"Virtual" Connections 2020 Running Thread

[bayonetbrant]

I had Hanley's talk in the background while I was working on something else. Honestly, I found the chat more interesting than the talk he was giving, but part of that might've been my available attention

That's fair. I do think think that the chat is almost like a second conference...there is fascinating stuff in there...hope it gets captured.

I've been cutting & pasting the chats for the sessions I'm in, but that's more for me than the public.  Ping me later and I can send you what I've got, but I'm not planning to post them anywhere

[blackndecker]

I found day three to arguably be more interesting than the first two.

Professor Philip Sabin's key note talk was excellent in many ways, leveraging the recent historical treatments and discussions about the Western Approaches Tactical Unit to make a variety of points about diversity and inclusion and the complexities of contemporary wargames compared to the past. Now, Phil moved through this talk at a typically fast clip, so I may not have gotten everything down accurately (he usually writes up his narrative, so I'm hopeful that will be made available). He gently wagged a finger at the need for greater diversity and inclusion in professional wargaming and in the Connections Community. He discussed the relatively easier task of the WATU staff in focusing on mainly a one domain fight and compared that with the greater complexity of modern warfare (although as an aside, i think the Royal Navy would argue war was pretty complex for them too, especially in comparison to their predecessors in WWI). Phil made a hard push that while AI is important it will never replace or substitute for games where humans are making decisions. He also expressed concern about those gaming efforts that are pushing for multiple hundreds of iterations as an exercise where we learn more about the design...than the issue. I'm a huge Sabin-fanboy, so I'm probably biased in saying that I think his talk will be among the very best...of the conference.

I attended John Curry's session on wargaming tactical cyber. This is one where the chat was maybe more interesting than the brief, although I've found Curry to be someone important to watch and follow. His briefings at Connections UK have been pretty interesting and he's prolific in the Wargame Development's The Nugget. He had an approach of having the participants identify the tactical wargame solutions/capabilities that they desired...have that lightly (my characterization) vetted by specialists...run the game with those capabilities added on...and see what worked well and what people wanted to explore more.

The James Fielder talk on Liminality in Wargame Design was a fun discussion of the role of fun in professional and training games. He's working out of Colorado State University and studying hobby gaming.

I switched over to Room B to listen to Chad Briggs "Design and Execution of Wargames in COVID-19" which offered some options for remote wargaming. I think room b had more going on with "distance wargaming" earlier in the day. The discussion was very useful for a classroom session.

Back to Room A for an absolutely fantastic, arguably better than Sabin's, talk by Sawyer Judge of CNA who was talking about the Wargaming Guild. A paper she wrote for her Georgetown masters thesis. This was a hard discussion to track because her talk and slides were brilliant, but you also had people like Perla, McGrady, Downes-Martin, Rex B, and Brant among other pretenders (me) chiming in on the chat. Her discussion broke down the art vs science debate and tried to break down how the two areas addressed the question of discipline. This is one of the other back alley arguments going on in the wargaming community...is wargaming a discipline or "just" a tool? (I also think the art vs science discussion is essentially a holy war between the two camps..."my wargaming is the only true wargaming!") Unfortunately, my internet provider &#^!ed the bed and my connection went out. I was able to fight my way back on, but missed the heart of her brief and caught the q&a. By that time the Perla and McGrady furies had subsided and they were highly complimentary.

A watched part of the Naval Postgraduate School's session on Wargaming the Tactical Edge...but bailed after about 20 minutes and tuned over to Alec Barker's Peering into the Future of the AI-enabled wargaming discussion. I got in and they were on Q&A, but it seemed like a thoughtful discussion about what we may all be dealing with. And again, a great discussion in the chat about the ethics of unshackled AIs and warfare.

Finally, there was a "new wargamer" event organized after the formal presentations. I attended with the idea that I'm more new then many others, but there was some good representation from undergraduate students and grad students and a hobbyist or two. A good takeaway is that many seemingly intimidating titans of the field are very approachable and wanting to engage with newcomers.

Brant probably has some better observations, but I'm fried after another day of Zoom.

