You probably remember that in the world of James Bond, Q is the fictional character who heads up the also fictional research and development division of the British Secret Service. He conjures up all of those amazing and high tech weapons that Bond has employed since he was dreamt up by Ian Fleming, in the early 50’sOn a parallel track, in the real world, has been the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, or DARPA. Created by Eisenhower in the late 50’s, it’s mission was to create science fiction inspired high tech weaponry for the American military.
DARPA was also Frankenstein like, in that Eisenhower and his Generals created it, and then, on his way out of office, Ike warned us of its dangers. But it's only now, in the context of Annie Jacobsen's book, The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top-Secret Military Research Agency
that we can see the full scope of what DARPA did and did not accomplish.My conversation with Annie Jacobsen:
