Soberano oculto: análise do papel do Estado norte-americano no fomento aos setores industrias ligados à computação

O objetivo desse artigo é demonstrar o papel desempenhado pelo Estado norte-americano no fomento aos setores industriais ligados à computação. Essa investigação se centra tanto no papel do Estado no processo de catching up desses setores industriais, como em seu papel no decorrer de seu processo de consolidação. Assim, o artigo busca problematizar a ideia de que o Estado norte-americano constitui um modelo de Estado que intervém pouco na economia, o que fica claro a partir da apreciação de seu apoio aos setores industriais ligados à computação. Para ilustrar a atuação do governo norte-americano em prol desses setores industriais, essa investigação se valerá da análise de quatro casos históricos: o Semi-Automatic Ground Environment; o National Science Foundation; o Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency; o Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Consortium. Com isso, espera-se apresentar as nuances do apoio do Estado norte-americano a esses setores estratégicos da economia, o que já foi destacado por importantes contribuições teóricas, especialmente Mazzucato (2014), Chang (2004) e Block (2008), os quais abordaram essa questão de forma mais geral. Para tanto, foi analisada uma ampla literatura mais específica que tratou de analisar o desenvolvimento desses setores industriais nos Estados Unidos.

Mosaic Warfare and Human–Machine Symbiosis

As the director of the Strategic Technology Office at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (or DARPA), Timothy leads the office in development of breakthrough technologies to enable war fighters to field, operate, and adapt distributed, joint, multi-domain combat capabilities at continuous speed. He is also founder and president of Fortitude Mission Research LLC and spent several years as a senior intelligence officer with the CIA. Here he illustrates the concept of Mosaic Warfare, in which individual warfighting platforms, just like ceramic tiles in a mosaic, are placed together to make a larger picture. This philosophy can be applied to tackle a variety of human challenges including natural disasters, disruption of supply chains, climate change, pandemics, etc. He also discusses why super AI won’t represent an existential threat in the foreseeable future, but rather an opportunity for an effective division of labour between humans and machines (or human-machine symbiosis). See video at https://youtu.be/_5MkXD_m6Qc

Plan of Colorado School of Mine to develop rapid tunneling technology

According to the news on the foreign tunnellingjournal.com website (tunnellingjournal.com) on May 5, 2020, the Underground Engineering Research Center of Colorado School of Mines and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently signed a contract to develop an unprecedented rapid tunneling technology for its “Excavator” project. The research team will conduct a demonstration of tunneling technology at a speed of 366m/h within 15 months.

A low quiescent power wireless rotating machinery condition monitoring system

Vibration-based monitoring of rotating machinery is rapidly evolving within the aerospace industry with priority on detecting impending failures. The workhorse of such monitoring system remains a piezoelectric-based accelerometers which requires a wired-harnesses, connectors, significant power, and signal conditioning, etc. Raytheon Technologies Research Center (RTRC) along with Collins Aerospace and Sandia National Laboratory have jointly developed an Aluminum-Nitride Resonant Integrated Accelerometer Sensors (ARISE). This is a low power alternate for a conventional wired vibration-based monitoring system. This self-contained sensor system includes: (1) a low quiescent power sensing element with a wake-up module, (2) a wireless communication module, and (3) a coin-cell battery. Leveraging work performed under Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) N-Zero program. This wireless health monitoring system can operate in a quiescent low power mode (~10nW) for a period of several years without servicing. With an exceedance above a preset vibration level (at designate characteristic frequencies), the sensor wakes up and wirelessly sends a warning of a precursor-to-failure. The ARISE sensor and wake-up module package has been validated with a replicated vibration environment acquired from a selected rotating machinery subject to progressive damage at the Structural Dynamics Laboratory at RTRC. The failure precursor is successfully detected by the sensor which triggers the wake-up module. This research was developed with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Micro Technology Office (MTO), under Aluminum-Nitride Resonant Integrated Accelerometer Sensors (ARISE) program.

DARPA’s Role in Machine Learning

Machine learning methods provide a way for artificial intelligence systems to learn from experience. This article describes four threads of machine learning research supported and guided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency — probabilistic modeling for speech recognition, probabilistic relational models, the integration of multiple machine learning approaches into a task-specific system, and neural network technology. These threads illustrate the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency way of creating timely advances in a field.