Further Field Studies

摘要

FOUR YEARS HAVE elapsed since we last provided discerning readers with a helpful field guide to the major species inhabiting trade shows. Four years is a long time. Has anything changed? Have the major species evolved? Regressed? Have some gone extinct or suffered outright obsolescence? What are the replacements? The quest for knowledge beckons us back to the field. Curiosity about a changing world and an evolving industry propels us to don pith helmets and binoculars and return to the source. Post-graduate work commences now. Today's trade show showcases military and aerospace supply chains. Four years ago, we looked at electronics, broadly based, with commercial applications. Wares were hawked, and sales methods were scrutinized at well-known commercial and industrial events. Today we consider items that shoot, explode, report, eavesdrop, interfere (jam), transmit, receive, intercept, and encrypt or decrypt. To exact specifications. Objects sold here ascend, plummet, and follow ballistic trajectories on one-way missions, the warranty expiring on impact (no extension needed). They may settle into low earth or geosynchronous orbit. In many cases, they fulfill an application in which a protagonist initiates action at one end, and their antagonist resides at the receiving end of the transaction. The result is usually transformative for one party. That's a diplomatic way of saying they have a limited lifespan. Some win, some lose.