Apollo, the Overwhelming Threat, and the Old Men of Computing

by John Martellaro

July 18th, 1999

Deke Slayton: Would you like to go to the Moon?

Frank Borman: Sure, why not?

On July 20th, 1969 at 10:56 PM EDT, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first beings from this planet to walk on the surface of our Moon while Michael Collins orbited above. This essay is dedicated to them and all the Apollo astronauts.

In those days, we were pretty ignorant. Distinguished scientists argued that the Moon was covered with 2 meters of dust and would swallow up a lunar lander and its occupants. Some argued that a man would not be able to sleep in weightlessness and would die of sleep deprivation. Others argued that it was technically impossible for two small spacecraft to travel to the Moon, separate, have one land, and later take off and rendezvous with the other. Finally, important and intelligent scientists warned president Kennedy that if an American died in space, it would be a national embarrassment, and we should forego going to the Moon.

Things That Go Bump In The Night

Does any of this sound familiar to you? The most capable and distinguished men in America who were contemplating a first journey to the Moon were either ignorant or scared or steeped in the politics of America's image. There was only one thing that drove us to overcome that mentality, and that was the spectre of a Russian cosmonaut standing gloriously on the surface of the Moon with a Soviet red flag in his hand. That single image sent chills down the spine of every American Government official, everyone in the U.S. military, and every American citizen.

Quite honestly, we were scared to death that there would soon be an orbiting Soviet space station and that Russian cosmonauts would be carrying weapons to space, setting up orbiting observations posts, and claiming the Moon as their own sovereign territory, recently signed treaties notwithstanding. Meanwhile, Americans would be stuck on Earth, and every time we longingly looked to the stars we'd see Russians instead.

We decided that wasn't going to happen.

Later, in the fall of 1968, satellite photos showed a huge crater where the Soviet N-1 rocket had stood so tall. We thought about taking a breather and then declined. Frank Borman wanted to go to the Moon. NASA was afraid that we still didn't have time to squander. The Russians might have had another Ace up their sleeve.

The first manned flight of the Saturn V rocket went to the Moon.

In time, the Soviet threat faded. Their design was flawed. With the race over, the Soviet Union decided it wasn't worth spending additional billions of rubles to redesign the rocket and come in second. Instead, they claimed they never even tried. A few years later, the U.S. Congress grew weary of adventures to the Moon and cut the funding for further Apollo flights. Space worthy Saturn Vs were later put on public display at NASA Houston and Huntsville. Scrapped, like an old '69 VW Beetle up on blocks.

Corporate Stagnation

Look around you now. What do you see in corporate computing? Young men who bravely flew F-4 Phantoms into the teeth of Hanoi SAM missiles and anti-aircraft fire in 1971 are now the corporate CEOs and IT managers. They are in charge and making the decisions. They sit at their desks, count their money, tell war stories, and squeeze the life out of their employees. The Baby Boomers are firmly in control everywhere you look, and what is the payoff?

Ignorance. Intel sells 600 MHz Pentium IIIs. The best Apple can do is 450 MHz. Those bozos at Apple just can't keep up. They're losers. The Apple Macintosh just can't coexist on our corporate network. It's files are all different, and we can't read 'em. It's a strange system. It looks funny. We have to spend time and effort teaching our people how to use an off-brand computer. Mac's don't speak TCP/IP. They use that stupid AppleTalk. That's not a modern networking protocol.

Arrogance. We know what's best for our employees. The purpose of corporate computing is not to be happy, productive, and enthusiastic. The purpose of corporate computing is to make a profit for our shareholders and to squash the competition. To do that we need to get rid of renegades and mavericks who screw up our systems and networks. We don't want people experimenting and learning on corporate time. There are presentations to prepare, spreadsheets to analyze, and memos to be written. Everyone must have the same configuration so that we can communicate our propaganda effortlessly amongst ourselves and our customers.

