OPENING ADDRESS
by
at
ZONAL SEMINAR
"CONVERGING
TECHNOLOGIES"
on
7-8 February 2001
- Star
Trek
My greetings to Malwa
Niwasis and Fellow Professionals. I have a great pleasure addressing this
august gathering at my Alma Mater. It is in these very portals and precincts,
more than four decades back, that I learnt the fundamentals the ABC of
engineering. In those days, pentode was the last world. We had heard of
transistor but it was not in the syllabus. Since then the engineering has come
a long way, even the civilization has taken a turn, perhaps a turn and a half,
for better or worse.
I belong to a generation
that was not born with a transistor, let alone a computer at home. Yet in my
thinking, I have been strongly influenced by the revolution that
electrotechnology has spawned -- digitization, networking, cybernetics and
lately the convergence mantra. The
commanding influence of information revolution is perceived in weakening of
hierarchies and strengthening of networks. The days of the hierarchies, which
in the past relied on structured information flow and preened on tight control
of operations, are over. Instead, networking is the blueprint of the day.
Networks are scientific, more democratic by persuasion, and decidedly, in
harmony with cultural diversity and societal pluralism. Institutions and
enterprises that work like consortiums, alliances and confederations, keep
their communication channels open and take to distributed-decision-making, have
greater cohesion and survivability. Because their structures defy rigidity and
uniformity, they are receptive and adaptable to fresh ideas. Their information
channels are kept unclogged and exploit full potential of the available
information. This is seen in the changing and increasing, proportion of
information workers in relation to the traditional industrial workers.
Military,
as an institution, depends heavily on hierarchy. Herein lies its failing,
particularly in a system where conflict resolution is more democratic and calls
for compromises. Yet, the information revolution is bound to erode hierarchies
and redraw the boundaries around which institutions, civil or military, and their offices and
headquarters are built. Inter service rivalry, conflicts within each service
based on arm, branch or regiment, parochial loyalties, proclivity to expand,
raise units and hog assets are negation of the very concept of convergence or
the e-society in making. In the networked or cybernetic world, systems,
structures and typologies retain their identities. It is only when they
converge and get diffused that true merit of a system of systems, a network of
networks or a highway of highways is realized. However, mindset is a drag and
often fails to envision the whole, trained and initiated as the mind is to doing
things the hierarchical and piecemeal ways. How else can one explain the
existence of three ministries of Communications, Information and Broadcasting
and Information Technology? The Convergence Bill has created yet another
hierarchy, the Communication Commission of India (CCI).
There is another aspect of
cultural shift that I wish to dwell on. It is cultural decadence borne of
decline in value system, conflicts and intolerance. These are reflected in rise
of the menace of cyber crime, infraction, camweb, hacking, phreaking, lewdness,
infringement of privacy etc.
The prefix e has given new
gloss to business, to governance; to services, and to convergence.. But there
are detractions aplenty to match, even undo, the e-blessings. The above notwithstanding,
let there be no doubt that a new business culture is emerging, where rules of
the game are not the same as we have been accustomed to. What worries me most
is the drift of the business environment from an equitable, technology-driven
entrepreneurship to a new variety of cyber capitalism. It is apparent from the
buzz expressions that underscore the business strategies. It pioneered with B
to C (business to consumer); graduated to B to B (business to business), then
the progression (rather retrogression, if so fancied) P to P (path to
profitability); the latest is R to R (return to rationality). It is the venture
capital that settles the perch. Earlier it sought ideas brave ideas indeed,
from the technology wizards; now it is back to Keynesian philosophy basing
decisions on the rationale of infrastructure, and what is commonly referred as
bricks and mortar with a view to taking the plunge. Dotcom has taken a
beating, today money is in e-learning, who knows what would be in vogue
tomorrow.
The digital divide has
further deepened the existing cleavage in the social order beset by the
economic divide, the literacy divide, the genre divide and the ilk. We now talk
of domain wars, portal wars, content wars, hacker wars and cyber wars. These
have further accentuated the bite of the familiar conventional and
unconventional. and not so familiar, nuclear wars. Then there are the
Ess-abuses of the likes of spying, spoofing, sniffing, spinning (spin
doctoring), spamming, stalking etc. The technologies are converging and
unifying the techniques and the artifacts; the societies are diverging and
dividing the humans - herein lies the rub.
