Sunil Masand

CS 312

Professor Carol Wolf

In today's technologically advanced world, we probably all have had our "the future is now" moments. These are moments when we first see technology that originated as fictional in the movies or on TV being used in the real world. One of my many "moments" -- for example -- was the first time I saw a car driving itself without any human interaction. This was shown a few years ago on the Discovery Channel and the car -- which was being developed by the army -- was able to drive on road without falling off by using cameras that strictly followed the white lines of the road. If the white line curved left, an onboard computer adjusted the car's steering accordingly.

For those like President Bush that think we will soon have another "future is now" moment with their new high tech missile defense system, Stan Crock (who wrote our assigned article "Star Wars by '04? Forget It") gives evidence that shows that that moment won't be approaching anytime soon. Maybe not even this decade. On December 17, 2002 Mr. Bush stated that he hoped this system has a chance of being in place by 2004. Our article's author says that we would be fortunate to see this done by 2010.

Mr. Crock argues that even though there has been progress in building this system most, if not all, of it has been done at a snails pace. Major stages of development have progressed very slowly with some hardly being worked on at all. The author’s key example on this was his look at the elements of a ground-based, mid-course, intercept system, which was the furthest along in development. His findings show that as of the press time of this article (published on January 7, 2003) major components of this particular system -- like the system’s boosters -- have yet to show major signs of progress.

The article that I chose to accompany our assigned one is from CNet's News.com. "Critical missile-defense report yanked from Web" by Anne Broache reports on how a Department of Defense's recent report was critical on many cyber-security risks in various components of the missile defense system. An example cited in the article include the Missile Defense Agency’s failure to include passwords to access its communications systems. Another critical security risk that should be repaired immediately would be to finally have a formal contingency plan set up in case of disaster.

While this article doesn't have much to say on the components mentioned in our assigned article is does show us how there are some major kinks that still need to be worked out. Overall the good news for Mr. Bush is that since his proposal for this high tech missile defense system more then three years ago solid progress seems to have been made. While his projected target for a 2004 has come and gone, it looks as though that whenever this project is completed someone, somewhere can finally look at this system and say to themself "the future is now.

Citations

1. Broache, Anne. "Critical Missile Defense Report Pulled From the Web." CNet News.com. 2006. 14 March. 2006

<http://news.com.com/2061-10789_3-6053379.html>.