Fear. We can't be outsiders. It wastes our time and energy. Microsoft has made us a sweet deal. They have, god bless 'em, taken the excitement and enthusiasm out of computing and given us great incentives and pricing to use their products. If we were to abandon this intricate and monstrous network of computers we've invested in, we'd never recover. Destructive viruses like Melissa are a menace, and the authors should be executed, but we will carry on. We'll install more anti-virus software, we'll enlarge our IT staff, we'll publish new policies and procedures to make sure all our employees are in strict compliance with our security regulations. That will minimize the threat to our important computing assets.

In a fashion very similar to the U.S. scientific establishment in 1960, the men who have risen to the top have developed feet of clay. People who obtain (I hesitate to use the word earn) management positions have learned how to minimize risk and lock down the status quo. Their weapons are ignorance, arrogance, and fear.

If the Soviet Union had never threatened to seize the high ground and dominate the U.S. militarily in near Earth space, it is doubtful that we would have ever traveled to the Moon as of this date, the summer of 1999. Similarly, the business community in this country has sunk into a long winter of darkness. No amount of cajoling and no amount of enthusiasm will vector the business managers away from their agenda of tight-fisted control. Unless...

Upsetting the Apple Cart

Large companies are in constant fear that they will be unable to communicate effectively with their customers and that will, in turn, block the flow of cash into their accounts. With 90% of the world using Windows software, it is unlikely that, given the status quo, any large company will ever outright abandon their PC systems and en masse replace them with something else. The financial risk has become too high.

The PC industry, however, is stagnant. Not in the hardware advances, but in the nature of OSes, office software, and how PCs are used. IBM, Compaq, Dell and Gateway are more or less trapped in this business of catering to business, and the continued reign of the beige box is a testament to that. Historically, however, in any industry where there is this kind of intellectual stagnation, there are opportunities. Even so, the coming offensive must be massive and well orchestrated

As we saw in the early days of the Moon race, the only way to offset institutional fear and conservatism is to have two things happen. First, a grave threat must arise. The threat must be so overwhelming that it offsets the tendency towards conservatism and makes the price of failure to meet the threat unacceptable -- by consensus. Second, there must be a dynamic leader, like former American president John F. Kennedy, who understands the risks and is willing to confront the threat.

One way to construct a threat to American businessmen is to develop an arsenal of consumer technologies that is overwhelming in its scope. This arsenal might, for example, consist of a next generation Unix-based MacOS X married to a G4/G5 AltiVec video processor and advanced entertainment and communication technologies: wireless Internet access, FireWire, QuickTime, streaming video and perhaps an alliance or two in the entertainment industry. If these technologies and alliances can be inserted into the U.S. communication infrastructure (FireWire is an IEEE standard) and uniquely meet the needs of American consumers, they might achieve a sufficient critical mass to eventually affect how U.S. businesses view their computing strategies.

That's why Apple wants to think and operate like the Sony Corporation.

The goal is to incite American businessmen into a fear that their archaic and inflexible office systems will be unable to keep pace and interface to this new river of e-cash. Some will begin to see that the computer is not simply a business tool, like a typewriter, but rather an energetic and imaginative financial conduit into the needs and desires of their customers.

Apple has started down the road of posing that challenge to business, but the deed is not yet done. The problem of the young and energetic leaders in business remains. In a few more years, the aging Baby Boomers will start to think more and more about golf, and they will be replaced by a new generation of younger, more aggressive businessmen. A few of those men and women will recognize the new consumer technology threat to their businesses. Bold action and vision will be called for, and they will need to ignore the advice of their elders -- the aging Baby Boomers who built a kingdom of cubicles.

Men and women whose names have not yet been written in the legacy of computing will someday take on the enormous challenge of rethinking business computing.

But only if that overwhelming threat is posed.

With some luck, in the next decade, the weary days of MS Office products will seem like the tedious chores of the 19th century office worker in a sweltering office building in New York -- wearily hand copying ledgers with a fountain pen and typing memos on mechanical typewriters while creaky ceiling fans slowly moved the sticky and heavy air around the dreary wooden furniture. Crusty old men beamed with pride as they walked through the dark hallways, mentally counting their earnings.

Today, the old men of computing want you to sit quietly in your cubicle and use the Windows NT system they shoved down your throat. It makes them very happy to be in control.

Some of us have other plans.