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p.1 This book is an asset for any profession, even though it is written primarily for the military reader.
p.2 This book justifiably emphasizes the problem of automation of processes related to the development of the required data for decision making, which is, as is known, the basis of military management.
p.8 the only tool of cognition and creativity is thought
p.10 The computer actually operates according to a program. [JLJ - let me take that a step further. The computer does not know what it is tasked to do, does not know what *what it does* does, and does not know when it is stuck in a loop, accomplishing nothing.]
p.11 Automation does not replace and does not supplant creativity. Automation carries creativity to a higher, more general level. It utilizes and extensively applies the results of creativity.
p.12 a decision is first of all an action
p.15 New ideas may appear, but perhaps they may not appear. [JLJ - this concept may be critical, but perhaps it may not be critical. I may delete it, yet I may not delete it. The joke may be over, yet it may not be over.]
p.16 The purpose of this book is to aid in substantiating future prospects in the development of the theory and methods of decision making.
p.17 Experience is higher than (theoretical) knowledge, since it not only has the advantage of generality, but also of immediate reality. V. I. Lenin.
p.17 There is no problem more profound, embracing and important in terms of its effect on progress, than that of thought.
p.22 There are simple situations in which man may become oriented and act according to ready-made patterns... man... recognizes and selects the method of action which brought him success in the past.
p.23 after the methods were mastered, their application did not require mental power.
p.24 the behavior of an individual man is insured in the vast majority of cases by empirical thought, to which all vital and working functions are related.
p.25 empirical thought participates only in the development of simple rules of behavior and methods of accommodating them.
p.26 The second method of thought is axiomatic, thought by rules. The essence of axiomatic thought consists in a formation of some system of general positions and principles, elevated to the status of "self-evident truths", and also a method of deriving from them specific decisions, instructions and rules.
p.28 Armed warfare is primarily a social phenomenon, and social processes are too complex to be embraced by any group of axioms... Axiomatic thinking... does not permit the working out of an unexpected solution.
p.29 Dialectic thought is the basis of progress... Development of a situation is possible only in the presence of contradictions... To overcome and to use contradictions means to aim development in the desired direction... dialecticism is based not so much on experience as on the essence of a specific situation.
p.69 A situation is defined as a set of events which unfold in time and in space and have certain consequences... The fundamental property of a situation is its dynamic quality.
p.84 the operational capacity and purposefulness of an organization must be guaranteed structurally.
p.84 the viability of a structure determines its ability to preserve the meaningfulness of other indices when part of the structure is destroyed. [JLJ - or needs to be reconfigured as part of the predicament we are in]
p.92 The essence of optimization consists in a rearrangement which permits the organization to take on a maximum number of functions from the total list without having to increase external support... Optimization is done by means of direct structural variations and distribution of functions... As optimization progresses the content of functions to be performed should increase as a result of rearrangement of the organization.
p.102 V. M. Gushkov and his school... contend that by using the appropriate computers it is possible to analyze any complex form of creative activity by discovering the information processes upon which they are based and by programming the latter for recreation in the computer.
p.162 Reflection is the reproduction of the process of interaction of two (or more) subjects with consideration of the knowledge and ideas of each subject or of all others (including oneself) in all completeness and depth... reflection is a property of intellect... Modeling of reflective functions is in itself an interesting endeavor and may find application, but this is nothing more than the reproduction of mental processes that have already been thought out and repeated more than once.
p.166 Any training process is essentially based on the principle of typification; our rules and regulations are condensed from the most typical (and consequentially the most generalized and important) experience.
p.168 Will is the ability to create (with incomplete data) a simple and stable (in terms of a goal) model of reality and ability to make a simple selection and carry out a method of conduct in accordance with this model.
p.171 Einstein often said that "no mathematician thinks in equations."
p.180 Creativity is the highest form of human activity... During the decision making process creativity plays an exceptionally important role... the overwhelming majority of decisions do not contain anything new or creative.
p.201 Military situations are complex and to describe them requires many parameters... It is very difficult to become oriented toward such a large number of parameters. Therefore, simplification is done and a model is constructed which reflects the basic, determining aspects of the problem but is described by a much smaller number of parameters. Not all parameters have an equal influence on the course of events, and most of them may be omitted without loss. The main determining parameters are called factors. If one knows the factors ahead of time, then one may direct his energies to their determination and just work with them. Sometimes it is possible to determine or guess most of the factors on the basis of experience.
p.201 The branch of mathematics that tries to reduce the size of problems is called factor analysis.
p.201-202 Factor analysis makes it possible to solve this [JLJ - particular] problem and discover the main and concealed elements of a situation, the manifestation of which is hardest to ascertain.
p.202 Factorization is a subconscious, intuitive process... What factors influence modern warfare in general? And what factors influence the specific battle or specific conflict?
p.205 Variations of decisions, which we will call hypotheses, are developed on the basis of a factorial model... An hypothesis may be derived as a result of deduction, assumption, or guesswork.
p.209 The fundamental question about an heuristic program is the question of its existence: does a program exist that is suitable for some group of problems, or is each problem solved by its own special program, not resembling any other? Experience shows that there should be either a general heuristic program or a "programming program," which develops a program for the solution of a specific problem... It is important to know whether or not there is a programming program. Without such a program training is impossible.
p.211 The schemes discussed above contain elements of random search, without which it is impossible to generate new ideas.
p.213 An hypothesis can be developed only on the basis of information.
p.220 there is also a situation in which a set of moves is made until the time of "payment of gains" arrives. These are positional games (chess), in which only the final positions may be compared.
p.223 For effectiveness it is first of all necessary to find the appropriate unit of measurement and to express it in these units... Effectiveness is written mathematically as some function; to evaluate effectiveness means to compute this function.
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