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The Future of Spage-Age Management, Today! by Mr. Andres Agostini at http://lnkd.in/d7zExFi
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This is an excerpt from the conclusion section o, “…The Future of Spage-Age Management, Today!..,” that discusses some management strategies. To read the entire piece, just click the link at the end of article:

BEGINNING OF EXCERPT.

Mr. David Shaw’s question, “…Andres, from your work on the future which management skills need to be developed? Classically the management role is about planning, organizing, leading and controlling. With the changes coming in the future what’s your view on how this management mix needs to change and adapt?…” This question was posited on an Internet Forum, formulated by Mr. David Shaw (Peterborough, United Kingdom) at http://lnkd.in/ba6xX-K on October 09, 2013.

This P.O.V. addresses practical and structural solutions, not onerous quick fixes. THIS P.O.V. WILL BE COMMUNICATED UNAMBIGUOUSLY AND EMPHATICALLY.

For instance, Stuart A. Copans asserted, “…Study the past if you would divine the future…” And Edmund Burke pointed out, “…You can never plan the future by the past…”
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To set the stage properly, I will start with an enlightening quote by Albert Einstein.

“…The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them…”

Or, it could be better noted:

“…The significant problems we face [today] cannot be solved [in the future] at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them [in the past]…”

One other thing that must now be considered is a primordial axiom that is instrumental and widely considered here. That is, “…everything is related to everything else…”

Working with the second largest oil group in the world (PDVSA, with 54,000 active employees. PDVSA is Citgo’s parent company), that group wanted me to only institute beyond-insurance risk management.
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You see, when they were to incur in a loss (potential disruption), it did not suffice to them to have the indemnity payment from the insurance and reinsurance pool.

On January 1982 I officially started serious thinking about “…beyond-insurance risk management…” And since then all the way throughout this date. Conversely, insurance-based risk management is the old guard while beyond-insurance risk management is the vanguard.

Many experts and even scientists and futurists speak about empirical management with the sole perspective of unimplemented theoretical notions (that is, with too many unanswered questions and unlearned lessons). BUT THE MATTER IS, HAVE THEY REALLY EXERCISED THE ACTUAL RESPONSIBILITY OF DIRECTLY MANAGING A LARGE, GLOBAL ENTERPRISE SUCCESSFULLY? WHAT EXACTLY IS THE APPLIED EXPERIENCE IN THE FIELD THAT THEY POSSES?

QUESTION: What PRECISELY have said scientists and futurists directly manage in the practical theater of operations? How, in the world, can they speak with grounds about practical management solutions? What are the accurate details of their proven track record? Really?

QUESTION: In all truth, What are their applied methodologies?

Let’s see an example of a large misconception now.

A West-Coast Futurist states that organizations and people must have “…the capacity to adapt and learn now how to prepare for risks…” According to him, How exactly does one institute his futuristic “…risk management…”? Then, he suggests that a) Risk Monitoring, b) Risk Analysis, c) Risk Sensing and d) Risk Management are a function of Strategic Risk Forecasting. Indeed!
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My long professional and practical experience in the fields of applied management, corporate planning and risk management consultation, strategy and associated services with major organizations and corporations extends to more than thirty years.

I have instituted all-encompassing beyond-insurance risk management (TAIRM) to more than a dozen of global institutions of unparallelled reputation hereunder.

That is, I have over thirty year of proven, practical “…beyond-insurance risk management…” experience.

Many of these institutions, including the WorldBank, have issued either written evidence or letter of references of the services provided.

Whenever I speak hereby about how I practice “…risk management…”, I will only be referring to scientifically-driven beyond-insurance risk management and never ever be referring to financially-driven risk management.
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“…Management of Risk and Insurance…” does not ever equate to beyond-insurance risk management.

It is now important to assert that “…COSO Risk Management…” and “…Enterprise Risk Management…” are never beyond-insurance risk management.

“…Management of Captive Insurance Companies…” does not ever equate to beyond-insurance risk management.

“…‘Risk Management’ (so-called) by Insurance and Reinsurance Brokers…” does not ever equate to beyond-insurance risk management.

Under the financial focus, institutional and corporate firms “…transfer risks…” (so called) to insurance and reinsurance companies (suboptimal or ineffectual choice).

Under the TAIRM focus, institutional and corporate firms manage risks optimally through the systems approach with the applied omniscience perspective (optimal decision).

The word “…system…” is here used in its ample meaning and does not hereby refer to computer systems.

Receiving indemnity payments was observed as insidious mediocrity by this petroleum group. After all, one must realize that they are not a primarily financial system “player” but an institutional incumbent mostly exercising ownership and profit of fixed assets (organically). Obviously, the financial aspects and those of their liquid assets were also important to them.

The high-raking executives of most of these global institutions know that insurance and reinsurance companies have rampant financial ambitions as if they were investment banks.

And, as a consequence, many of them displace (divert) the legally-stipulated “premium reserves” (financial provisions to indemnify the losses to insureds and reinsureds) in order to seize additional and unlawful gains out of said reserves.

These insurance and reinsurance companies do the prior by financially reengineering the allocated portions of the premiums designated to pay for covered losses.

As many insurance and reinsurance companies doctor and manipulate the sacred premium reserves, they make extraordinary and illegitimate earnings while loosing great solvency and their ultimate ability to indemnify duly covered losses.

Most insurance and reinsurance companies view themselves as enjoying blood-related “family relationships” with banks, stock market firms and many other private “players” within the financial system.
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Global corporations do not want their corporate insurance policies to be subjected to outright malfeasance and other ups and downs (whether systemic or not) by any “agent” of the financial system, chiefly the insurance and reinsurance companies.

Consequently, management by insurance and reinsurance companies is never beyond-insurance risk management.

Thus, it was insidious mediocrity because this petroleum group’s executives strongly believed that these risks can be stopped before morphing into losses (disruption potentials) if a previous appropriate work was previously designed and in place.

As many governmental agencies and other prominent global corporations, PDVSA did not want a “…financial system…”-driven risk management option. All of these institutions wanted a central and on-site solution through systems approach with the applied omniscience perspective.

Yes, by law and in general, you still need “worker’s compensation,” “directors and officers,” “kidnap and ransom,” “legal expenses,” “product liability” and “life insurance.”

BUT IN ORGANIZATIONAL AND BUSINESS SETTINGS, “…Transformative and Integrative Risk Management…” (explained below) turns corporate and institutional insurance irrelevant and worthless. The great majority of corporate and institutional risks ─ through TAIRM ─ can be optimally managed without insurance and reinsurance. In the process, you are additionally making a huge saving by not paying exaggerated commissions and bonuses to insurance and reinsurance brokers. “Brokers” (“…sales reps…”) of what? Indeed!

We are all professionally and managerially concerned about legalistic and litigious: regulations, frameworks, zeitgeists and Weltanschauungs. But these are not the only perils requiring holistic countermeassuring.

And issues presented by violation of Governance, Compliance and Controls also required a much more holistic countermeassuring.

By way of illustration, only managing issues concerning Governance, Compliance, Controls and Intellectual Property is never ever “…beyond-insurance risk management…”

Nearly all lawyers and economists see “…risk management and insurance…” as a financial and legal approach.

Just about all accountants see “…risk management and insurance…” as a comptroller’s methodology.

The majority of actuaries see “…risk management and insurance…” as a statistical methodology.

Most auditors see “…risk management and insurance…” as a governance and compliance and intellectual property methodology.

To the highest degree, economists and financiers see “…risk management and insurance…” as a financial-transaction methodology.

The great majority of corporate planners see “…risk management and insurance…” as a strategy approach.

Nearly all human resources managers see “…risk management and insurance…” as a psychological approach.

CIOs, CISOs and CTOs, I.T. managers and I.T. risk managers see “…risk management and insurance…” as a computational methodology.

Almost all lawyers, economists, financiers, accountants, business administrators, auditors, corporate planners, actuaries, human resources managers, CIOs, CISOs, CTOs, I.T. managers and I.T. risk managers are not sufficiently right because their focus and pursuit fail to consider the physicist’ and engineer’s all-rounded criteria.
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BEYOND-INSURANCE RISK MANAGEMENT AND TAIRM COMPREHENSIVELY CONSIDER LAWFULNESS (INCLUDING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTIES), GOVERNANCE, COMPLIANCE, CONTROLS, BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION, ACCOUNTING, AUDITING, STATISTICS, ACTUARIAL SCIENCES, CORPORATE PLANNING, HUMAN RESOURCES, ECONOMICS AND FINANCE, I.T. AND TECHNOLOGY, AS WELL.

EXTREMELY IMPORTANT:

Supplementary, Andres likewise indicates, “…Transformative and Integrative Risk Management (TAIRM) is also implemented in order to prevent technological surprises to the savvy organization seeking this advice and service by TAIRM, but also to create disruptively technological surprises (managerial ‘…Sputnik Moments…’) for the enterprise’s competitors…”

This notion is better understood when the axiom “… strategy is a function of a grander beyond-insurance risk management program and not the other way around…” is fully accepted and practiced.

In one line, Transformative and Integrative Risk Management (TAIRM) is absolutely “Skunkworks,” “Space Age,” “Wargaming” and Technocratic Management. Hence, non-status quo management. While others insist on “…thinking outside the box…” (inconsequential), TAIRM focuses on strong-sense and critico-creative thinking!

To illustrate this function and responsibility better, I.P. takes care of the tangible and intangible integrity of the operating building and corresponding premises and other assets, including the personnel. If one employee is selling secrets of trade or consuming illegal substances, I.P. is watching and acting upon.

I.P. does corporate counterintelligence and operates on it. I.P. incumbents are, for example, also responsible to designing, developing and instituting corporate plans pertaining to emergency preparedness, emergency response, disaster recovery, business restoration (partial function), business continuity (partial function) and business sustainability (partial function) to give you a brief idea.

I.P. also supervises and controls road and air ambulances and other medical and non-medical evacuation systems. I.P. is also responsible for preventive exercises and drills to massive evacuations in case of earthquakes, floods, fires and riots, among other perils.

Transformative and Integrative Risk Management fully contemplates, tackles, advises and operates on instrumental enhancement of the corporate provisions by Integral Protection organizations (sometimes called “departments” and others “divisions”). Have you ever seen an insurance or reinsurance company with these major duties before an organizational client?

And only and partly because of that, insurance and reinsurance companies are, by far, outside of the realm of beyond-insurance risk management and TAIRM.

TAIRM, too, has vast managerial applications for law enforcement and counter-terrorism “activities.” However, the majority of incumbents of public office are in the backyard playing political “games” and don’t possess neither a legitimate interest, nor an appropriate comprehension of techniques and methodologies, conducive to more stable “…national security…” doctrines and policies in actuality.

Many incumbents of public office don’t even have a designated budget to act upon.

Additionally and by way of example, Asian presidents are techies and fluidly communicate on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math issues (that is, STEM careers).

In the mean time, the counterparts in the West are chiefly held hostage to law, sociology and economics, with an overwhelming powerless feeling in technologically advanced conversations. All of this about the heads of state here have been publicly substantiated by Bill Gates.

Please remember: “… THE FUTURE IS NOT AN ECHO OF THE PAST…”

In today’s technologically-driven world, strategic trend evaluation cannot be done using only algorithms.

I do take into account both. I also practice “Analytics” and “Diagnostics” and have nascently become interested on what Cambridge University’ and Royal Society’s Sir Martin Rees, PhD. calls the “…Science of Complexity…”

Once again, TAIRM is vastly more into qualitative analyzes than quantitative analyzes.

You see, every problem has an underlying mechanism. Once you deeply comprehend how it operates, you can influence (via throughput) on the final outcomes (from known inputs to desired outputs) to your continuous advantage.

It can be logically argued that the term “…throughput…” has a Latin language equivalent by the term modus operandi. To this end, GE’s chairman and CEO Jack Welch, PhD. also mentioned, “…To get to the guts of why things happen…”

I have done extensive research globally throughout many places, institutions and years, from the U.S. marketplace, Lloyd’s of London, Swiss RE, Tokyo Marine Group, and way further beyond to make a lengthy story brief.

I have also become directly knowledgeable (not “bookish,” but factual, empirical and as per the educated battlefield practicalities) of beyond-insurance risk management practices by many large, industrial enterprises and agencies such as NASA.

The NASA Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo and the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (Minuteman ICBM) initiative, comprehending that he or she or it cannot take those to the local insurance and reinsurance underwriter, yet these enterprises (management) initiatives have been successfully instituted.
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To further illustrate the above, the Military-Industrial Complex and companies such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin, along with NASA ─ through their own methods ─ were pursuing their projects and programs without resorting to insurance and reinsurance companies at all.

I became knowledgeable with an in-all-truth polymath and an outright “Rocket Scientist,” a physicist, a systems engineer and a doctor in science, who was directly responsible for the reliability concerning: the NASA Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. At NASA he was Dr. Wernher von Braun’s right hand! I treasure all of his e-mails, letters and other materials.
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To the utmost enhancement of my fortune, I have, for many years now, worked with the most daring, capricious and enlightened clients (minds) that one can imagine ever.

They all were seeking managerial and industrial “miracles” only (sic). WHILE GIVING THEM THEIR OUTRIGHT MIRACLES, I HAVE EXPERIENCED DRAMATIC OVER-LEARNING EXPERIENCES.

I once met a Scottish executive who told me that beyond-insurance risk management methodology by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Royal Dutch/Shell Group was “…esoteric…” I still treasure his e-mail.

This so-called “esoteric” beyond-insurance risk management approach by DARPA, NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Shell and a multitude of global corporations has been first instituted since the end of the 1950s. It is been in increasing utilization and betterment for about fifty-four years to this date.

What these institutions have successfully performed, transforming global civilizations and progress for Life, is un-apologetically and extremely uncomfortable for traditionalists whose ethos, cosmovisions and belief systems are fixed on the fossilized past and bonded to a myriad of obsolete assumptions, outdated notions and utter fallacies. The number of ignoramuses of supine ignorance is a breathtaking existential risk for humankind to deal with.

