Memoir

The voice network, though primitive by comparison to its successor nevertheless helped specify basic requirements of military communication that did not become obsolete as the technology progressed. The limited data rate of the medium reaching deployed deterrent assets made it essential to have robust communications interactivity as input for decision support.

Now decades after his first direct exposure to the US's version of private/goverment/military collusion he reflected on just what it meant to selectively transcend technological obsolescence. And once again as the machine had predicted, the friendship paradigm was vastly superior to the other security modalities.

Discovering the whereabouts of an old nemesis was no coincidence (nothing is). Those fateful years on a legendary coast … surreal for its mix of escape, dread, imagination and coincidence. That now elderly man, looking very much the same, at least in his public profile. Quiet, well dressed, unassuming superiority. PR product of a pre-offereing memorandum updated for the latest hype.

Fascinating group of people they. Arrogance, entitlement, "firm but fair". Completely caught unaware to creative pursuits of social significance. Made sense. If success is measured by controlling organization, little is left for spontaneity and sub-agency. A military model in the absence of a military mission. Decades hence remnants of hanging on for survival in the face of self-destruction wrought a new crisis, resource exhaustion.

In a matter of hours he would be face-to-face with another point-blank observer. His rapidly improving skills barely able to keep pace with the opportunity. Still not that far along the track, he chuckled. It was joyful for its childlike wonder. Great memories relived many decades later.