Read Online STRANGE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY OMNIBUS by Benson Grayson - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Benson Grayson
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the Intelligence Community played the major role in providing data to be inputted into it. It belonged to the first generation that can properly be said to think. Much like the human brain, its circuits were wired so that rather than just being limited to pulling up individual pieces of data, it was able on its own to recombine them in every possible combination and then provide the most logical answers to the questions asked of it.
The project was started on the orders of some of Washington’s top policy makers. The members of the President’s National Security Council believed they were handicapped in dealing with various word crises by the incorrect advice they were receiving from the intelligence community. Intelligence analysts, even those with the deepest knowledge of a foreign country, tended to base their predilections on what that nation’s response to U.S. moves might be to their own view of the universe. In other words, they were unable to view anything from the perspective of the foreign leaders. While this admittedly reflected a good deal of Monday morning quarterbacking, the President believed the “Enemies Machine” would provide a useful adjunct to the existing National Security Council apparatus and authorized expenditure of the required funds.
The “Enemies Machine” was seen as providing the solution. Into its data banks were imputed all of the many separate items of information bearing upon the geography, history, culture, society, economy, political structure and religion of the various countries. Because of the then limited capacity of the computer, not every nation in the world could be included. Therefore, the database was limited to only the ten nations considered most likely to be involved in a serious world crisis affecting the U.D. These included Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. In the light of later events, the most significant omissions were Syria and Venezuela. Another shortcoming was the failure to consider Ukraine as a nation separate from Russia.
To enhance the accuracy of its estimates, the machine was given a brilliantly designed internal map projection capability, so that its responses were based on the geo-strategic viewpoint that would be those of the host populations and their leaders. Since in virtually every country of the world maps prepared in that country show it as the center of the world, this was the underpinning for the machine’s analysis.
The first test of the computer was and after the fact re-examination of the probable Iranian reaction to the ouster of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in a coup involving the United States. It correctly predicted the popular furor caused by the overthrow of the democratically elected leader and the likely build up of a violently anti-American sentiment. This analysis so pleased the president that he ordered henceforth U.S. actions in any world crisis be based on the readout from the “Enemies Machine.”
The first test of the machine in real-time came when American policymakers considered re-orienting the thrust of U.S. policy away from Europe and the Middle East to give the situation in the Far East the highest priority. When the machine was asked to provide the probable response to the so-called “pivot” in policy, it responded with a prediction that the Chinese Communist Government would interpret the move as a deliberate American provocation revealing a hostile intent in Washington. No American offer of increased military cooperation with China or public expression of good will would convince Beijing otherwise.
Shortly thereafter, the pro-Russian President of Ukraine Viktor Yamukovych was forced from power by public demonstrations in Kiev by agitators favoring close association of the country with the European Community, the “Enemies Machine” was asked to provide analysis of the probable Russian reaction. The answer was that Russian President Putin would never
The project was started on the orders of some of Washington’s top policy makers. The members of the President’s National Security Council believed they were handicapped in dealing with various word crises by the incorrect advice they were receiving from the intelligence community. Intelligence analysts, even those with the deepest knowledge of a foreign country, tended to base their predilections on what that nation’s response to U.S. moves might be to their own view of the universe. In other words, they were unable to view anything from the perspective of the foreign leaders. While this admittedly reflected a good deal of Monday morning quarterbacking, the President believed the “Enemies Machine” would provide a useful adjunct to the existing National Security Council apparatus and authorized expenditure of the required funds.
The “Enemies Machine” was seen as providing the solution. Into its data banks were imputed all of the many separate items of information bearing upon the geography, history, culture, society, economy, political structure and religion of the various countries. Because of the then limited capacity of the computer, not every nation in the world could be included. Therefore, the database was limited to only the ten nations considered most likely to be involved in a serious world crisis affecting the U.D. These included Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan and Iran. In the light of later events, the most significant omissions were Syria and Venezuela. Another shortcoming was the failure to consider Ukraine as a nation separate from Russia.
To enhance the accuracy of its estimates, the machine was given a brilliantly designed internal map projection capability, so that its responses were based on the geo-strategic viewpoint that would be those of the host populations and their leaders. Since in virtually every country of the world maps prepared in that country show it as the center of the world, this was the underpinning for the machine’s analysis.
The first test of the computer was and after the fact re-examination of the probable Iranian reaction to the ouster of Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in a coup involving the United States. It correctly predicted the popular furor caused by the overthrow of the democratically elected leader and the likely build up of a violently anti-American sentiment. This analysis so pleased the president that he ordered henceforth U.S. actions in any world crisis be based on the readout from the “Enemies Machine.”
The first test of the machine in real-time came when American policymakers considered re-orienting the thrust of U.S. policy away from Europe and the Middle East to give the situation in the Far East the highest priority. When the machine was asked to provide the probable response to the so-called “pivot” in policy, it responded with a prediction that the Chinese Communist Government would interpret the move as a deliberate American provocation revealing a hostile intent in Washington. No American offer of increased military cooperation with China or public expression of good will would convince Beijing otherwise.
Shortly thereafter, the pro-Russian President of Ukraine Viktor Yamukovych was forced from power by public demonstrations in Kiev by agitators favoring close association of the country with the European Community, the “Enemies Machine” was asked to provide analysis of the probable Russian reaction. The answer was that Russian President Putin would never
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