Foreword (Lt. Col. U.S.A.F. [Ret] Snowden)
Foreword
by Lt. Col. U.S.A.F. (Ret) Jonathan Snowden
Everyone has seen the impact of advanced technologies on our lives. In most cases, these impacts have been welcomed or at least accepted. Unfortunately, all too often, these technologies have been used to make conditions worse. Fortunately, by picking up this book, you are proving that you are looking for ways to improve things. Congratulations, and thank you!
Why would I say this, and why should it matter to you? In answer, I have spent two careers trying to help those who use the most advanced ideas, research, and technology in their hope and dreams to make others’ lives better. I was a United States Air Force intelligence officer for twenty-four years. That meant I spent nearly half my days on active duty preparing operations to bring food, shelter, medicine, or peace to people worldwide: Europe, Africa, South America, Oceania, and Asia. In each instance, I was surrounded by the latest ideas based upon a combination of emerging and time-tested technology to bring truth to the Bosnians, peace to western Africa, hope and dialog to Colombia, medicine to Pacific Islanders, and humanitarian relief to Japan.
One of these efforts, the Fukushima meltdown in 2011, illustrates how disparate and untested ideas and technology can come together to help humanity. On the weekend the disaster started, I was already in Hawaii and immediately assigned to Pacific Air Forces. After twenty years of numerous operations, I was familiar with the U.S. Armed Forces’ field surveillance and collection platforms. However, they were not developed with an earthquake, a tsunami, and an imminent meltdown in mind, and as a result, many Americans, civilian and military alike, stood up and said, “I have something that I think will help.” To properly use and integrate these advanced ideas and platforms, I had to become an immediate expert on a broad swathe of then-leading-edge ideas: nuclear technology, commercial imagery and mapping technology, and the federal government’s latest funded “science projects.” I still vividly remember a late-night phone call from an executive at a U.S. technology and social media company offering their equipment in support, and they needed my help to get it from the U.S. to Japan. This was also the first time in my career I saw command and control being exercised through video conferences in multiple locations in Japan and Hawaii. I was almost overwhelmed trying to learn all this on the fly (no pun intended), but I never doubted the worthiness of what we were trying to do and the spirit that animated each of us. Easily one of the proudest moments in my career during the uncertainty was when the Japanese liaison to my headquarters thanked us personally and on behalf of his country for showing true friendship to his people. Looking back on the whole incident, I am amazed at how many new ideas, new technologies, and, just as importantly, new processes came together to help the Japanese people recover from the potentially devastating event.
However, there was no guarantee that the results would work out as well as they did, and that is why I am so intensely invested in this volume you are holding. What if I had been on another operation or back on the mainland? Or, what if I had not been flexible in adapting to new ideas? Events would demand someone step up and take my place, and if they do not already possess enough experience, the proper education can make a huge difference.
My second career provides another example of what this book can offer you. I work within the Office of the Vice President of Research at Kansas State University to protect our researchers’ ideas, data, and Intellectual Property from theft. Learning the breadth of K-State’s research has been challenging for this non-academic because our faculty is involved in various topics. One of the areas that has proven the most relevant and exciting to me is the field of biosecurity. I work closely with several researchers, experts, and federal partners in these areas. I have seen actions from malevolent actors in response to our research successes, which suggests they want our data to be used and abused to their advantage. In response, I now consider research in closely related enabling technologies to prevent a back-door opportunity for a malefactor. As you will see in this book, the authors have envisioned and answered these concerns in multiple areas. Chapter Seven is a vivid example of broadening my appreciation for unanticipated biosecurity threats.
I hope my brief examples demonstrate why this book is needed and why you are the ideal person to read it. None of us are sure when something will happen, whether we will have the opportunity to help, what will be available to provide that assistance, and whether we will have the time to master the understanding to use best what is at hand. However, you will find in this volume that you have the “words of the masters” at your fingertips, and you can benefit from their extensive and gifted visions on how these advanced technologies, ideas, and applications interact with today’s world, for both good and bad. Not only that, but the authors have also worked together closely to provide you with a cohesive whole about what concerns them and how to leverage these topics best to improve our lives. They have been working together for a long time to ensure you have a singular, definitive experience that will start you down the long, productive path of thinking about how you can provide the latest ideas and technology to work together for the best. Congrats, and good luck!