To further underpin this statement, I will share Peter Drucker’s quote, “…The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic…” And also that of Dr. Stephen Covey, “…Again, yesterday holds tomorrow hostage .… Memory is past. It is finite. Vision is future. It is infinite. Vision is greater than history…” And that of Sir Francis Bacon, “… He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator …”

And that of London Business School Professor Gary Hamel, PhD., “…You cannot get to a new place with an old map…” And that of Alvin Toffler, “.….The future always comes too fast and in the wrong order…”

And that of Brad Leithauser, “…It reminds us that, in our accelerating, headlong era, the future presses so close upon us that those who ignore it inhabit not the present but the past …”

And that of Robert Kennedy, “…The future is not a privilege but a perpetual conquest…”

And that of Thomas Friedman, “…People are always [and wrongfully] assuming that everything that is going to be invented must have been invented already. But it hasn’t…” THIS QUOTATION IS HUGELY IGNORED.

ON THE FINAL ANALYSIS, WE MUST READILY ACCEPT FORCEFUL NOVEL REALITIES INSTANTANEOUSLY.

Dee Hock, CEO Emeritus of Visa International, stated: “…The problem is never how to get new innovative thoughts into your mind, BUT HOW TO GET OLD ONES OUT …”

As you know, Japanese corporations and institutions are into intensive Kaisen and Toyota Production System (TPS). Regarding advanced quality assurance and continuous improvement, these approaches have been demonstrated indispensable. But their practitioners are always attempting to manage risks through said approaches without any success.

TPS is also known as “…Thinking People System…”

Toyota’s CFO and the Production Director have their jaws dropped ─ while being observed by their own Chairman and CEO ─ when I carefully demonstrated to them the flaws of Kaisen and TPS in managing risks compared to the ample breadth and depth of scope by the “..Transformative and Integrative Risk Management…” (TAIRM).

Although they were in a major technical bewilderment, they hired me (as Mitsubishi Motors did before) to institute the advanced risk management of a self-funded and self-administered health-care benefit program for some seven-hundred Toyota employees and their respective eligible dependents. Both cases were turnkey undertakings.

TNT Express’ engagement was the implementation of advanced risk management of a self-funded and self-administered health-care benefit program for some five-hundred TNT Express employees and their respective eligible dependents. It was a turnkey undertaking.

Regarding a regional state, I implemented beyond-insurance risk management of a self-funded and self-administered and universal health-care benefit program for some 700,000 citizens (beneficiaries).

TAIRM has been extensively instituted ─ regarding numerous industrial and operational risks ─ in many petroleum joint ventures by corporations such as Shell, Statoil, Exxon, Mobil, BP, Conoco, ENI and Chevron, among others.

Global corporations are greatly into beyond-insurance risk management.

TAIRM seriously considers and utilizes, among many other systems, every Western and Eastern quality assurance methodologies (both from civilian and military spheres).
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Subsequently, I expanded, revised and enhanced greatly this practice, after twenty-one years of applied experience, and carefully designed, developed and created my own proprietary methodology and professional, trade secret, “…Transformative and Integrative Risk Management…” (TAIRM) back in 2005 (continually updated and upgraded to date).

a) “…HUMAN KNOWLEDGE IS DOUBLING EVERY TEN YEARS [AS PER THE 1998 STANDARDS]…” [*]

b) “…COMPUTER POWER IS DOUBLING EVERY EIGHTEEN MONTHS. THE INTERNET IS DOUBLING EVERY YEAR. THE NUMBER OF DNA SEQUENCES WE CAN ANALYZE IS DOUBLING EVERY TWO YEARS…” [*]

j) “…The world has profoundly changed … The challenges and complexity we face in our personal lives and relationships, in our families, in our professional lives, and in our organizations are of a different order of magnitude. In fact, many mark 1989 ─ the year we witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall ─ as the beginning of the Information Age, the birth of a new reality, a sea change of incredible significance ─ truly a new era ─ Being effective as individuals and organizations is no longer merely an option ─ survival in today’s world requires it. But in order to thrive, innovate, excel, and lead in what Covey calls the new Knowledge Worker Age, we must build on and move beyond effectiveness [long-held assumptions, fallacies and flawed beliefs and faulty conventions]…Accessing the higher levels of human genius and motivation in today’s new reality REQUIRES A SEA CHANGE IN THINKING: a new mind-sets, a new skill-set, a new tool-set ─ in short, a whole new habit…”

END OF CITATION.

[*] All citations and quotations are from the Futuretronium Book.

NOTWITHSTANDING, THE HUMAN RACE MUST DECIDE WHICH DETERMINATION TO MAKE ABOUT SAID FORCES QUICKLY.

To the end above, Prof. Gary Hamel, Ph.D. argued, “…Denial is tragic. Delay is deadly …” And Albert Einstein determined, “…It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity … We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.…”

And Dr. Aubrey de Grey, PhD. establishes, “…To solve a very complicated problem, you generally need a fairly complicated solution [in advance]…”

Churchill observed that we must get prepared when we cannot predict. Hence, we need to discern the dynamic (driving) forces reshaping the present and future and their impacts on our industries and organizations and professions TODAY.

This we, all managers, must do daily without a fail (and increasingly so).
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The “…increasingly so…” MUST be nonlinear and supremely exponential. According to mathematics, nonlinear entails, “…not in a straight line…” (that is, that “grows” geometrically or exponentially).

Stated simply, nonlinear growth equates to most unevenly explosive growth.

“…Here and Now…” is, put simply, the endless entry point into the future.

As a result, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus commented, “…Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present …”

And as a consequence, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche indicated, “…It’s our future that lays down the law of our today…” NIETZSCHE IS HEREWITH SUGGESTING THAT THE PRESENT IS A FUNCTION OF THE FUTURE.

Whatever is happening in the West, China is, at the moment and by way of example, drastically booming.

As an important point to note, the Futurist Gerald Celente advises, “…If you don’t attack the future [today], the future will attack you…” And John Galsworthy said, “…If you don’t think about the future, you cannot have one.…”
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Now, we must concentrate, as a laser-beam pointing precision, on the upsides by the Technological Singularity as well as the downsides by the Disruptional Singularity.

To have a quick and ready look into the future today, one can also ─ free of any obligations ─ join the Forum “…Becoming Aware of the Futures…” at http://lnkd.in/WUm7zA

Or one can also ─ free of any obligations ─ join the Forum “…Future Awareness…” at http://lnkd.in/bjg9UDd

Or one can also ─ free of any obligations ─ join the Forum “…The Disruptional Singularity…” at http://lnkd.in/dXgRkAT

As a manager to me so-called “…insurance…” is not “risk protection” but a financial device that just PARTLY indemnifies you from SOME losses and ONLY SOMETIMES.

AND “LOSS INDEMNITY” IS NEVER RISK MANAGEMENT.

In my case, a loss (disruption potential) is the un-managed and uncontrolled unleashing of pent-up energy. Once pent-up energy is unleashed, it can create (upside risks) or destruct (downside risks).

To cope with the future is to cope with changed changes (upside risks and downside risks) today. And the entirety of the planet is inundated with massive, increasing changed changes.

All incumbents and practitioners must perceive that management is turning itself into a highly scientific field and practice without a fail. Believe it or not, management is literally going into applied “…Rocket Science…”

By way of example, the expression “…Keep It Simple, Stupid…” has been radically replaced by “…Keep It Scientific, Savant…”

And notions as those of Thomas Paine’s “…common sense…” are now absurd and rendered ineffectual and counterproductive by representatives of institutions such as DARPA, NASA, MIT and Stanford University.

Common sense is radically replaced by SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE.

