Anything we would need the state for, anything the state would do, can ultimately be reduced to intelligence. The state needs to defend the country and the borders, and in doing so needs to mobilize and deploy vast resources, which must themselves first of all have been produced, by industries that themselves must have been state supported—all of this planning comes down to intelligence, and these state functions will be done well or poorly depending on the quality of intelligence: what is known about present and potential future capabilities, both your own and others. The state needs to protect individuals and property against violence—this is best done by pre-empting violence and designing social sites so as to minimize its likely effects in advance—again, a question of intelligence. We will be able to say the same thing about education, bio-politics, the preservation of natural resources, economic policies, and so on. The crucial point that needs to be added to this is that quality intelligence depends upon the quality of the agencies gathering and eventually using the intelligence. But this, then, means, that the most essential function of the state can be continually abstracted from all of these agencies precisely to the extent that these agencies only want to perfect their practices, which entails giving off intelligence beyond their own gathering capabilities and intentions—in the knowledge that central intelligence is focused on nothing more than ensuring the provenance, integrity, coherence and actionability of all the intelligence given off by all the agencies it in turn supplies. So, in repairing the center, we approximate such a central intelligence.
Being Like Data; the Central Intelligence
Being Like Data; the Central Intelligence
Being Like Data; the Central Intelligence
Anything we would need the state for, anything the state would do, can ultimately be reduced to intelligence. The state needs to defend the country and the borders, and in doing so needs to mobilize and deploy vast resources, which must themselves first of all have been produced, by industries that themselves must have been state supported—all of this planning comes down to intelligence, and these state functions will be done well or poorly depending on the quality of intelligence: what is known about present and potential future capabilities, both your own and others. The state needs to protect individuals and property against violence—this is best done by pre-empting violence and designing social sites so as to minimize its likely effects in advance—again, a question of intelligence. We will be able to say the same thing about education, bio-politics, the preservation of natural resources, economic policies, and so on. The crucial point that needs to be added to this is that quality intelligence depends upon the quality of the agencies gathering and eventually using the intelligence. But this, then, means, that the most essential function of the state can be continually abstracted from all of these agencies precisely to the extent that these agencies only want to perfect their practices, which entails giving off intelligence beyond their own gathering capabilities and intentions—in the knowledge that central intelligence is focused on nothing more than ensuring the provenance, integrity, coherence and actionability of all the intelligence given off by all the agencies it in turn supplies. So, in repairing the center, we approximate such a central intelligence.