[blackndecker]

I've been cutting & pasting the chats for the sessions I'm in, but that's more for me than the public.  Ping me later and I can send you what I've got, but I'm not planning to post them anywhere

Could you send me the chat for the Sawyer Judge session if you have it? And did she mention if there was a short term solution to getting access to her paper? I'd rather not journey down to Georgetown (although it might give me an excuse to visit the Labyrinth game store in the district) and spend time at a copier... I did enough of that in high school, undergrad, and grad school.

[Tolstoi]

I had Hanley's talk in the background while I was working on something else. Honestly, I found the chat more interesting than the talk he was giving, but part of that might've been my available attention

That's fair. I do think think that the chat is almost like a second conference...there is fascinating stuff in there...hope it gets captured.

I have been copying and pasting the chat for the sessions I've attended as a text file, which right now, is four, so not much. If you want what I've saved, I'd be happy to share with you. Normally there is a save feature for the chat in Zoom, but it must be disabled because I don't it.

[bayonetbrant]

I caught half of Sabin & all of Sawyer and nothing else.
I was barely in the new wargamer chat for very long bc of stuff here that needed doing

[Tolstoi]

I had Hanley's talk in the background while I was working on something else. Honestly, I found the chat more interesting than the talk he was giving, but part of that might've been my available attention

That's fair. I do think think that the chat is almost like a second conference...there is fascinating stuff in there...hope it gets captured.

I've been cutting & pasting the chats for the sessions I'm in, but that's more for me than the public.  Ping me later and I can send you what I've got, but I'm not planning to post them anywhere

Ha! I should read ALL  the posts before I start replying. I see Brant has done the same as I have and he probably has a more comprehensive text file.

Brant, can I ping you for what you have too?

[Tolstoi]

I found day three to arguably be more interesting than the first two.

Professor Philip Sabin's key note talk was excellent in many ways, leveraging the recent historical treatments and discussions about the Western Approaches Tactical Unit to make a variety of points about diversity and inclusion and the complexities of contemporary wargames compared to the past....

Finally, there was a "new wargamer" event organized after the formal presentations. I attended with the idea that I'm more new then many others, but there was some good representation from undergraduate students and grad students and a hobbyist or two. A good takeaway is that many seemingly intimidating titans of the field are very approachable and wanting to engage with newcomers.

Thank you for your wonderful summary of the days events. I only watched Sabin's keynote speech and I agree, it was stellar.

I'm sorry to read your Internet connected fizzled out for a wee bit. Sounds frustrating to me. I'm looking forward to when the recordings are made available. After your description of Sawyer Judge's session, I'd like to watch the full recording. I find it disappointing people will argue over whether wargaming is an discipline or a tool, whether it is a science or an art. I think it can be all of those at the same time.

The new wargamer event sounds great. Probably not as nice as a face to face event and still a great way to chat with people you wouldn't normally have the opportunity to talk to.

Thanks again!

[rickbill]

I had Hanley's talk in the background while I was working on something else. Honestly, I found the chat more interesting than the talk he was giving, but part of that might've been my available attention

That's fair. I do think think that the chat is almost like a second conference...there is fascinating stuff in there...hope it gets captured.

I've been cutting & pasting the chats for the sessions I'm in, but that's more for me than the public.  Ping me later and I can send you what I've got, but I'm not planning to post them anywhere

I have been able to catch the keynote then off to work ... Friday is my RDO so I am hoping to spend the morning listening to hot washes et al.


I really wanted to ask sec work if he had heard of Iowa ANG’s DTOC when I saw his stuff mentioning Shriever’ DSPOC.


I was fascinated by his discussion about using AI/ML agents as force enhancers with appropriate levels of MITL to allow the human traits of innovation and spontaneity to lead the “orchestra” ... I thought mr Sabin navigated that topic masterfully and made some salient points.


anyway, very interesting, wish I could participate more ... but, this week was not a good time to take any time off.  I hope most of the sessions get posted.

[BletchleyGeek]

Thanks guys for sharing your highlights.

Did anyone attend the Slitherine presentations? What was the discussion like (if any)?

... I thought mr Sabin navigated that topic masterfully and made some salient points.

Such as?

Thanks again!

[blackndecker]

Did anyone attend the Slitherine presentations? What was the discussion like (if any)?