So called “…out of the box…” thinking is impious and outrageous mediocrity by the 21st-century standards and practices.

“…Out of the box…” thinking will bankrupt you easily.
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And the “…power of simplicity…,” unless is applied by a consummated polymath, is a chat about rubbish.

Managing is an art, practice, technology and science.

Change is going abusively “…auto…” and “…techno…” and “…in vivo…” and “…infotech…” and “…cyborg…” and “…digital…” and “… neuro…” and “…bio…” and “…transbio…” and “…nano…” and “…nanotech…” I am not afraid to proclaim.

BEYOND THE MANAGERIAL CHALLENGES (DOWNSIDE RISKS) PRESENTED BY THE EXPONENTIAL TECHNOLOGIES AS IT IS UNDERSTOOD IN THE TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY AND ITS INHERENT FUTURISTIC FORCES IMPACTING THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE NOW, THERE ARE ALSO SOME GRAVE GLOBAL RISKS THAT MANY FORMS OF MANAGEMENT HAVE TO TACKLE WITH IMMEDIATELY.

THESE GRAVE GLOBAL RISKS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH ADVANCED SCIENCE OR TECHNOLOGY. MANY OF THESE HAZARDS STEM FROM NATURE AND SOME ARE, AS WELL, MAN MADE. FOR INSTANCE, THESE GRAVE GLOBAL RISKS ─ EMBODYING THE DISRUPTIONAL SINGULARITY ─ ARE GEOLOGIC, CLIMATOLOGICAL, POLITICAL, GEOPOLITICAL, DEMOGRAPHIC, SOCIAL, ETHICAL, ECONOMIC, FINANCIAL, LEGAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL, AMONG OTHERS.

THE DISRUPTIONAL SINGULARITY’S MAJOR RISKS ARE GRAVELY THREATENING US RIGHT NOW, NOT LATER.

Vast hazards by the Disruptional and Technological Singularities are the combined downsides by and to the globalization.

New science and its intrinsic risks are further discussed herewith. Please see the following accordingly:

Sir Martin Rees, Ph.D. noticed, “…Science is emphatically not, as some have claimed, approaching its end; it is surging ahead at an accelerating rate. We are still flummoxed about the bedrock nature of physical reality, and the complexities of life, the brain, and the cosmos. New discoveries, illuminating all these mysteries, will engender benign applications; but will also pose NEW ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND BRING NEW HAZARDS. How will we balance the multifarious prospective benefits from genetics, robotics, or nanotechnology against the risk (albeit smaller) of triggering utter disaster? .… Science is advancing faster than ever, and on a broader front: bio-, cyber- and nanotechnology all offer exhilarating prospects; so does the exploration of space. BUT THERE IS A DARK SIDE: NEW SCIENCE CAN HAVE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES; IT EMPOWERS INDIVIDUALS TO PERPETRATE ACTS OF MEGATERROR; EVEN INNOCENT ERRORS COULD BE CATASTROPHIC. THE ‘DOWNSIDE’ FROM TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY TECHNOLOGY COULD BE GRAVER AND MORE INTRACTABLE THAN THE THREAT OF NUCLEAR DEVASTATION THAT WE HAVE FACED FOR DECADES. AND HUMAN-INDUCED PRESSURES ON THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT MAY ENGENDER HIGHER RISKS THAT THE AGE-OLD HAZARDS OF EARTHQUAKES, ERUPTIONS, AND ASTEROID IMPACTS…”
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To underpin the motion by Sir Martin Rees, see also the following.

The term [technological] singularity entered the popular science culture with the 1993 presentation at the VISION-21 Symposium sponsored by NASA Lewis Research Center and the Ohio Aerospace Institute, March 30–31, 1993, by Professor of Mathematics Vernor Vinge (San Diego University).

Correspondingly, Professor Vinge, PhD. indicated, “…Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended … Is such progress avoidable? If not to be avoided, can events be guided so that we may survive? These questions are investigated. Some possible answers [and some further dangers] are presented…”

An even deeper exploration on existential risks is better achieved through the reading of the following three materials:

1.- “…Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning…” By Sir Martin Rees, PhD. at http://lnkd.in/bHkBp4S

2.- “…Existential Risks: Analyzing Human Extinction Scenarios…” By Professor Nick Bostrom, PhD. at http://lnkd.in/RsNRmm

3.- “…Prophets of Doom…” available at http://lnkd.in/bfpzAdx

THEREFORE, PRACTITIONERS AND INCUMBENTS FORCEFULLY NEED TO MOST URGENTLY AND CONCURRENTLY MANAGE A MYRIAD OF GLOBAL RISKS IN PARALLEL (SIMULTANEOUSLY) BY BOTH THE DISRUPTIONAL SINGULARITY AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY. THIS IS ULTIMATELY AND DESPERATELY IMPORTANT!

ADDITIONAL MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES. PLEASE NOTICE THESE THREE PIECES:

There is, by way of example and for your consideration of increasing challenges to the management practitioner, this publication, “…Oxford Study – Half of U.S. Jobs Could Be Done by Computers…” At http://lnkd.in/b8mHPpG . Still, even more pervasive challenges to the management profession.

And there is also this article: “…Big nanotech: an unexpected future. How we deal with atomically precise manufacturing will reframe the future for human life and global society…” At http://lnkd.in/bd742Nh

And there is also this article: “…Is Your Job Under Threat From ROBOTS?.…Office Jobs Could Vanish By 2018…” At http://lnkd.in/difDxRd

Consequently, Dr. Gary Hamel, PhD. indicates, “…What distinguishes our age from every other is not the world-flattening impact of communications, not the economic ascendance of China and India, not the degradation of our climate, and not the resurgence of ancient religious animosities. RATHER, IT IS A FRANTICALLY ACCELERATING PACE OF CHANGE…”
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CONCLUSIONS

1.- Given the vast amount of insidious risks, futures, challenges, principles, processes, contents, contexts, practices, tools, techniques, benefits, rewards and opportunities, there needs to be a full-bodied practical and applicable methodology (methodologies are utilized and implemented to solve complex problems and to facilitate the decision-making and anticipatory process).

6.- Always institute beyond-insurance risk management as you boldly integrate it with your futuring skill / expertise.

7.- In my firmest opinion, the following must be complied this way (verbatim): the corporate strategic planning and execution (performing) are a function of a grander application of beyond-insurance risk management. It will never work well the other way around. TAIRM is the optimal mode to do advanced strategic planning and execution (performing).

Accordingly, Dr. Carl Sagan, PhD. expressed, “…We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows about science and technology…” And Edward Teller stated, “…The science of today is the technology of tomorrow …”

10.- In any profession, beginning with management, one must always and cleverly upgrade his / her learning and education until the last exhale.

An African proverb argues, “…Tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it…” And Winston Churchill established, “…The empires of the future are the empires of the mind…” And an ancient Chinese Proverb: “…It is not our feet that move us along — it is our minds…”

INCIDENTALLY, EVERY REALITY BEFORE THE MANAGER MUST BE BROUGHT UNDER OPTIMAL CONTROL.

As it ensues:

First! Once you realize that the most important thing to nurture is the rotational-and-translational motion revolting within and beyond the innermost core of / by you, you can do your ethics and morality. Now you have conquered bridge 1. Conquering this foundational pillar also implies that every facet and phase of your personal and professional life will be carried on with dogged solemnity.

