Darpa: U.S. Geek Shortage Is National Security Risk

Darpa: U.S. Geek Shortage Is National Security Risk

www.wired.com

Sure, we’re all plugged in and online 24/7. But fewer American kids are growing up to be bona fide computer geeks. And that poses a serious security risk for the country

The Pentagon’s far-out research arm Darpa is soliciting proposals for initiatives that would attract teens to careers in science, technology, engineering and math

Now, Darpa’s now hoping someone, somewhere, can come up with a way to make future philosophy majors change course. And they want to get ‘em while they’re young:

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well... if you dumb down the public what do you think would happen?

What do you guys think of Pentagon's involvement in this as a sidenote, is this their job?

But anyhow I think that smart people will be attracted to smart subjects. So perhaps not dumbing down the public is a good route towards that.

I know some will say what' dumbing down of the public... well... there is definately a dumbing down.

Edit to Add:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

thx

www.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 15-1-2010 by ModernAcademia]

I agree with you, about the public being dumbed down.

But I also happen to think that certain people will turn out geeky regardless of their environment.

I think looking at the moon through my telescope for an hour is great fun. I even make a cocktail(or four) and play with the telescope sometimes. Thats my idea of fun. Or going to the museums downtown, etc.

But my neighbor thinks that smoking pot and watching "The Real Housewives" show marathon is fun. Go figure.

I think you are born a geek. But thats just opinion. If stats show differently....

The popular image of the stereotypical geek is that of an acne sprouting teen computer genius obsessed with star trek who's never had a girlfriend. Go figure why no one wants wants to become that.....

Hmmm...I am what one would call a geek. I do have glasses but too old for acne.

Could have a new career on my hands working for the Pentagon!

Only if the pay is good.

As the saying goes:

"The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth"



[edit on 15-1-2010 by kommunist]

I am an IT professional with over 15 years experience. I can tell you that this is true. Not enough young Americans are getting into the technology field.

My company has been hiring for technical positions and most of the time we end up having to look for foreign workers with work visas to fill the position. We are hiring Indian and Chinese technical people to fill the jobs because not enough qualified Americans apply. I am talking about software developers and engineers making 6 figures so these are good paying jobs. In my department I am a minority, most of the people I work with are Indian. They seem to love technology.

I don't understand why more Americans don't choose the IT field. Maybe its the whole technology is for geeks thinking. Not cool enough or something. I am happy to be a geek making 6 figures.

I think we may all be doomed if we don't act quickly enough on this one!

To quote one of my favorite 1980's movie theme songs "the time has come for REVENGE OF THE NERDS!!!"

Alpha children wear grey. They work much harder than we do, because they're so frightfully clever.

I'm awfully glad I'm a Beta, because I don't work so hard. And then we are much better than the Gammas and Deltas. Gammas are stupid. They all wear green, and Delta children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color.

I'm so glad I'm a Beta.

[edit on 15-1-2010 by METACOMET]

Education and culture gets it's head blown off in this country... and then everyone wonders where the intelligent kids went and why no one is going into technology fields. Could it be to get into a technology field you have to incur several thousands of dollars in debt to get the proper training and then not be guaranteed a job? Also the image of success in this country is to steal, rob, and screw everyone to get to the top as a huge ego-manic. Why would a kid pick up technical fields when it's largely been discouraged in our culture and our education is a

This makes me reflect on my high school career, when I was in high school the "geeks" were beaten and ridiculed, most had become "mainstream" students by the time they graduated and it was a shame too...a load of wasted potential.

Secure

[edit on 15-1-2010 by xXxtremelySecure]

reply to post by InertiaZero


I agree with you that people will still turn out to be geeks regardless of the environment they are in. The US have dumbed down people and made religion it's priority and now they are shocked that not to many people are in science or engineering. They wanted people dumb, there dumb. They wanted people ignorant and abusive, they are. They wanted people to shun intelligence or people who show that gift and make them look foolish or seem strange. We are a society that has been damaged in such a way that the only way to clean it up is to let it come smashing down and show all the ignorant and dumb and I'm on their team idiots that they are nothing in the big scheme of things and have them lose everything.

Originally posted by Erasurehead
I am an IT professional with over 15 years experience. I can tell you that this is true. Not enough young Americans are getting into the technology field.

My company has been hiring for technical positions and most of the time we end up having to look for foreign workers with work visas to fill the position. We are hiring Indian and Chinese technical people to fill the jobs because not enough qualified Americans apply. I am talking about software developers and engineers making 6 figures so these are good paying jobs. In my department I am a minority, most of the people I work with are Indian. They seem to love technology.

I think you make an extremely valid point.
I also was on the recruiting side of IT, i've been working in IT for about 7-8 years now.

When we were looking for candidates for programming and DBA jobs the pickings were slim. They say there's alot of good people out there but I could barely find any. And the good ones we found ended up being horrible due to a dishonest resume. It's hard to find references in this field as well due to the high turnover rate so the list of references always disappear.

We tried to keep the job within the country but in the end we, as you, ended up outsourcing the jobs to eager to work foreigners.

They ended up doing an amazing job, they might not have the best of social/people skills but that wasn't a requirement for the job.

Then they say foreigners are stealing our jobs. No you don't want them, you are lazy and want to keep pushing deadlines.

They are less and less IT pros everyday in the western world.
These days programmers are people know how to ask questions on a programming forum and wait for others to code for them.

