IVIV: Chapter four—TRW

Tue Sep 8 11:51:00 CDT 2009

Fritz Drybeam's "Gotcha!" agency—Doc's old taskmasters as a skip- 
tracer, the job that earned him the nickname "Doc"—is moving up in the  
world thanks to a unique technical innovation: Fritz is wired to the  
Net and it's only 1970. Mind you, this is one big-ass leap for Pynchon  
to have a skip-tracing agency hooked into CIA activities in the early  
seventies [or maybe it's not, particularly in light of Lew Basnight's  
career trajectory in Against the Day.]

	"Uh-huh, well my good luck today that your brain's all dialed in,
	because I need to find somebody in a hurry-my ex-ol' lady
	Shasta Fay."

Boilerplate at this junction, tipped over a bit by the ongoing routine  
of Sportello being just a couple of beats off of the main tempo.

"I think you mean Mickey Wolfmann's girlfriend. This is Dr. Reality's  
office calling, you're way overdue for your checkup?"

Fritz shows off his new crime-fighting toy:

	"Wow, Fritz." It was like being inside a science-fictional
	Christmas tree. Little red and green lights were going on and off
	everywhere. There were computer cabinets, consoles with lit-up
	video screens, and alphanumeric keyboards, and cables
	running all over the floor among unswept drifts of little bug-size
	rectangles punched out of IBM cards, and a couple of Gestetner
	copy machines in the corner, and towering over the scene all
	along the walls a number of Ampex tape reels busily twitching
	back and forth.

	''ARPAnet,'' Fritz announced.

	''Ah, no I'd better not, I've got to drive and stuff, maybe just give
	me one for later-"

Later on we'll have a scene of some of the first online addiction, but  
first Fritz explains that it's a network of computers, signals passed  
through the phone lines. Oddly enough, "The President's Analyst" leapt  
to mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUa3np4CKC4

" . . . UCLA, Isla Vista, Stanford . . ." just follow the bouncing  
ball, no need to decrypt "San Narcisco" and "Kinneret in the Pines,"  
just connect the usual cold-war suspects . . .

	 "Wait, ARPA, that's the same outfit has their own sign up on the
	 freeway at the Rosecrans exit?"

	"Some connection with TRW, nobody over there is too
	forthcoming, like Ramo isn't telling Woolridge?"

Very strange for me, as I would drive by those signs and never think  
all that much about what was behind them.

	The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is
	an agency of the United States Department of Defense
	responsible for the development of new technology for use by
	the military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the
	development of many technologies which have had a major
	effect on the world, including computer networking, as well as
	NLS, which was both the first hypertext system, and an
	important precursor to the contemporary ubiquitous graphical
	user interface.

	Its original name was simply Advanced Research Projects
	Agency (ARPA), but it was renamed DARPA (for Defense)
	during March 1972, then renamed ARPA again during February
	1993, and then renamed DARPA again during March 1996.

	DARPA was established during 1958 (as ARPA) in response to
	the Soviet launching of Sputnik during 1957, with the mission of
	keeping U.S. military technology more sophisticated than that of
	the nation's potential enemies. From DARPA's own
	introduction:

		DARPA’s original mission, established in 1958, was to
		prevent technological surprise like the launch of Sputnik,
		which signaled that the Soviets had beaten the U.S. into
		space. The mission statement has evolved over time.
		Today, DARPA’s mission is still to prevent technological
		surprise to the US, but also to create technological surprise
		for our enemies.

	DARPA is independent from other more conventional military
	R&D and reports directly to senior Department of Defense
	management. DARPA has around 240 personnel (about 140
	technical) directly managing a $3.2 billion budget. These
	figures are "on average" since DARPA focuses on short-term
	(two to four-year) projects run by small, purpose-built teams.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA

	TRW Incorporated was an American corporation involved in a
	number of businesses, mostly defense-related, but including
	automotive, aerospace and credit reporting. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TRW

What TRW was was a lot closer to the "President's Analyst" fantasy/ 
distopia of a fully wired world. TRW developed the global system of  
satellites that now circle the globe, giving us such things as weather  
satellites, GPS and overhead photos of the lots of the world:

http://tinyurl.com/lx8fz9

	Founded in 1901 as the Cleveland Cap Screw Company, the
	firm made hexagon and square-head cap screws, specialty
	fillister screws, and coupling bolts and studs. Soon afterward,
	TRW's product line included the aircraft engine valves used in
	Allied fighter planes during World War I. By 1915, TRW was the
	leading U.S. manufacturer of engine valves, producing the first
	one-piece valve in 1917 and a highly durable silicon and
	chrome steel valve in 1921.

	TRW's experimental hollow sodium-cooled valve helped power
	the Spirit of St. Louis on Lindbergh's historic solo flight in 1927.
	The company continued developing its aircraft technology, and
	by the early 1940s its engine valves and fuel booster pumps
	enabled the first high-altitude flights. By the mid-1940s, TRW
	began investing overseas and further diversified its automotive
	and aircraft businesses.

	In the 1950s, the pace of change quickened. The company
	staked out a position in the growing fields of electronics and
	missiles through an investment in a young Los Angeles firm, the
	Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation. In 1958 it merged with
	Thompson Products to form Thompson Ramo Wooldridge, later
	TRW Inc.

	TRW was a national asset in the design and manufacture of
	unmanned spacecraft for both scientific and defense purposes.
	TRW's Pioneer 1, the first industry-built satellite, was launched
	in 1958 as NASA's first step into space. Since then, TRW has
	built nearly 200 spacecraft. . .

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/industry/trw.htm

More on TRW, Corona, Rhyolite and other stuff going on in Manhattan  
Beach, 1970:

	Rhyolite and later, Aquacade are reportedly code names for a
	class of SIGINT reconnaissance satellites operated by the
	National Reconnaissance Office for the United States Central
	Intelligence Agency. The program, also known as AFP-720 and
	AFP-472[1], remains classified.

	It is believed that at least four Rhyolite/Aquacade satellites were
	launched from Cape Canaveral between June 1970 and April
	1978 on Atlas-Agena D launch vehicles. The satellites weigh
	approximately 700 kg and operated in near-geosynchronous
	orbits over the Middle East.

	The name of the program, originally "Rhyolite", was changed to
	"Aquacade" in 1975 following the disclosure of the codeword
	"Rhyolite" in the trial of Christopher Boyce and Andrew Lee*.

	The Rhyolite/Aquacade satellites, made by TRW, are rumored
	to have an umbrella-like reflecting dish 20 meters in diameter.
	They were succeeded by the Magnum/Orionand Mentor
	(satellite) series of satellites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyolite/Aquacade

http://www.n3krozoft.com/_xxbcf67373.TMP/NSA/rhyolite.html

http://tinyurl.com/lly8yj

http://www.viswiki.com/en/Rhyolite/Aquacade

http://www.milnet.com/milsats.htm

Christopher Boyce and Andrew Lee are the central figures in "The  
Falcon & the Snowman":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Falcon_and_the_Snowman

http://www.jonathanpollard.org/2001/050101.htm