Second! Once you do your ethics and morality, you can do your actionable knowledge for Life. Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 2 for Life.

Third! Once your actionable knowledge is done by you, you can do your corporate planning and respective marshaled strategy. Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 3 for Life.

Fourth! Once your corporate planning and respective marshaled strategy is done by you, you can do your systems hazard management. Now you have conquered and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 4 for Life.
trans    21
Fifth! Once your systems hazard management is done by you, you can do your systems quality assurance management. Now you have conquered and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 5 for Life.

Sixth! Once your cross-functional, interdisciplinary systems quality assurance management is done by you, you can do your systems reliability engineering. Now you have conquered and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 6 for Life.

Seventh! Once your systems reliability engineering is done by you, you can do your systems risk management. Now you have conquered and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 7 for Life.

Eighth! Once your systems risk management — with the applied omniscience perspective — is done by you, you can do your contingency planning lavishly (with thousand layers of redundancy in place) for Life. Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 8 for Life.

Ninth! When your contingency planning is done by you, you can do your benefits (upsides and downsides). Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 9 for Life.
trans 23
Tenth! When benefits are done by you and you become hyper-engaged into pervasively transformational self-renewal and self-challenging (in excelsis) of your own intellect, you can do your sustainability perpetually. Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 10 for Life.

Eleventh! Now you can conceive and design your own profession and tenure while concentrating in capturing womb-to-tomb (so-called) “…success…” and its gargantuan sustainability effort. Now you have conquered, and will be, as follows, securing control of bridge 11 for Life.

Twelfth! Neither “…the secret,…”, nor the “…hidden secret,…”, nor the “…discrete secret…,” or any “…magnificent marketing stunts…” will warrant the oxygen and energy and vision that your mind, body, and souls require (sic). Now you have conquered management for Life.
trans 27
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769 — 1821) declared, “…No longer it is question simply of education … NOW IT BECOMES A MATTER OF ACQUIRING SCIENCE…”

THE MANAGER’S HYPOTHETICAL BLUEPRINT TO PRACTICAL SUCCESS CAPTURING:

(1) Picture mentally, radiantly. (2) Draw outside the canvas. (3) Color outside the vectors. (4) Sketch sinuously. (5) Far-sight beyond the mind’s intangible exoskeleton. (6) Abduct indiscernible falsifiable convictions. (7) Reverse-engineering a gene and a bacterium or, better yet, the lucrative genome. (8) Guillotine the over-weighted status quo. (69) Figure out exactly which neurons to make synapses with. (70) Wire up synapses the soonest. (71) Ask now more sophisticated questions to marshal upon.…”
trans 42
David, commented simply to you and by me:

“…I am no longer a captive to history.
Whatever I can imagine, I can accomplish.

I am no longer a vassal in a faceless
bureaucracy, I am an activist, not a drone.

I am no longer a foot soldier
in the march of progress.

I am a Revolutionary!…”

END OF EXCERPT.

Click here to view the entire writing at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

Mr. Andres Agostini
Author of:
The Future of Scientific Management, Today!
The Future of Skunkworks Management, Now!
Futuretronium Book!
Superthinking!
Transformative and Integrative Risk Management!

END OF EXCERPT.

Please see the full article at http://lnkd.in/bYP2nDC

1. Thou shalt first guard the Earth and preserve humanity.

Impact deflection and survival colonies hold the moral high ground above all other calls on public funds.

2. Thou shalt go into space with heavy lift rockets with hydrogen upper stages and not go extinct.

The human race can only go in one of two directions; space or extinction- right now we are an endangered species.

3. Thou shalt use the power of the atom to live on other worlds.

Nuclear energy is to the space age as steam was to the industrial revolution; chemical propulsion is useless for interplanetary travel and there is no solar energy in the outer solar system.

4. Thou shalt use nuclear weapons to travel through space.

Physical matter can barely contain chemical reactions; the only way to effectively harness nuclear energy to propel spaceships is to avoid containment problems completely- with bombs.

5. Thou shalt gather ice on the Moon as a shield and travel outbound.

The Moon has water for the minimum 14 foot thick radiation shield and is a safe place to light off a bomb propulsion system; it is the starting gate.

6. Thou shalt spin thy spaceships and rings and hollow spheres to create gravity and thrive.

Humankind requires Earth gravity and radiation to travel for years through space; anything less is a guarantee of failure.

7. Thou shalt harvest the Sun on the Moon and use the energy to power the Earth and propel spaceships with mighty beams.

8. Thou shalt freeze without damage the old and sick and revive them when a cure is found; only an indefinite lifespan will allow humankind to combine and survive. Only with this reprieve can we sleep and reach the stars.

9. Thou shalt build solar power stations in space hundreds of miles in diameter and with this power manufacture small black holes for starship engines.

10. Thou shalt build artificial intellects and with these beings escape the death of the universe and resurrect all who have died, joining all minds on a new plane.

I continue to survey the available technology applicable to spaceflight and there is little change.

The remarkable near impact and NEO on the same day seems to fly in the face of the experts quoting a probability of such coincidence being low on the scale of millenium. A recent exchange on a blog has given me the idea that perhaps crude is better. A much faster approach to a nuclear propelled spaceship might be more appropriate.

Unknown to the public there is such a thing as unobtanium. It carries the country name of my birth; Americium.

A certain form of Americium is ideal for a type of nuclear solid fuel rocket. Called a Fission Fragment Rocket, it is straight out of a 1950’s movie with massive thrust at the limit of human G-tolerance. Such a rocket produces large amounts of irradiated material and cannot be fired inside, near, or at the Earth’s magnetic field. The Moon is the place to assemble, test, and launch any nuclear mission.

Such Fission Fragment propelled spacecraft would resemble the original Tsolkovsky space train with a several hundred foot long slender skeleton mounting these one shot Americium boosters. The turn of the century deaf school master continues to predict.

Each lamp-shade-spherical thruster has a programmed design balancing the length and thrust of the burn. After being expended the boosters use a small secondary system to send them into an appropriate direction and probably equipped with small sensor packages, using the hot irradiated shell for an RTG. The Frame that served as a car of the space train transforms into a pair of satellite panels. Being more an artist than an *engineer, I find the monoplane configuration pleasing to the eye as well as being functional. These dozens and eventually thousands of dual purpose boosters would help form a space warning net.

The front of the space train is a large plastic sphere partially filled filled with water sent up from the surface of a a Robotic Lunar Polar Base. The Spaceship would split apart on a tether to generate artificial gravity with the lessening booster mass balanced by varying lengths of tether with an intermediate reactor mass.

These piloted impact threat interceptors would be manned by the United Nations Space Defense Force. All the Nuclear Powers would be represented.…..well, most of them. They would be capable of “fast missions” lasting only a month or at the most two months. They would be launched from underground silos on the Moon to deliver a nuclear weapon package towards an impact threat at the highest possible velocity and so the fastest intercept time. These ships would come back on a ballistic course with all their boosters expended to be rescued by recovery craft from the Moon upon return to the vicinity of Earth.

The key to this scenario is Americium 242. It is extremely expensive stuff. The only alternative is Nuclear Pulse Propulsion (NPP). The problem with bomb propulsion is the need to have a humungous mass for the most efficient size of bomb to react with.

