BIG
BLUE
Corporatism
Fusion Centers - Part 5
IBM's Vision of the Smart City (for Prisoners)
A major step in the march to fascism begins
in 1988 with legislation sponsored by then Senator Al Gore to fund the building
of a high speed, nationwide "data superhighway" that would allow corporations
and researchers at the universities and national laboratories to collaborate in
research, product and systems development. While it might have sounded
like a good idea at the time, it was the beginning of the socialization of
business costs and the privatization of profits from those public expenditures.
It also set the stage for the corporate takeover of government.
New York Times, December 28, 1988, Sharing the Supercomputers
"Officials at the National Science Foundation envision
computerized ''collabatories'' in which scientists using computer work stations
could directly view and control the output of complex machines, such as particle
accelerators, wind tunnels, telescopes and nuclear reactors, even though they
were thousands of miles from the actual apparatus."
''The infrastructure we will need in
the 21st century goes beyond traditional public works projects,'' Senator
Gore said. ''I envision a national computer network linking academic
researchers and industry, using the nation's vast data banks as the raw
material for increasing industrial productivity and creating new products.''
''It's possible that if we simply let a
completely self-motivated marketplace develop our data communications
infrastructure for the future it will be either inferior to what is being
developed in Japan or Europe or owned by companies in Japan and Europe,''
said Russell Neuman, a political
scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab.
In 2011, IBM had their centennial
celebration. On their website, there is a section devoted to their
accomplishments as a corporation. They list the
top 100 of their
innovations in the world of computing and business machines. One of
those is titled Rise of the Internet:
In 1985, the National
Science Foundation (NSF) launched an
initiative to build a state-of-the-art
national backbone network, an inter-net,
that would be based on transmission control
protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP) and
would link supercomputer centers and
regional academic networks....A number of
universities and companies participated in
its development, including IBM. Recognizing
that much of this new network would have to
be invented and lashed together, the NSF
solicited proposals and awarded the project
to IBM, MCI, the State of Michigan (home to
a large community of computer scientists and
keen to link up existing telecommunications
networks within the state) and a consortium
of universities in November 1987.
In 1987, IBM, working with the U.S.
National Science Foundation and our partners at MCI and Merit designed a new
high-speed National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) to connect US
universities and 6 US-based supercomputer centers. The NSFNET greatly
increased the capacity of the Internet (increasing the bandwidth of backbone
links from 56 Kilobits/sec to 1.5 Megabits/sec to 45 Megabits/sec) and
greatly increased the reliability and reach of the Internet—reaching more
than 50 million users in 93 countries when management of the Internet
infrastructure was transferred to the telecom carriers and commercial
Internet Service Providers in 1995.
In the New York Times article above, there was a lot of
hand wringing about maintaining our "technological edge" over Europe and Japan.
In 1986, the European Union had initiated a pan-European roads automation
project:
PROMETHEUS was started
in 1986 and was initiated as part of the EUREKA program, a pan-European
initiative aimed at improving the competitive strength of Europe by
stimulating development in such areas as information technology,
telecommunications, robotics, and transport technology. The project is
led by 18 European automobile companies, state authorities, and over 40
research institutions. The budget for the project is over $800 million
and the project is scheduled to last 7 years.
PROMETHEUS is a pre-competitive research project, with the output being a
common technological platform to be used by the participating companies once
the product development phase begins. The overall goals of PROMETHEUS fall
into four categories:
-
Improved driver information -
providing the driver with information from new sources of technology
that were not previously available. Currently, the lack of information
or the inability to assess a hazard is often the primary cause of
accidents.
-
Active driver support - when the
driver fails in some way at the driving task, the system may aid the
driver in an informative way or by active intervention.
-
Cooperative driving - establishing
a network of communication between vehicles in order to provide drivers
with relevant information for areas en route to their destination.
-
Traffic and fleet management -
systems for the efficient use of the road network, ranging from highway
flow control to fleet operations.
Not coincidently, a federally mandated,
regional transportation study named
Mobility 2000
was completed in 1986. After a series of conferences over a two year
period, a group calling themselves Mobility 2000 was formed to develop a
national program of automated highway technology ala Prometheus:
"Founded in 1988, Mobility 2000 was
an informal assembly of industry, university, and government representatives
created to promote the use of advanced technologies to improve highway
safety and efficiency. The initiative was formalized in 1991, when the
Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) was enacted, and
the national Intelligent Vehicle Highway System (IVHS) program was
established. A growing sense soon developed in the IVHS community,
especially in the public transit arena, that “intelligent vehicle highway
systems” did not embrace all the transportation modes addressed in the
national IVHS program. In 1994, the national IVHS program was renamed the
Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), to clarify the multi-modal intent.
Corridor Master Plan, Colorado
Department of Transportation, April 1996, Page I-5
The Intelligent Vehicle Highway System was just the beginning of
'BIG SYSTEMS' automation of the infrastructure leading directly to the
"reinvention of government" under the direction of BIG SYSTEMS designers.
When Clinton and Gore came into office, it was with the intention of continuing
the Big Systems developments that were initiated under the George H. W. Bush
Administration.
Reinvention of America
Part 1
Introduction
Part 2 - Revolution:
An Inside Job
Part 3 - Achieve the Impossible
Part 4 - Public Policy for
Private Profit
Part 5 - Behind the iCurtain
Part 6 - Fascism By
Any Other Name
Part 7 -
Alliance for Redesigning Gov
Part 8 -
The Jigsaw Puzzle
Reinvention - OECD
Notes
From BIG HIGHWAY systems to BIG
INFRASTRUCTURE under the cover of national security, we've had a mob takeover of
our country.
They drove IBM's stock down at which point
John Akers resigned and Lou Gerstner took over as CEO.
After
nine years at IBM, Lou Gerstner became the Chairman and CEO of the Carlyle
Group.
New Jersey Prosecutor (ha! would you let
this man protect
YOUR
infrastructure?) |
Lou
Gerstner-------------------------------^
Keyman at American Express and McKinsey
& Company, MBA from Harvard
Chairman and CEO of RJR Nabisco (1989-1993)
Chairman and CEO of IBM (1993-2002)
Chairman of the Carlyle Group 2003-2008 |
Sam Palmisano and
Obamanation
|
 |
The New Iron Triangle |
|
The word archipelago compares the
system of labor camps spread across the Soviet Union with a
vast "chain of islands", known only to those who were fated
to visit them.
Wikipedia
|
Intermodal Commerce Zones/Workforce Development
Zones are "Innovation Zones" that I called
Trojan Triangles
when I was documenting the elements of one I found being built in
Meridian Idaho called, "The
CORE".
The 1991 Intermodal Surface Transportation
Efficiency Act (highway legislation) signed by George H.W. Bush defined
the zones creating the "chain of islands".
There were many pieces of legislation to integrate
the education system into "workforce development" so they can't be
listed here except for one that GHWB signed, the
Job Training 2000 Initiative signed in 1992. |
Vision 2015
Vicky Davis
May 24, 2013