SpaceNews reports that Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced that Jeff Bezos and Neil deGrasse Tyson will join the Defense Innovation Advisory Board.
Carter has asked the board to identify private-sector practices that the Pentagon could adopt. A first round of recommendations is expected in October.
The full list of current board members is:
· Eric Schmidt, executive chairman, Alphabet Inc.
· Jeff Bezos, president, chairman and CEO, Amazon Inc.
· Adam Grant, professor, Wharton School of Business
· Danny Hillis, computer theorist & co-founder, Applied Inventions
· Reid Hoffman, co-founder, LinkedIn, and partner, Greylock Partners
· Walter Isaacson, president & CEO, Aspen Institute, former TIME magazine editor and Steve Jobs biographer
· Eric Lander, president and founding director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
· Marne Levine, chief operating officer, Instagram
· J. Michael McQuade, senior vice president for science and technology, United Technologies
· William McRaven, chancellor, University of Texas System
· Milo Medin, vice president, Access Services, Google Capital
· Richard Murray, professor, California Institute of Technology
· Jennifer Pahlka, founder, Code for America
· Cass Sunstein, professor, Harvard Law School
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday July 27 2016, @11:59PM
Bozos and Mike Tyson in the Pentagon? Trump is going too far!
(the man's name is deGrasse-Tyson, use the whole last name.)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:08AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:41AM
Indeed his last name is Tyson.
Tyson's middle name, deGrasse, is from the maiden name of his paternal grandmother, who was born as Altima de Grasse
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Tyson [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:59AM
aristarchus does the grammar nazi walk of shame . . . :( But still, how was I supposed to know it wasn't Mike? Or the chicken guy?)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:03AM
And you thought the Corporate Congress was science fiction!
(Score: 4, Informative) by Kilo110 on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:06AM
This group of headline grabbing names may or may not generate a good list of ideas. But it's irrelevant since I doubt the US Military will bother reading it, let alone implementing any of them.
This whole thing screams "bullshit pr stunt" to me.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:57AM
My money is on "not". When you fill a room full of personalities- especially those who might be used to getting their own way one or another, you do not obtain the sum of their intelligence. If you're LUCKY you obtain the average, but since humans are not very good communicators it's much more likely you obtain sub-optimal results. Committees are good at deflecting and avoiding blame and responsibility. They are not good at innovation.
(Score: 0, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:24AM
That list reads like the "about us" page of the southern poverty law center. A bunch of jewz and a handful of token goys.
The whole thing smacks of an initiation ritual for Bilderburg hopefuls.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:21AM
Looks like four top-notch technical innovators far outnumbered by bureaucratic/financial/political tie-guys.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:25AM
When metals are alloyed, the alloy can melt at a lower temperature than any of its components.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutectic [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Dunbal on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:32AM
When humans are alloyed, they all die.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:08AM
I'm missing Zuckerberg on that list... As a prime provider to the government of real-time geo-tagged status information on enemy-combatants, I mean citizens, hasn't he earned a seat as well?
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:45AM
The Jews with clearance have denied his :)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:49AM
LinkedIn is like Facebook for grownups.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:59AM
Instagram is on the board. Facebook owns Instagram.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:28AM
Instagram is like Snapchat for grownups.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:44AM
No Apple or Microsoft as either, which figures I guess, as they're looking for help with innovation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:55AM
The Steve Jobs biographer will bring the Reality Distortion Shroud with him.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:34AM
henceforth to be known as the Dwarf Defense Innovation Advisory Board
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @12:40AM
Why, I don't see anything about Pluto mentioned.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:37AM
Jeff Bezos = 5'8" manlet
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @01:51AM
That's average height for an American man.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:00AM
Not for millennials.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:09AM
Sorry I forgot millenials have 5'8" dicks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @03:25AM
And yours is 2".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 28 2016, @04:18PM
Generous.
(Score: 2) by bradley13 on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:33AM
Having worked in defense acquisition, I can only say: weed whack the bureaucracy. Specifically:
- Write simple contracts with black-and-white requirements.
- Get rid of most procurement regulations, especially idiotic things like awarding contracts based on race and gender
- Remove Congressional approval of individual programs (which leads to subcontracts chosen by Congressional district, so that Congress can collect its pork)
- Eliminate 90% of the personnel managing defense contracts (you don't need them if you have simple contracts, simple regulations and fewer politics).
- Oh and finally: eliminate the revolving door.
None of this will happen, of course. Congress won't voluntarily give up its pork. And the defense bureaucracy won't do anything to streamline itself - Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy is far too entrenched.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Thursday July 28 2016, @03:07PM
The infantryman jumped in the ditch and lied down, trembling. His first WWIII action had begun. Over his head a wave of drones dropping amazon prime packages with damaged goods (bought by the Army as pristine stuff, of course) went to hit the targets. Soon the enemy would be overwhelmed by faulty usb cables and the first defections would occur.
OK RIFLE! he shouted, so his smart rifle would boot, load the 4^H^H 3 directives, init the shoots database and let him fire. The rifle blipped in reply, at the fourth attempt. Not bad.
A second blip alerted him that his one-trigger-pull/one-shoot personal patent license would expire on monday.
"If I ever make it that far", he thought, as he was forced out of the ditch by a Time photographer who needed his help: "There, lad, your silhouette is right against the sun, perfect! Now we wait for the sniper...".
Account abandoned.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday July 28 2016, @05:32PM
Oh, that Tyson. I thought they were talking about Mike Tyson.