The Logic Tree then splits again with two designs of bomb propelled ship; the “Orion” and the “Medusa.” The Orion is the original design using a metal plate and shock absorbing system. The Medusa is essentially a giant woven alloy parachute and tether system that replaces the plate with a much lighter “mega-sail.” In one of the few cases where compromise might bear fruit- the huge spinning ufo type disc, thousands of feet across, would serve quite well to explore, colonize, and intercept impact threats. Such a ship would require a couple decades to begin manufacture on the Moon.

Americium boosters could be built on earth and inserted into lunar orbit with Human Rated Heavy Lift Vehicles (SLS) and a mission launched well within a ten-year apollo type plan. But the Americium Infrastructure has to be available as a first step.

Would any of my hundreds of faithful followers be willing to assist me in circulating a petition?

*Actually I am neither an artist or an engineer- just a wannabe pulp writer in the mold of Edgar Rice Burroughs.

I was recently accused on another blog of repeating a defeatist mantra.

My “mantra” has always been WE CAN GO NOW. The solutions are crystal clear to anyone who takes a survey of the available technology. What blinds people is their unwillingness to accept the cost of making it happen.
There is no cheap.

Paul Gilster comments on his blog Centauri Dreams, concerning Radiation, Alzheimer’s Disease and Fermi;

“Neurological damage from human missions to deep space — and the study goes no further than the relatively close Mars — would obviously affect our planning and create serious payload constraints given the need for what might have to be massive shielding.”

Massive shielding.
This is the game changer. The showstopper. The sea change. The paradigm shift.
The cosmic ray gorilla. Whatever you want to call it, it is the reality that most of what we are familiar with concerning human space flight is not going to work in deep space.
Massive Shielding=Nuclear Propulsion=Bombs
M=N=B
We have to transport nuclear materials to the Moon where we can light off a nuclear propulsion system. The Moon is where the ice-derived Water to fill up a Massive radiation shield is to be found.
Massive Shield=Water=Lunar Base
M=W=L
Sequentially: L=W=M=N=B
So, first and last, we need an HLV to get to this Lunar Base (where the Water for the shield is) and we need to safely transport Nuclear material there (and safely assemble and light off the Bombs to push the shield around).

Radiation shielding is the first determining factor in spaceship design and this largely determines the entire development of space travel.

http://voices.yahoo.com/water-bombs-8121778.html?cat=15

I recently posted this on the only two other sites that will allow me to express my opinions;

I see the problem as one of self similarity; trying to go cheap being the downfall of all these schemes to work around human physiology.

When I first became interested in space travel several years ago I would comment on a couple blogs and find myself constantly arguing with private space proponents- and saying over and over again, “there is no cheap.” I was finally excommunicated from that bunch and banned from posting. They would start calling me an idiot and other insults and when I tried to return the favor the moderator would block my replies. The person who runs those two sites works for a firm promoting space tourism- go figure.

The problem is that while the aerospace industry made some money off the space program as an outgrowth of the military industrial complex, it soon became clear that spaceships are hard money- they have to work. The example of this is the outrage over the Apollo 1 fire and subsequent oversight of contractors- a practice which disappeared after Apollo and resulted in the Space Shuttle being such a poor design. A portion of the shuttle development money reportedly went under the table into the B-1 bomber program; how much we will never know. Swing wings are not easy to build which is why you do not see it anymore; cuts into profits.

The easy money of cold war toys has since defeated any move by industry to take up the cause of space exploration. No easy money in spaceships. People who want something for nothing rarely end up with anything worth anything. Trying to find cheap ways around furnishing explorers with the physcial conditions human beings evolved in is going to fail. On the other hand if we start with a baseline of one gravity and Earth level radiation we are bound to succeed.

The engineering solutions to this baseline requirement are as I have already detailed; a tether for gravity and a massive moonwater shield with bomb propulsion. That is EXACTLY how to do it and I do not see any one else offering anything else that will work- just waffling and spewing about R&D.
We have been doing R&D for over half a century. It is a reason to go that is supposedly lacking.

When that crater in Mexico was discovered in 1980 the cold war was reaching it’s crescendo and the massive extinction it caused was overshadowed by the threat of nuclear weapons. Impact defense is still the only path to all that DOD money for a Moon base.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121231180632.htm

Excerpt: “Galactic cosmic radiation poses a significant threat to future astronauts,” said M. Kerry O’Banion, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and the senior author of the study. “The possibility that radiation exposure in space may give rise to health problems such as cancer has long been recognized. However, this study shows for the first time that exposure to radiation levels equivalent to a mission to Mars could produce cognitive problems and speed up changes in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.”

It appears when Eugene Parker wrote “Shielding Space Travelers” in 2006 he was right- and all the private space sycophants claiming radiation mitigation is trivial are wrong.

Only a massive water shield a minimum of 14 feet thick and massing 400 tons for a small capsule can shield human beings in deep space on long duration missions. And since a small capsule will not have sufficient space to keep a crew psychologically healthy on a multi-year journey it is likely such a shield will massive over a thousand tons.

This mass may seem to make Human Space Flight Beyond Earth and Lunar Orbit (HSF-BELO) impractical but in fact it is not an obstacle but an enabler. Nuclear Pulse Propulsion using bombs to push a spaceship to the outer solar sytem becomes more efficient the larger the ship and this amount of water is useful in a closed loop life support system.

Lighting off bombs in the Earth’s magnetosphere is not acceptable and this points to the Moon as the obvious place to launch nuclear missions and also to acquire the water for radiation shielding. The Space Launch System (SLS) is the human-rated Heavy Lift Vehicle (HLV) with a powerful escape system that can safely transport the required fissionables to the Moon.

2013 may be the year of the comet and the year of the spaceship if the two goals of protecting the planet from impacts and establishing off world colonies are finally recognized as vital to the survival of humankind.

http://news.yahoo.com/nowhere-japans-growing-plutonium-stockpile-064038796.html

A half century after being developed, nuclear pulse propulsion remains the only practical system of interplanetary travel. What is required to launch a bomb propelled mission to the outer solar system? Well, first you need.…..bombs.

There is no shortage of bomb material on planet Earth. The problem is lack of a vehicle that can get this material to the nearest place a nuclear mission can be launched; the Moon. For over a quarter of a century a launch vehicle capable of sending significant payloads (and people) to the Moon has been lacking. The Space Transportation System, aka the space shuttle, was a dead end as far as exploration due to the lack of funding for a Sidemount cargo version.

Now we wait on the SLS.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121228100748.htm

Only this human rated Heavy Lift Vehicle (HLV) with a powerful escape tower will be suitable for transporting survivable packaged fissionables to the Moon. It is not only the fissionables that are required; hundreds of tons of water from lunar ice deposits are necessary to fill the radiation shield for any such Human Space Flight Beyond Earth Lunar Orbit (HSF-BELO).

Eventually lunar resources can be used to actually construct atomic spaceships and also the thorium reactors necessary to power colonies in the outer system. It is the establishment of a beam propulsion infrastructure that will finally open up the solar system to large scale development. This will require a massive infrastructure on the Moon. Such a base will serve as insurance against an extinction level event wiping out our species. As such it deserves a full measure of DOD funding. Like that trillion dollars that is going to be spent on the F-35 stealth fighter over the next half century.