In my address at the time of
inauguration last year, I had set an agenda for the IETE, one of the main
planks of which is Taking Technology to the Trench (3T). There are three driving forces, viz: one, push by
technological forces; two, pull by market forces; and three, push and pull by
sociopolitical or strategic forces. Taking cue from the Chinese, who lend
immense importance to harmonization of building national economy and
defence, through establishment of
high-speed information networks, and their centralized management, I had called
for synergy or convergence between market, battlefield and lab. I had opined
that technology must weave the first two in its web.
There is delicate balance
between giving free rein to the market's driving power and the demands of
national security, and the Chinese manage it pragmatically. Information
networks are so planned that they serve both the market and the battlefield
It is this convergence that lends a multiplier effect on both, the growth of
the national economy and the building of combat strength. This is precisely
your agenda -- that of the MCTE and the IETE Centre at Mhow. You have to be in
the vanguard of its implementation
The converging technologies
are slated to impact all facets of human existence. Of the shape of things to
come, I have picked on two -- the e- soldiering and the e-learning. Both should
be of interest to this audience.
In the US, RAND conducted a
workshop on how fast-growing communications and computational capabilities
would affect the nature of conflicts, the Army's missions, the way it
organizes, and especially its concepts of operation. The
workshop was sponsored by TRADOC, the Army's Training and Doctrine Command. Its
participants were asked to look beyond the technological wizardry of
information warfare and speculate about some of the broader implications of the
information revolution. They sketched six concepts for Army organization and
operations that might become feasible in the not-too-distant future:
Soldiers as sensors - the
idea that soldiers may be more valuable on the battlefield as sensors than as
weapons.
Information carousel - the
idea that information on the battlefield may be treated as a commodity
available to all upon demand and one to which all can contribute.
Agile defence/lodgment -
the idea that the holding of territory may be less important than its selective
use in time and space for battle.
Network Army - the idea
that the Army may not need to physically move many of its resources to bring
them to bear on the battlefield.
Franchised combat units -
the idea that communications permit the efficient organization of smaller, more
numerous and autonomous units, each with a span of control defined by its
maximum weapons range.
An Army of armies - the
idea that the changing tasks of the Army may call for differently organized,
trained and equipped units rather than one-soldier-fits-all tasking.
This report was before the
advent of WAP, GPRF, 3G and other converging technologies, which are changing
the defence planning paradigm one that has long emphasized the ability to
fight and win large conventional wars that take place over clear issues of
sovereignty and in which the enemy is an established nation-state What is true of the US is also true of
India. What is true of Army is also true of other two services and inevitably
affects rest of the defence establishment.
Two lessons are abundantly clear, viz.,
Networks will play an
important role in future warfare, as indeed their absence in Kargil was
telling. These networks will have to be engineered exclusively for the defense
services over telecommunication infrastructure, which is owned, developed,
maintained and protected by the defense establishment.
Protection of information
infrastructure demands a different kind of management and organization. In
China, it is the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees security,
protection and management of information networks. In the US, too, there is an
opinion that favours giving some legal authority to the Pentagon over
non-governmental infrastructure. We need to debate on this issue and adopt
similar provisions.
Of the emerging
technologies, it is the seamless integration of wireless and wireline, the
mobile Internet or the wireless Internet that tickles the soldiers
imagination. I hope one day Blue Tooth and WLL will replace the crisscrossing
cables in the command posts and headquarters, time consuming as the process is
in laying and ugly spectacle that it presents. I hope one day the commander
would voice control the battle just like olden days with a full-range of video
conferencing from a tiny cellular or mobile in his pocket and that too much
beyond the ranges that could ever be imagined. I hope one day a soldier would
have a LAN on his vest, integrating night vision, laser ranged weapon, video
camera, Global Positioning System (GPS) and communication and all I will need
is the uncorrupted, unadulterated data stored in his device to write the Corps
of Signals history.
The philosophy of either/or
voice, message and data that Plan AREN touted and we once gloated about as the
ultimate is archaic when looked through the prism of evolution and convergence
of technologies. It is ironical that this family of equipment never went to
war, Operations Cactus Lily, Pawan and Vijay notwithstanding. Same fate awaits
TCS-2000. Let us sit up and introspect how far it is prudent to go on chasing
technologies forever pursuing upgrades and seeking interoperability solutions.
