Government Spying Upon Itself

Government spying upon itself as an intelligence gathering function is elegant.

It is so obvious. The National Security Agency is its own best place to record and analyze everything that its own people are communicating. It is the greatest social media test tube ever created. It is exploring social media like NASA is exploring space. It has unbridled funds to do it. The spin off benefits to society of our investment in this area will someday be recognized. Unfortunate that it has to be kept secret today.

NSA has an internal structure to deal with all the information it is pulling in from external sources. An internal communication system, an analysis system. Ultimately its best resource is its people. Its human analyst that compile everything and extract meaning like a very high level structured program.

The beauty of the internal NSA spy system is that NSA can structure it without any limitation to its specific purpose. It can record everything that its own people are saying an mine it. Mine it using social media methods, without restrictions to get in the way. Privacy within NSA is a non issue. The perfect environment to develop social media.

How might it look?

The answer is that it would look like the perfect social media system. At least the best one that money can buy today. It accomplishes all the objectives of a social media system. Those objectives are largely in the realm of genius dreams outside of the secret world of NSA and I am sure that we would marvel at what is being done. Actually, what has to be done to protect our nations security using the best means to protect it: Information, knowledge.

If social media serves up collective intelligence in the most elegant manner and the NSA has to have the best intelligence system then I hope this secret system is applied publicly and soon. Certainly it is as NSA research on information and knowledge systems is escaping control as it leaks out in academic areas. Like controlling the secrets of the atom bomb, the secrets of information and knowledge system creation and application can't be contained. NSA is probably drawing more conceptually in improving thier internal social media structure than they are contributing. What NSA has to contribute is an actual implementation of all the concepts.

Where better to apply proven system of social media application to extract collective intelligence than the public operation of government and governance?

In addition to the intelligence being provided by the NSA and the NSC to President OBAMA that is the product of our best intelligence gathering system, the emerging beauty of the internal system analysis using advanced social media concepts and applications for national security becomes an independent matter of best advice to the president consistent with and contributing to his objective of involving all of us in the government process.

Our space program had substantial spin off benefit to our society at the pinnacle of industrial development and perhaps marked the transition to its greater contribution to the emergence of information age development. Our information age development leadership organization is now the NSA. We don't see the spectacular results of that development in social media application form equal to a blast off preceded by a count down to draw the attention of a nation. It would reveal sources and methods and capabilities of internal systems that are secret.

Keeping implementations of social media concepts applied internally, with probable external extensions to support it, a national secret will not be in the national interest. When President Obama's security advisors reveal the national benefit of the system, independent of what it produces then they will really be contributing to the defense of the nation.

The only problem is that product of a collective intelligence system is by definition an indication of the most intelligent thing to do. It is also supported by structure of logic and reason and analysis that can be examined in detailed range and depth. Such a product may indicate changes to established systems that are not as well supported, or in fact do not have any rational support.

Who would have ever thought that the greatest battle between unsubstantiated faith and its greatest opponent; reason would find its emergence for the NSA? Not surprising if the basis is intelligence and discovery that the best intelligence is found in our collective thought, not the insertion of thought fallacies in individual minds that are in positions of power to force their influence.

Government doing its best to spy upon itself and reveal the intelligent thing to do might be the solution to the problem when the methodology emerges for public benefit. How will it emerge? By those doing things for us in our best interest without our full knowledge of what is driving their efforts? That is not collective intelligence.