Only monthly Heavy Lift Vehicle launches of payloads to the Moon can be considered as a beginning to a true space program- where Apollo left off. There is no cheap and there is no flexible path.

The Kline Directive: Theoretical-Empirical Relationship (Part 4)

Posted in business, cosmology, defense, economics, education, engineering, nuclear weapons, particle physics, philosophy, physics, policy, scientific freedom, spaceTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments on The Kline Directive: Theoretical-Empirical Relationship (Part 4)

To achieve interstellar travel, the Kline Directive instructs us to be bold, to explore what others have not, to seek what others will not, to change what others dare not. To extend the boundaries of our knowledge, to advocate new methods, techniques and research, to sponsor change not status quo, on 5 fronts, Legal Standing, Safety Awareness, Economic Viability, Theoretical-Empirical Relationship, & Technological Feasibility.

In this post I have updated the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM) to guide us through the issues so that we can arrive at interstellar travel sooner, rather than later:

Interstellar Challenge Matrix (Partial Matrix)

Propulsion Mechanism Relatively Safe? Theoretical-Empirical Relationship?
Conventional Fuel Rockets: Yes, but susceptible to human error. Known. Theoretical foundations are based on Engineering Feasible Theories, and have been evolving since Robert Goddard invented the first liquid-fueled rocket in 1926.
Antimatter Propulsion: No. Extensive gamma ray production (Carl Sagan). Issue is how does one protect the Earth? Capable of an End of Humanity (EOH) event. Dependent on Millennium Theories. John Eades states in no uncertain terms that antimatter is impossible to handle and create.
Atomic Bomb Pulse Detonation: No, because (Project Orion) one needs to be able to manage between 300,000 and 30,000,000 atomic bombs per trip. Known and based on Engineering Feasible Theories.
Time Travel: Do Not Know. Depends on how safely exotic matter can be contained. Dependent on a Millennium Theory. Exotic matter hypotheses are untested. No experimental evidence to show that Nature allows for a breakdown in causality.
String / Quantum Foam Based Propulsion: Do Not Know. Depends on how safely exotic matter can be contained. Dependent on a Millennium Theory. String theories have not been experimentally verified. Exotic matter hypotheses are untested. Existence of Quantum Foam now suspect (Robert Nemiroff).
Small Black Hole Propulsion: No. Capable of an End Of Humanity (EOH) event Don’t know if small black holes really do exist in Nature. Their theoretical basis should be considered a Millennium Theory.

It is quite obvious that the major impediments to interstellar travel are the Millennium Theories. Let us review. Richard Feynman (Nobel Prize 1965) & Sheldon Lee Glashow (Nobel Prize 1979) have criticized string theory for not providing novel experimental predictions at accessible energy scales, but other theoretical physicists (Stephen Hawking, Edward Witten, Juan Maldacena and Leonard Susskind) believe that string theory is a step towards the correct fundamental description of nature. The Wikipedia article String Theory gives a good overview, and notes other critics and criticisms of string theories. In What is String Theory? Alberto Güijosa explains why string theories have come to dominate theoretical physics. It is about forces, and especially about unifying gravity with the other three forces.

Note, strings expand when their energy increases but the experimental evidence aka Lorentz-Fitzgerald transformations tell us that everything contracts with velocity i.e. as energy is increased.

In my opinion, the heady rush to a theory of everything is misguided, because there is at least one question that physics has not answered that is more fundamental than strings and particles. What is probability and how is it implemented in Nature?

Probabilities are more fundamental than particles as particles exhibit non-linear spatial probabilistic behavior. So how can one build a theory of everything on a complex structure (particles), if it cannot explain something substantially more fundamental (probabilities) than this complex structure? The logic defies me.

We can ask more fundamental questions. Is this probability really a Gaussian function? Experimental data suggests otherwise, a Var-Gamma distribution. Why is the force experienced by an electron moving in a magnetic field, orthogonal to both the electron velocity and the magnetic field? Contemporary electromagnetism just says it is vector cross product, i.e. it is just that way. The cross product is a variation of saying it has to be a Left Hand Rule or a Right Hand Rule. But why?

Is mass really the source of a gravitational field? Could it not be due to quark interaction? Can we device experiments that can distinguish between the two? Why do photons exhibit both wave and particle behavior? What is momentum, and why is it conserved? Why is mass and energy equivalent?

Can theoretical physicists construct theories without using the laws of conservation of mass-energy and momentum? That would be a real test for a theory of everything!

In my research into gravity modification I found that the massless formula for gravitational acceleration, g=τc2, works for gravity, electromagnetism and mechanical forces. Yes, a unification of gravity and electromagnetism. And this formula has been tested and verified with experimental data. Further that a force field is a Non Inertia (Ni) field, and is present where ever there is a spatial gradient in time dilations or velocities. This is very different from the Standard Model which requires that forces are transmitted by the exchange of virtual particles.

So if there is an alternative model that has united gravity and electromagnetism, what does that say for both string theories and the Standard Model? I raise these questions because they are opportunities to kick start research in a different direction. I answered two of these questions in my book. In the spirit of the Kline Directive can we use these questions to explore what others have not, to seek what others will not, to change what others dare not?

That is why I’m confident that we will have real working gravity modification technologies by 2020.

In concluding this section we need to figure out funding rules to ensure that Engineering Feasible and 100-Year Theories get first priority. That is the only way we are going to be able to refocus our physics community to achieve interstellar travel sooner rather than later.

Previous post in the Kline Directive series.

Next post in the Kline Directive series.

—————————————————————————————————

Benjamin T Solomon is the author & principal investigator of the 12-year study into the theoretical & technological feasibility of gravitation modification, titled An Introduction to Gravity Modification, to achieve interstellar travel in our lifetimes. For more information visit iSETI LLC, Interstellar Space Exploration Technology Initiative.

Solomon is inviting all serious participants to his LinkedIn Group Interstellar Travel & Gravity Modification.

The Kline Directive: Economic Viability

Posted in business, complex systems, defense, economics, education, engineering, finance, military, nuclear weapons, philosophy, physics, policy, scientific freedom, space, sustainabilityTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments on The Kline Directive: Economic Viability

To achieve interstellar travel, the Kline Directive instructs us to be bold, to explore what others have not, to seek what others will not, to change what others dare not. To extend the boundaries of our knowledge, to advocate new methods, techniques and research, to sponsor change not status quo, on 5 fronts:

1. Legal Standing. 2. Safety Awareness. 3. Economic Viability. 4. Theoretical-Empirical Relationship. 5. Technological Feasibility.

In this post I will explore Economic Viability. I have proposed the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM) to guide us through the issues so that we can arrive at interstellar travel sooner, rather than later. Let us review the costs estimates of the various star drives just to reach the velocity of 0.1c, as detailed in previous blog posts:

Interstellar Challenge Matrix (Partial Matrix)

Propulsion Mechanism Legal? Costs Estimates
Conventional Fuel Rockets: Yes Greater than US$1.19E+14
Antimatter Propulsion: Do Not Know. Between US$1.25E+20 and US$6.25E+21
Atomic Bomb Pulse Detonation: Illegal. This technology was illegal as of 1963 per Partial Test Ban Treaty Between $2.6E12 and $25.6E12 . These are Project Orion original costs converted back to 2012 dollar. Requires anywhere between 300,000 and 30,000,000 bombs!!
Time Travel: Do Not Know. Requires Exotic Matter, therefore greater than antimatter propulsion costs of US$1.25E+20
Quantum Foam Based Propulsion: Do Not Know. Requires Exotic Matter, therefore greater than antimatter propulsion costs of US$1.25E+20
Small Black Hole Propulsion: Most Probably Illegal in the Future Using CERN to estimate. At least US$9E+9 per annual budget. CERN was founded 58 years ago in 1954. Therefore a guestimate of the total expenditure required to reach its current technological standing is US$1.4E11.

