tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7645859333558216790.post4788613477986013135..comments2020-10-28T06:14:08.097-04:00Comments on The Agile Mind: Second Life as Terrorist Training GroundAnne Laurenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17484276612569437171noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7645859333558216790.post-20159742746569286482008-02-14T10:12:00.000-05:002008-02-14T10:12:00.000-05:00Sexy indeed, but a real problem? Methinks they dot...Sexy indeed, but a real problem? Methinks they doth protest too much. So much about the war on terrorism is about launching salvos at easy targets in order to give the appearance of action. It would be a shame if this sort of concern without evidence caused federal agencies to hold back from taking advantage of the robust and cost-effective possibilities offered by virtual worlds, though perhaps not public ones such as Second Life. I suspect, though, that the horses are too far out of the barn to turn back now. All this leak has accomplished is to make IARPA look a bit alarmist and Luddite.Anne Laurenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17484276612569437171noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7645859333558216790.post-48272050670736729062008-02-14T08:46:00.000-05:002008-02-14T08:46:00.000-05:00I don't want to second guess IARPA's concerns, but...I don't want to second guess IARPA's concerns, but let's remember a piece of the back story. They're a start-up group in their own right, and are fighting other R&D agencies in the intelligence community for funds and control of research direction. In the process, they're getting push back and, according to the scuttlebutt, not making a lot of friends. This paper, obviously leaked to a good reporter who understands technology, sounds like an attempt by IARPA to put itself on the board with a high-profile, sexy problem. <BR/><BR/>I also smiled at the Jim Dempsey quote. "They want to control this technology and make it even easier to tap than it already is," Dempsey said. "When the government is finished, every new technology becomes a more powerful surveillance tool than the technology before it." Jim has a lot of history with the government's attempts to assert itself into new, emerging technologies. When the Internet was a nascent environment, the attorney general wanted to be able to set standards for technology development. (Think about that and how significant that was.) Jim was among the group, which included telecom companies, that fought back that effort. This IARPA paper is hardly of the level of the attorney general's power play more than a decade ago. But history repeats.Shane Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14727577948649188894noreply@blogger.com