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FORT HUACHUCA — Jerry Proctor says forget what Christopher Columbus proved.
The world is not round, it’s flat.
Yes, the globe is spherical. But when it comes to the important things involving everyday life, people face a flat surface, said Proctor, who is the Intelligence Center’s deputy commander who looks to the future needs for military intelligence.
 Jerry Proctor is the Intelligence Center’s deputy commander who looks to the future needs for military intelligence. (Herald/Review file photo) |
Speaking recently to more than 70 people from a number of professional organizations with ties to the post, he said that “as the futures guy for the Intelligence Center,” he sees there are problems facing the United States.
Holding up Thomas Friedman’s book “The World is Flat,” Proctor recommended it be read so the problems associated with a shrinking and flattening world can be understood.
While he didn’t mention Jules Verne’s novel “Around the World in 80 Days,” his implication about the flat world is that it takes hours, not days, for information to spread.
It took visionaries such as Bill Gates to flatten the globe, and that’s why he’s the richest man in the world today, Proctor said.
Outsourcing is and will continue to be part of the world’s economy, and not just at the lower economic rung involving unskilled manufacturing, Proctor said. Highly technical skills are outsourced, such as individuals who interpret X-rays in India for U.S. medical facilities. This provides a cost savings because trained radiologists in India, many of whom received their training in the United States, are paid about a quarter of what an American is.
In the global business community, items come from other nations to be sold in America. Due to technology, that network from manufacturing to purchasing to shipping to selling to restocking happens quickly, Proctor said.
“A light bulb purchased in a Wal-Mart is being replaced immediately,” he said.
Once an item is purchased and scanned in the selling process, computers automatically connect with the distribution system throughout the world to start the process of manufacturing a replacement for shipment, he said.
While that is a simple explanation of the process, Proctor said it doesn’t require a long and complicated answer with today’s technology. If other information is needed, a phrase has entered world’s language so the information can be found: “Let’s Google it,” he said.
While the United States still leads in many areas, there are signs other countries are catching up and edging ahead of America, Proctor said. And some of the nations don’t want to be just economic powers. They want to be military and political powers, too.
Noting China is “ahead of us in securing oil reserves” as its economy continues to expand, Proctor said America is falling behind in the power arena.
The United States is behind in the trade with a nearly $9 trillion deficit, which is almost $30,000 for every man, woman and child in America, Proctor said.
In 2006, the United States imported nearly $900 billion more than it exported, a situation that cannot continue, he said.
In education, the United States is falling behind in many categories, especially in developing all types of engineers at universities, Proctor said.
Americans enrolling in U.S. engineering schools is down 20 percent to 59,000, while other nations have increased their numbers, with many of them attending institutions in the United States, he said.
China has increased its number by 161 percent to 207,500 students, Japan is up by 92 percent to 103,200 and South Korea increased by 240 percent of 56,500, he said.
“By 2010, 90 percent of scientists and engineers in the world will live in Asia,” Proctor said.
Telling a story about a lion and gazelle, he noted that when the gazelle wakes up in the morning it knows it has to run fast so it isn’t a lion’s meal. On the other hand, the lion realizes it will not have a meal if it runs too slow.
The question facing the United States is does it want to be the meal or not.
“Are we running fast enough?” Proctor asked.
And as the gazelle and the lion must understand their surroundings to survive, so must the American public as the technology world continues to flatten.
“If we are going to work in a flat world, we better know the neighborhood,” Proctor said.
HERALD/REVIEW senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615.
Bill Stein wrote on Nov 22, 2008 7:45 PM: