employee?
Civil Service, appointment, election?

no, what you heard on NPR was the stuff about weather prediction and experts... the people on NPR were just as disgusted as everyone else... classic case of mob mentality. i had my suspicions about this whole thing when i first saw this thread, but didn't think much about it until i found out more about it on NPR. then i checked the DARPA link with the news and they don't exactly match up.

i would assume DARPA employees are hired, just like any other research institution... the researchers that is. i dunno about the big shots.

 

[gopunk]

However, the "experts only" part that's starting to creep into stories now sounds like spin to me. Particularly when one of the aspects of the program that was heavily stressed was its ability to mine events that the intelligence community would not be aware of. I don't see how they would be able to do this by limiting the pool of participants to experts and analysts if the intent is to tap the greed of people who know people who know people who may be up to No Good.

who said that was the intent? nowhere on DARPA's website is there any mention of actual money being transferred. the only allusions to this that i could find were in the media, and it seems like the reporters just skimmed the DARPA website and made a bunch of huge assumptions. i'll eat my words if there was real money involved, but right now it seems like the DARPA researchers were just building a model using convenient terms, and the reporters missed that.

and there are lots of ways to gather information from a group of sources, and find something that nobody in the group was aware of.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas. i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

This isn't about a department of defense think tank idea but about the Pentagon supporting the implementation of it. A proposal is one thing, but its absurd for the pentagon of all places to embrace the idea of placing bets on deaths and assasinations. Its far different from predicting weather, its absolutely unethical and immoral to set up a structure that promotes profiting from murders or attempted murders of civilians or government officials.

 

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: gopunk
i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas. i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

This isn't about a department of defense think tank idea but about the Pentagon supporting the implementation of it. A proposal is one thing, but its absurd for the pentagon of all places to embrace the idea of placing bets on deaths and assasinations. Its far different from predicting weather, its absolutely unethical and immoral to set up a structure that promotes profiting from murders or attempted murders of civilians or government officials.

if a bunch of secret service agents get together while the president's making a speech, and one of them says "i think there's a shooter" and it turns out he was right, and the president was saved... chances are that agent would get rewarded. so this is a structure that promotes profitting from attempted murders of government officials. in fact, it's extremely similar to what this concept would implement, on a much larger and somewhat distributed scale. everybody has this vision of a deathpool that's been painted by the media, but i feel very certain when i say that would be very far from reality. fight the mob mentality, use your head, and sift the facts from the hype. just as we don't expect a secret service agent to stage an assassination attempt to make himself look like a hero, we also don't expect our security experts to do similar actions.

 

[Miramonti]

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: jjsole

Originally posted by: gopunk i know this isn't a popular viewpoint, but i really don't see what the big deal is. first and foremost, DARPA is a research institution, it can't and shouldn't be limited in how it thinks and explores new areas. i wonder how much of it has been tainted by the news agencies. i know that when i first heard about it, i thought this was going to be some public thing, just like the NYSE. but if you look closer, you'll find that the "traders" are limited to experts in fields related to terrorism. this practice has been applied in other areas of life, such as weather prediction, and is pretty interesting from an academic aspect... i'm sure a lot of research and work went into this and it's just sickening to know that the hard work of many good researchers is going to go to waste all because of media sensationalism. they could have easily reworded this in a way such that nobody would have a problem with this.

This isn't about a department of defense think tank idea but about the Pentagon supporting the implementation of it. A proposal is one thing, but its absurd for the pentagon of all places to embrace the idea of placing bets on deaths and assasinations. Its far different from predicting weather, its absolutely unethical and immoral to set up a structure that promotes profiting from murders or attempted murders of civilians or government officials.

if a bunch of secret service agents get together while the president's making a speech, and one of them says "i think there's a shooter" and it turns out he was right, and the president was saved... chances are that agent would get rewarded. so this is a structure that promotes profitting from attempted murders of government officials. in fact, it's extremely similar to what this concept would implement, on a much larger and somewhat distributed scale. everybody has this vision of a deathpool that's been painted by the media, but i feel very certain when i say that would be very far from reality. fight the mob mentality, use your head, and sift the facts from the hype. just as we don't expect a secret service agent to stage an assassination attempt to make himself look like a hero, we also don't expect our security experts to do similar actions.

If they setup the markets, now the secret service agent would say "i think there's a shooter, excuse me while I buy some futures to pay for my kids education!"

Anyhow, the markets would completely backfire from the intended affect, which is better knowledge/intelligence. What benefit is it if some assasination futures go up on a president when those who are buying them (basing the purchases on knowledge of an assass. plot) are more interested in huge profits rather than thwarting the plot, which significantly cut into their profits.

As soon as profits become the focus, ethics goes out the window. And since there aren't any to begin with in this scheme, it would actually have an adverse affect on cooperation between national and international intelligence resources/agencies imo.

How would you like a running pool sponsored by another nation thats based on chances your leader is going to be assassinated? (and probably setup because we don't like him, i.e. arafat etc.) Thats exactly what it is. The markets are betting parlor, thats not a secret, whether they are 'educated bets' in the market or not. But to bet in advance on death or tragedy is very morbid at best.

And isn't intelligence on our president's life the most important? Its very curious why the pentagon would seek this for the middle east and not for our own country, which I would figure is the certainly the most important of the two to protect.