The Stargate Project

TL;DR -- Stargate, of late, is an example of so many things. Already, after a few days, the sides are being drawn. We are neutral with our technology focus. Kant, of the western pantheon, will be seen as important contributor to the proper analysis to settle some of the issues. Expected downturns, along several axes, ought to be part of the discussion, as well. We see a major communication gap between marketing (and the world of business) and basic science (including its application via engineering). 

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Note: This goes along with our interest in the 250th of the U.S. plus one of our sons who contributed: Josiah Willard Gibbs. A tie? Gibbs demonstrated the advantage of thinking about vectors. 

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There are many uses for "stargate" as this disambiguation page on Wikipedia shows. Some are related to Sci Fi which deals with technology in futurist or even "meta" sense which means "beyond" (Wikipedia). 

This week, some of the Techbros of SV were behind an announcement by President Trump.

• TheStargate Project --  joint venture with private money artificial intelligence (AI) technologies. Many know of AI as it has become a familiar topic due to activities of the past couple of years that brought machine learning to the foreground with mixed results. One example was ChatGPT of OpenAI who, recently, teamed up with Oracle and MGX (company). 

Currently, we are not getting into specifics which will come after we do some looking at the past two years. For us, technology as a focus goes back to a post on 2 Jun 2019 in which we were recapping our technology influence since the start of the Thomas Gardner Society work. In other forums, we have followed and commented on progress in areas like machine learning, especially in the context of data science which is an area of focus. 

Computers and their use? We can trace this through the past few decades. Right now, though, we can point to a former program: Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) The US Department of Defense (USDOD) had been involved in computing from very early times, motivating choices along the way. Even in the 1960s, there was sufficient knowledge on the part of the public about computers for the news to do regular reporting. For example, in the mid-1960s, a film (2001) with an AI computer (HAL) was a huge hit. 

AI got its start in the 1950s. Work in this area has continued since then, even when not publicly known or under some other label. We will look at examples of that. 

But, the SDI was involved with more than computing. Science and engineering of weapons and defense methods were a main theme where the computer was for support. This is from the SDI article. 

• Advanced weapon concepts, including lasers,[4][5] particle-beam weapons, and ground and space-based missile systems were studied, along with sensor, command and control, and computer systems needed to control a system consisting of hundreds of combat centers and satellites spanning the globe. 

We will look at the choices that led to a decline in the enthusiasm for this program. But, there were many artifacts and systems that came out of this work. We will cover those items over time. 

Why did SDI cease? Early on, the computational side of things was seen as more complicated than could be handled by systems of the time. Then, the scientists started to weigh in on the expected physical systems and suggested that they could not be realized within the anticipated timeframe. Yet, there were things that carried on, with some of them available for data collection. 

That is mentioned as AI being taken over by ML (JMS - AI, not solely ML) is not a given with respect to success. The past two years have seen lots of discussion and words written. Many of the faults are obvious. The GenAI approach has not attained general appeal, except for playing around, and has not found any niche as was thought. Though, business has bought into the approach as it allows them to remove people off of the payroll. 

At the same time, there were some noticable degradations, perhaps more than can be documented without further study. But, who has an interest in that? Basic science and engineering were cut out of the process which seemed to have been mainly marketing driven. 

Some might see the Stargate and SDI connections as too tenuous. But, it's not to my old brain who has been involved for 50 years in advanced computing. Then, R&D was still in vogue. That went away. We now have this ca-pital-sino affair which is a chimera (paying only some; pilfering many). The past two decades have more than enough examples to look at in terms off what is important to consider and why that might be so. Psychology and philosophy, in both an applied and theoretic sense, will be brought to bear. And, people? The prime consideration. 

Fortunately, there are positions being taken that will make sure that the pros and cons are kept in mind. Right now, we are neutral as the faults are obvious. Real benefits from adopting AI are tainted by the marketing exuberance that seems eternal. 

 

Maturity? Again. One thing for sure, the world of humans has gone through about 200 years of evolution with technology. On one western line, we can use Kant's Logic and Prolegomena (those condensations point to his more extensive work) to establish a basis that was ignored for various reasons that we can discuss. One huge potential problem will be the results of the fallout that is inevitable just like we see with capital markets where value disappears, overnight sometimes. 

Crypto is there to remind us of how this can be. In the meantime, let's end with a Financial Times article: AI leaders clash over safety and $100bn Stargate project. Name calling and ad hominen was mentioned by Kant as something to avoid. 

Remarks: Modified: 01/25/2025

01/25/2025 --