Talk:DARPA

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[edit] Incorrect?

I believe this sentence: "In the area of information processing, DARPA made great strides, initially through the development of time-sharing (all modern operating systems are descendants of the Multics system, which resulted from the work started by DARPA in this area),(...)" is incorrect. Multics was a cooperation between Bell Labs, MIT and General Electric. Bell Labs opted out and created UNIX. The University of California, Berkeley co-develloped UNIX with Bell Labs and signed a contract in 1980 with DARPA. I will look into this further before changing anything.

update: I looked it up and it seems that DARPA funded MIT with a two million dollar grant to participate in the Multics project. The information is not incorrect, just incomplete (duh). Changed it to: "In the area of information processing, DARPA made great strides, initially through its support of the development of time-sharing (all modern operating systems are descendants of the Multics system, a coöperation between Bell Labs, General Electric and MIT, which DARPA supported by funding Project MAC at MIT with a two-million-dollar grant),"

[edit] open source

believe it or not, DARPA actually contributed to the existence of the open source concept by 'funding' Berkeley_Software_Distribution. [1]. will write about it later.

[edit] Requested page move

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency → DARPA — Common name, even DARPA calls itself by that name. (Also per [What links here ~ trialsanderrors 06:02, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

Page moved, per reasonable request, no opposition. -GTBacchus(talk) 00:05, 26 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Request for citation

I removed a "citation needed" from the mission section, because the entire thing is a quote. We can't provide citations for content in block quotes from other sources - if you think the main source is unreliable then paraphrase it or remove the section.

[edit] Move issue - again

There was discussion above to move this page to DARPA, because that's the common name, the name used in most media, and the name used primarily by DARPA itself. We have precedence in NASA. There was no objection (silence=consensus), and so the move took place in October 2006. Then, in December, another editor came along and unilaterally decided to move it back with no discussion, and no comment/follow-up to the previous discussion. So, I am here-by again proposing that this page be moved to DARPA. Comments? AKRadeckiSpeaketh 21:14, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I reverted it. The protocol is to ask the community to overturn previously discussed decisions rather than to unilaterally revert them. Since there was't much of a discussion before I don't have a problem restating the case (it's pretty simple really), but the status quo is DARPA. ~ trialsanderrors 03:32, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support I agree that DARPA is the most common and why should anyone care? The redirect from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency takes care of finding it easily enough. IMO moves should only happen to correct something like when I transposed some letters in a title once. Or for merging pages, not just because someone likes the other name better. Use a redirect. --Colputt 23:02, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
  • Support - should be at DARPA just as NASA is there. - BillCJ 23:16, 12 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Appearance of DARPA in Metal Gear Solid

I added this to the section entitled "DARPA in Fiction", but it was deleted. I don't know why it was deleted. DARPA plays an important role in the game, as the co-inventor of the antagonist machine in that game, and the game is fiction, ergo, that being added to the DARPA in Fiction section, is very much appropriate. You can find the "DARPA Chief"'s (as well as DARPA's fictional plan's)appearance here. C. Pineda 07:10, 29 July 2007 (UTC)

It was deleted because "in Fiction" and "in popular culture" sections are generally considered to be trivia, and are not encyclopedic. AKRadeckiSpeaketh 14:21, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
But there is a "in Fiction" section. It already exists, so why not add upon it? C. Pineda 19:19, 29 July 2007 (UTC)
In MGS DARPA plays a major roll twice because in MGS3 the character Sigint(thought to be the fictional Chief Donald Anderson in MGS1 since MGS1 takes place in 1999 and MGS3 in 1960's) is said to be one of the founders at the end of MGS3 and Donald Anderson plays a key roll along with the company of DARPA as the co-developers of Metal Gear with a (I believe fictional)failing company called arms-tech. Meaning in fiction they would have been the ones to make Metal Gear Rex the result of 30 years of technological advancements and thus securing it's place in "in fiction" and not pop culture and plus if that is the case and it still lands under Pop culture A. Make a Pop culture sections since it appears in Metal gear and Ace combat not to mention animes and B.change the aircraft part of that whole warning you guys got before you post something —Preceding unsigned comment added by GasSnake or Poison Oak (talk • contribs) 00:17, August 27, 2007 (UTC)
I agree you can't just have a section called "ARPA and DARPA in fiction" and if you don't like something you call it trivia, delete it and still allow what you like to stay. You can't pick and choose what fiction you put in there. Fiction is fiction and what you did was very biased, that's the very reason why I'm still unsteady of the whole Wiki idea of an encyclopedia. Furthermore you can't just label something trivia and delete it while there is an entire page dedicated to this "trivia". 71.10.168.69 (talk) 03:22, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] What appearances are notable?