Our Achilles heel is battalion forward
communications, not to mention communications for the so-called support
functions the fire support, the air support, the SIGINT support, the EW
support, and what is conspicuous by its absence, the media support. It is here
that the converging technologies will push solutions, and inevitably some
problems too, e.g. spectrum management and EMI. One year ago, a passenger plane
crashed in Switzerland and ten people died. Investigators now opine that the
most likely cause was a call from a mobile phone. Imagine that phone to be WAP
enabled or the Japanese i-mode or the Ericsons tiny GPRF designed to trigger a
logic pulse. It makes the question, do we allow cell phones in the Valley,
sound dumb.
Let me be ruthless. There is
nothing unique about military specifications. Mobility, secrecy and sleekness
are as much a market requirement as that of the battlefield. The only thing
unique about us is the OG paint. The world over, wars have been fought by
off-the-shelf computing and communicating equipment. The tragedy of this
country is that more equipment spends its lifetime in the depots and is
inevitably rendered obsolete than in the hands of the troops and a battle
casualty. I remember we bought lifetime spares for WS-88, spanning ten years,
on the plea that its production in the country of origin had been stopped. A
year and a half later when the set became a museum piece in our country too, we
gave the spares to kabadies in factory packed condition. The naivete is
telling.
As 3G approaches, the mobile phone will become a PDA for the commander, a battle management tool, a situational awareness device and a C2 facilitator. The 3G terminal will help commander control the battle, enrich Jawans life by bringing ICE (Convergence of Information, Communications and Entertainment) to the trench and taking battlefield to the home. In the market the first 3G phones will be dual-mode GSM/UMTS terminals. They will be capable of supporting mobile Internet, multimedia messaging, and multi-mode radio. With a 3G terminal and mobile Internet, a user will be able to choose the services he wants from a selection of thousands. It was Victor Hugo who said that nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time had come. The time for 3G has come and so has it for 4G, the former to adopt, and the latter to conceptualize.
Libicky paints an
enchanting scenario of technology altering the ability of one side to speak to
forces of the other side. The burgeoning field of PC based TV permits special
units in the field to assemble believable video material for broadcast behind
enemy lines. Converging technologies will also lend new molars to morphing and
other tools of infowar.
Now let me deal with the
second issue, that of impact of convergence on e-learning. A truism that often
escapes us, is that most learning is incidental not deliberately planned, people
learn without being aware of what is being learned and learn without being
taught.
Most learning comes from data fusion. When the sensors
capture data, an A to D conversion takes place at the myriad of processors that
the body is endowed with. The data travels digitally from neuron to neuron to
the highest seat of learning, the cerebrum where there is convergence. Take
vision for instance. Philippe Boumard in his famous essay, From InfoWar to
Knowledge Warfare: Preparing for the Paradigm Shift writes that neurons that participate in the building of
vision only account for 20% from the eyes' retinas, whereas 80% of them come
from other parts of the brain. In other words, 80% of our vision is internally
constructed. Vision is mostly knowledge, not information. Furthermore, this
knowledge is mostly tacit; it escapes our individual or collective awareness.
He further states that "mapping, as an act of vision, is mostly derived
from these 80% of neurons, in our brains and not in our retinas, that
participate in the construction of images, and help us to transform noticed and
unnoticed stimuli into sense-making.
Converging technologies help
in e-learning, based on three
operatives that of multimedia
content, interactivity and knowledge on demand. Convergence directs panorama
of collective knowledge drills and matches of wits. The five key
components, essential to the application of IT, as identified by the Chinese
are:
(i)
Information
resources.
(ii)
Information
equipment.
(iii)
Information
systems.
(iv)
Information
networks i.e., network standards, communication protocols, operational
procedures and transmission codes etc.
(v)
The
masters of information i.e., the people who open up, provide, manage and
utilize information.
Only modification I suggest is for information, read knowledge. If this address has motivated the masters and seekers of knowledge gathered here, I stand fulfilled in pursuance of my lifes mission.
Charles Dickens begins his
masterpiece, A Tale of Two Cities,
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times and ends the paragraph,
It was like any other times. Precisely the same is true now. It is the best
of times, it is the worst of times, --- it is like any other times. But then
there is a paradigm change sired by technology IT, Telecom, and broadcasting
and their convergence which now sits at the drivers seat. It is unlikely that
it will be edged out