Note Atomic Bomb numbers were updated on 10/18/2012 after Robert Steinhaus commented that costs estimates “are excessively high and unrealistic”. I researched the topic and found Project Orion details the costs, of $2.6E12 to $25.6E12, which are worse than my estimates.

These costs are humongous. The Everly Brothers said it the best.

Let’s step back and ask ourselves the question, is this the tool kit we have to achieve interstellar travel? Are we serious? Is this why DARPA — the organization that funds many strange projects — said it will take more than a 100 years? Are we not interested in doing something sooner? What happened to the spirit of the Kline Directive?

From a space exploration perspective economic viability is a strange criterion. It is not physics, neither is it engineering, and until recently, the space exploration community has been government funded to the point where realistic cost accountability is nonexistent.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not about agreeing to a payment scheme and providing the services as contracted. Government contractors have learned to do that very well. It is about standing on your own two feet, on a purely technology driven commercial basis. This is not an accounting problem, and accountants and CFOs cannot solve this. They would have no idea where to start. This is a physics and engineering problem that shows up as an economic viability problem that only physicists and engineers can solve.

The physics, materials, technology and manufacturing capability has evolved so much that companies like Planetary Resources, SpaceX, Orbital Sciences Corp, Virgin Galactic, and the Ad Astra Rocket Company are changing this economic viability equation. This is the spirit of the Kline Directive, to seek out what others would not.

So I ask the question, whom among you physicist and engineers would like to be engaged is this type of endeavor?

But first, let us learn a lesson from history to figure out what it takes. Take for example DARPA funding of the Gallium Arsenide. “One of DARPA’s lesser known accomplishments, semiconductor gallium arsenide received a push from a $600-million computer research program in the mid-1980s. Although more costly than silicon, the material has become central to wireless communications chips in everything from cellphones to satellites, thanks to its high electron mobility, which lets it work at higher frequencies.”

In the 1990s Gallium Arsenide semiconductors were so expensive that “silicon wafers could be considered free”. But before you jump in and say that is where current interstellar propulsion theories are, you need to note one more important factor.

The Gallium Arsenide technology had a parallel commercially proven technology in place, the silicon semiconductor technology. None of our interstellar propulsion technology ideas have anything comparable to a commercially successful parallel technology. (I forgot conventional rockets. Really?) A guesstimate, in today’s dollars, of what it would cost to develop interstellar travel propulsion given that we already had a parallel commercially proven technology, would be $1 billion, and DARPA would be the first in line to attempt this.

Given our theoretical physics and our current technological feasibility, this cost analysis would suggest that we require about 10 major technological innovations, each building on the other, before interstellar travel becomes feasible.

That is a very big step. Almost like reaching out to eternity. No wonder Prof Adam Franks in his July 24, 2012 New York Times Op-Ed, Alone in the Void, wrote “Short of a scientific miracle of the kind that has never occurred, our future history for millenniums will be played out on Earth”.

Therefore, we need to communicate to the theoretical physics community that they need get off the Theory of Everything locomotive and refocus on propulsion physics. In a later blog posting I will complete the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM). Please use it to converse with your physicist colleagues and friends about the need to focus on propulsion physics.

In the spirit of the Kline Directive — bold, explore, seek & change — can we identify the 10 major technological innovations? Wouldn’t that keep you awake at night at the possibility of new unthinkable inventions that will take man where no man has gone before?

PS. I was going to name the Interstellar Challenge Matrix (ICM), the Feasibility Matrix for Interstellar Travel (FMIT), then I realized that it would not catch on at MIT, and decided to stay with ICM.

Previous post in the Kline Directive series.

Next post in the Kline Directive series.

—————————————————————————————————

Benjamin T Solomon is the author & principal investigator of the 12-year study into the theoretical & technological feasibility of gravitation modification, titled An Introduction to Gravity Modification, to achieve interstellar travel in our lifetimes. For more information visit iSETI LLC, Interstellar Space Exploration Technology Initiative.

Solomon is inviting all serious participants to his LinkedIn Group Interstellar Travel & Gravity Modification.

Previous posting in this Debunking Series.

In this post we will look at the last three types of engines. Can these engine technologies be debunked?

Start with the boring stuff. Nuclear/plasma engines. For more information look up Franklin Chang-Diaz’s Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR). Real. Cannot be debunked.

Now for the more interesting stuff. The second is Pulse Detonation Engines (PDE). This type of engine uses detonation waves to combust fuel and oxidizer mixture. “The engine is pulsed because the mixture must be renewed in the combustion chamber between each detonation wave initiated by an ignition source.” Theoretically this type of engine is capable of speeds from subsonic to Mach 5.

Here is an UT Arlington Feb 2008 YouTube video that shows how elegantly simple, a workable engineering concept is. According to the posting this engine was built and tested in 2005.

Here is a link to Mojave Skies blog posting which shows photographs of an Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) subsonic pulsed detonation engine trials (about May 2008), made from off-the-shelf automotive parts. Impressive!

Some history regarding the Mojave Skies blog posting. Scaled Composites is led by Burt Rutan, whose team won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. Scaled Composites is now owned by Northrup Grumman a defense contractor. What a small world. Everyone is interconnected to everyone else.

What about supersonic trials?

Here is a link to Military, Aviation & Space forum where the jet plumes appeared to be pulsed. The date of this posting is Feb 2008, while the AFRL’s press release is dated May 2008. Here is the AboveTopSecret’s link to a Jun 2008 discussion about what appears to be PDE aircrafts in action. The writers appear to be experienced and leaning toward the PDE aircrafts in the video being real.

My guess is that conventional fuel pulse detonation engines are a reality in experimental supersonic aircrafts, and that the May 2008 AFRL’s press release is about making PDEs cheaper. These engines are real and cannot be debunked.

Now for the third type of engine technology, atomic bomb or nuclear pulse engines. It is quite obvious from the Medusa design that the nuclear energy released by such a device that is used to propel this starship is only 1/6th of the useful energy. Note, useful energy is less than total energy released. Therefore this is an inefficient design.

Further, as the Wikipedia article on nuclear pulse engines points out, there is the Partial Test Ban Treaty that makes such engines illegal. Debunked.

Therefore, nuclear or atomic bomb pulsed engines are debunked, and people who support such ideas are out of touch with reality. Let me quote Billy Currington “God is great, beer is good, people are crazy”.

—————————————————————————————————

Benjamin T Solomon is the author & principal investigator of the 12-year study into the theoretical & technological feasibility of gravitation modification, titled An Introduction to Gravity Modification, to achieve interstellar travel in our lifetimes. For more information visit iSETI LLC, Interstellar Space Exploration Technology Initiative.

Solomon is inviting all serious participants to his LinkedIn Group Interstellar Travel & Gravity Modification.