65
and its physical territory. The single entity now also had a larger and more influential profile.
4.3.1 RAND and General Systems Theory
Coinciding with Truman and Eisenhower’s consolidation of military branches and
closer integration with outside private research and development entities, between
1945 and 1948, the RAND Corporation was established. RAND, whose name is a
contraction of “Research and Development,” began as a small, specialized US Army
Air Force contract project within the Douglas Aircraft Company in order to increase
the application of advanced scientific research to improve national security. In just
3 years, RAND incorporated in Santa Monica, California, as an autonomous nonprofit Think Tank with 200 employees working collaboratively on dynamic multivariable systems problems at the nexus of mathematics, engineering, aerodynamics,
physics, chemistry, economics, and psychology. During this early period, transdisciplinary teams in mathematics and mathematical economics advanced the fields of
modeling and simulation including Monte Carlo methods, linear and dynamic programming, game theory, network theory, and cost analysis to build a “rational”
method to quantify and evaluate the expected costs, benefits, and risks through a
comprehensive systems analysis approach built to “address military decision problems mathematically” (Jardini 1996).
Systems analysis is a subset and an application of general systems theory (GST).
The Austrian biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, originated and developed his
“Allgemeine Systemlehre” in the interwar period and brought it to the United States
during the War. Bertalanffy’s ideas and work would also directly influence ecological systems engineer and scientist Howard T. Odum who would then directly influence the earliest industrial adopter of proto life cycle assessment, discussed later in
this chapter.
As a small detail in its applied systems analysis approach to solve complex problems but keeping with the spirit of Truman’s original decision to merge all military
branches to improve “supply ad service functions,” RAND created and socialized
an expanded and durable “life cycle” definition, quite removed from any original
references to biological organisms and networks. This implied extension to apply
the meaning to nonliving things lies at the heart of all modern life cycle assessment
activities.
A decade after RAND began operating as an independent DoD consultant, David
Novick, working in RAND’s Cost Analysis Department, appropriated the biological
concept of “life cycle” and applied it to inanimate defense systems (Fig. 4.1).
Common government budgeting practice at the time counted only immediate costs
expected over one “future fiscal year.” Novick argued for the use of an expanded
time scale in order to accurately assess the true total financial costs associated with
a specific weapon system. He also introduced the notion of discreet phases and
broke down typical funding patterns over “a long span of years” (Novick 1959).
4.3 Military Roots of the Modern “Life Cycle”
and its physical territory. The single entity now also had a larger and more influential profile.
4.3.1 RAND and General Systems Theory
Coinciding with Truman and Eisenhower’s consolidation of military branches and
closer integration with outside private research and development entities, between
1945 and 1948, the RAND Corporation was established. RAND, whose name is a
contraction of “Research and Development,” began as a small, specialized US Army
Air Force contract project within the Douglas Aircraft Company in order to increase
the application of advanced scientific research to improve national security. In just
3 years, RAND incorporated in Santa Monica, California, as an autonomous nonprofit Think Tank with 200 employees working collaboratively on dynamic multivariable systems problems at the nexus of mathematics, engineering, aerodynamics,
physics, chemistry, economics, and psychology. During this early period, transdisciplinary teams in mathematics and mathematical economics advanced the fields of
modeling and simulation including Monte Carlo methods, linear and dynamic programming, game theory, network theory, and cost analysis to build a “rational”
method to quantify and evaluate the expected costs, benefits, and risks through a
comprehensive systems analysis approach built to “address military decision problems mathematically” (Jardini 1996).
Systems analysis is a subset and an application of general systems theory (GST).
The Austrian biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, originated and developed his
“Allgemeine Systemlehre” in the interwar period and brought it to the United States
during the War. Bertalanffy’s ideas and work would also directly influence ecological systems engineer and scientist Howard T. Odum who would then directly influence the earliest industrial adopter of proto life cycle assessment, discussed later in
this chapter.
As a small detail in its applied systems analysis approach to solve complex problems but keeping with the spirit of Truman’s original decision to merge all military
branches to improve “supply ad service functions,” RAND created and socialized
an expanded and durable “life cycle” definition, quite removed from any original
references to biological organisms and networks. This implied extension to apply
the meaning to nonliving things lies at the heart of all modern life cycle assessment
activities.
A decade after RAND began operating as an independent DoD consultant, David
Novick, working in RAND’s Cost Analysis Department, appropriated the biological
concept of “life cycle” and applied it to inanimate defense systems (Fig. 4.1).
Common government budgeting practice at the time counted only immediate costs
expected over one “future fiscal year.” Novick argued for the use of an expanded
time scale in order to accurately assess the true total financial costs associated with
a specific weapon system. He also introduced the notion of discreet phases and
broke down typical funding patterns over “a long span of years” (Novick 1959).
4.3 Military Roots of the Modern “Life Cycle”