Perhaps a good test here would be if only DARPA would do - if you could substitute some other agency just as well, then the appearance was for name only. Also, it only makes sense if the proposed operation was reasonably close to DARPAs charter. Here are my opinions, others welcome

  • The earliest mention of ARPA in fiction may well be in Tom Swift and the Visitor from Planet X[1], published in 1961.
  • Makes sense, against an unknown scientific threat DARPA scientists would be ones to consult.
  • DARPA is mentioned in the Matthew Reilly books Temple and Hell Island. In Temple, DARPA plays a role in creating the super thermonuclear missile, the "Supernova". In Hell Island, DARPA is part of the villains testing out a "super trooper" experiment.
  • Not likely, though DARPA might investigate the potential military uses of Thyrium, or genetically enhanced gorillas, actually making weapons and fielding forces would fall to other organizations. For example, DARPA investigates new airplane technologies, but a secret squadron of the air force actually fields the stealth planes.
  • DARPA and ARPA are brought into context in episodes of The West Wing. In one, a DARPA employee, Dr. Max Milkman, discusses the difference between the two, and focuses on some of the organization's operations and projects.
  • This makes sense since it is DARPA specific
  • In James Rollins' books Sandstorm (2004), Map of Bones (2005) and Black Order (2006) some of the main characters are part of a fictional organization called Sigma Force, a covert branch of DARPA, tasked with safeguarding, acquiring, or neutralizing "technologies vital to U.S. security."
  • This makes no sense since DARPA does not field operational branches.
  • In The Patriot Steven Seagal's character was a former DARPA scientist who specialized in biological research.
  • Not notable; the organization could be any one of many.
  • Not plausible. The CIA, NSA, and other organizations are responsible for framing.
  • In Executive Decision a fictitious DARPA project that has developed a plane that can link up with a 747 in mid-air is used to board the hijacked plane.
  • This one makes sense. DARPA might sponsor a one-of-a-kind gadget like this, as opposed to a combat force.
  • In Metal Gear Solid, DARPA are building the new "Metal Gear", i giant bipedal, nuclear capable tank.
  • Not notable - the DARPA chief would be an unlikely hostage, and unlikely to know details of current weapons. Also, ARPAs budget is relatively small by military standards; you would want to bribe someone else other than the DARPA chief to fund a nuclear robot. (The NSA is much better known for large black projects, and the chief of the NSA would make a much better hostage, since he knows where more bodies are hidden...) LouScheffer 02:12, 27 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Von Braun

Someone recently added mention of "the nazi werner von braun" being involved in darpa. It was removed as possible vandalism. From what i know, i think von braun may have been involved but we need sources, people. —Preceding unsigned comment added by LinoPop (talk • contribs) 02:20, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Actually, the comment referred to the Defense Department, not DARPA. von Braun worked for the Army at the time. Bongomatic (talk) 02:37, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
It's irrelevant to this article whether von Braun was a Waffen-SS officer or not. The addition of questionable comments such as that into the text is typical of vandalism, but is also typical of POV pushing. Sourced or not, it doesn't belong in this article. Von Braun primarily worked with the US Armay, and later NASA, if I recall correctly. - BillCJ (talk) 02:40, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • He and the other German rocket scientists were in the Army Ballistic Missile Agency at Redstone Arsenal until the team got moved over to NASA in 1960. My von Braun book says ARPA's main role when formed in 1958 was to oversee the space proposals of the military branches with a final veto on defense related applications. So the team still worked for the US Army. -Fnlayson (talk) 06:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)