But then you keep having these idiots saying "foreigners are stealing our jobs"

If they started teaching programming in highschool, maybe we would be interested. I have to take dual credit classes if I want to learn any computer programming languages besides html/_javascript. All I am learning is slide shows, excel, and those stupid windows things.

[edit on 15-1-2010 by Phlynx]

The problem is that most people view computer science as impenetrable, when in fact every aspect of the field is designed to be understood by regular people.

Because most people have minimal exposure to computer science concepts and terminology while they are young (because we don't teach computer science in grade school), most of us grow up believing the whole thing is beyond our capability to understand.

Solution: Begin teaching computer science & computer programming in 3rd grade. Believe me, kids can do this stuff, because the secret is that anyone can do it once the concepts have been demystified. (Or, as with kids, before they have become mystified.)

Originally posted by ModernAcademia

Originally posted by Erasurehead
I am an IT professional with over 15 years experience. I can tell you that this is true. Not enough young Americans are getting into the technology field.

I think you make an extremely valid point.
I also was on the recruiting side of IT, i've been working in IT for about 7-8 years now.

When we were looking for candidates for programming and DBA jobs the pickings were slim. They say there's alot of good people out there but I could barely find any. And the good ones we found ended up being horrible due to a dishonest resume. It's hard to find references in this field as well due to the high turnover rate so the list of references always disappear.

We tried to keep the job within the country but in the end we, as you, ended up outsourcing the jobs to eager to work foreigners.

Have you ever considered that US Companies now refuse to train anyone who may not have the exact skills they are looking for but who are very close, have lots of technology background, and are EAGER to work in IT?

No - instead all these corporations want to do is higher a PHD from India - who had his degree paid for him by his country - instead of an easily trainable American professional who could get the job done for the same salary.

This has created the "fake it untill you make it" mentality amongst "geeks" in America who couldn't afford a four year degree in Comp Sci + another two years as an unpaid (or under paid) intern.

Lack of American workers to do the job!? - not hardly - try unrealistic experience requirements - zero on the job training - and a sellout mentality by short sighted and no morals American corporations!



I call shenanigans!!

I don't see anything too sinister about this. I don't like Darpa. But I would rather people to be encouraged to get into technology fields as opposed to being discouraged from going to them. I don't like how they want to recruit them though.

Originally posted by TruthMagnet
Have you ever considered that US Companies now refuse to train anyone who may not have the exact skills they are looking for but who are very close, have lots of technology background, and are EAGER to work in IT?

When we talk IT we're not talking about using excel sheets.
In programming either you have or not.

The ONLY valid argument in your context is companies don't train outdated mainframe programmers.
And even that is a stretch, but kinda of valid but not much.

Originally posted by TruthMagnet
No - instead all these corporations want to do is higher a PHD from India - who had his degree paid for him by his country - instead of an easily trainable American professional who could get the job done for the same salary.

I've been on the project management end and what you are saying is untrue.

The old retort that "there's alot of qualified candidates out there" is a lie

Originally posted by TruthMagnet
This has created the "fake it untill you make it" mentality amongst "geeks" in America who couldn't afford a four year degree in Comp Sci + another two years as an unpaid (or under paid) intern.

2 years of unpaid internship?
On which planet?
unpaid internship = 3 months unless you are talking about coop which is part of univ.

Originally posted by TruthMagnet
Lack of American workers to do the job!? - not hardly - try unrealistic experience requirements - zero on the job training - and a sellout mentality by short sighted and no morals American corporations!

So just blame corporations and small companies and not students not even going for their high school diploma, or having criminal records or not studying?

Listen take this for example, because sooner or later you are going to have to come back to reality.

In asia if you are studious you are respected, if you are studious here you get bullied. You have to come to grips with that and yes that has everything to do with parenting.

How can you only blame companies and not parents allowing their kids to be raised by the TV and their same-age friends?

Don't blame companies blame the govt. and parents.

Blame Hollywood. There are enough left over TV shows from the 80s and enough spinoffs and copycats that still typecast the geek/nerd/social reject as a loser. No kid wants to be a loser, so they avoid topics of science.

Television that incorrectly sets the reality of science also doesn't help, such as forensic shows where cases are solved within the show's hour or medical maladies that are cured before the end of the timeslot.

Hollywood is the single most influencial source on kids today and it has done ZERO to show just utterly cool it would be to discover something that you could name yourself, or be a part of something scientific that truly changes the face of the world like the internet, television or the car.

What does every boy want to be right now? A rock star. Yawn. What about girls? Singers or dancers. Double and triple yawn.

Seems like they have been sliced with a double edge sword.

Don't care for the education of the kids? You will not get these geeks.

Teach the kids to be brilliant? They will realize the shams of our economy/govt.

Tough luck for them and us I guess.

Originally posted by sos37
Blame Hollywood. There are enough left over TV shows from the 80s and enough spinoffs and copycats that still typecast the geek/nerd/social reject as a loser. No kid wants to be a loser, so they avoid topics of science.

It's not Hollywood's fault. It's Americas fault where to be respected you must be aggressive, a jock, good looking, rich, well dressed and come form a nice family.

Conformity is the operating system in America; that's what keeps young people from thinking on their own and following their dreams. Peer pressure to be accepted and in the right clique academics be damned.

[edit on 15-1-2010 by whaaa]