I didn't, no. I'd seen the Command presentations at Connections UK last year and in 2018. And my focus is more on manual than computer...

[bayonetbrant]

if y'all shoot me a PM here with the email you want me to send notes to, I can do that.

[bayonetbrant]

as a side note, I accidentally discovered today that the "Otter" app that ships w/ a lot of phones does a REALLY good job of transcribing voice, even when it's on Zoom. 
I was going to dictate some stuff but still had COL Boyd's talk in the background and it started picking up his remarks, and did a very good job of catching almost everything he was saying.

You might could just pull up a voice recognition app and set it next to your monitor while you're watching the sessions and let it transcribe for you.

[Capn Darwin]

Been a very good Connections so far. A few fuzzy talks/sales pitches, the pervasive split between IA/Sims folk and adjudicated games, We had a good Flashpoint Campaigns Pro Demo yesterday afternoon and Jeff has one session this afternoon and one tomorrow on our Data and ML work we are doing these days. Miss the in-person ability to talk to folks, but that is offset with the pants-free zoom options. 

[bayonetbrant]

Been a very good Connections so far. A few fuzzy talks/sales pitches, the pervasive split between IA/Sims folk and adjudicated games, We had a good Flashpoint Campaigns Pro Demo yesterday afternoon and Jeff has one session this afternoon and one tomorrow on our Data and ML work we are doing these days. Miss the in-person ability to talk to folks, but that is offset with the pants-free zoom options. 

and the "don't quit your day job" options

[Tolstoi]

... I thought mr Sabin navigated that topic masterfully and made some salient points.

Such as?

Thanks again!

I don't want to speak for rickbill. I will let them answer what they feel were the salient points. Here are the main points I got from Dr. Sabin's discussion. I'm hope blackndecker, brant, Capn Darwin and whoever else attended will provide their input too.

Just a heads up: I have not been taking close notes as I watch the discussions, so my input may not be the best. With that disclaimer out of the way...

In my opinion, the main points Dr. Sabin made are:

• Don't remove the human element from wargaming.
  
• Don’t get caught up in huge amounts of data collection
  
• Don’t get caught up in artificial intelligence, (AI) and machine learning, (ML).
  

Dr. Sabin proceeded to make his points, (there were 5 points in total), by examining an old wargaming system from WW II and why it was successful, to modern wargaming systems of today with AI and ML and why they are good at modeling some situations and are not good for a lot of other situations.

Dr. Sabin started by describing the successful Western Approaches Tactical Unit, (WATU). Dr. Sabin described how the environment and conditions allowed WATU to be successful. Mainly because all the information they needed was available and could be modeled consistently. He said that many of today's wargames, both in the hobby community and professional world continue to try to follow the older wargaming systems, even though those systems is not appropriate for what is happening today. There are too many variables and unknowns and it is not possible to model all of that based on older systems.

Dr. Sabin briefly discussed how many of today's wargames are not trying to model what is happening today with asymmetrical warfare, or for a lack of a better term, (propaganda just doesn't seem adequate here), what I would call social media warfare and political influence warfare. I immediately thought of all the COIN games and the discussion about whether COIN games are wargames or not. I'm digressing...

Dr. Sabin gave examples of modern events and why they are different and more complicated than WATU's mission. The two I remember best are China's and Russia's influence, both directly and indirectly in the world today.

Enter AI and ML to help deal with all the variables. I am not involved in the defense industry, so I'm not aware of all that is happening regarding AI/ML. I get the very distinct impression after watching some Connections 2020 presentations there is a big push to incorporate AI and ML into wargaming. Colonel Brad Boyd's presentation this morning, (Aug. 13th), brought that point home to me with his mantra of having everything be "AI ready" to capture all the data needed for AI to be successful.

Back to Dr. Sabin’s points showing the pros and cons of AI/ML. In my opinion, Dr. Sabin's talk stressed the weakness of AI, ML and big data in today’s situations. Unfortunately, I did not write down every one of his points as he described them. Here are some of the items I did write down:

• Today's wargame AI might work well for the older WATU system; however, they are not good at today's complicated situations of asymmetrical and cyber warfare/influence
  
• AI is very rational. This makes it ill equipped to find new and unexpected ways of finding solutions because it lacks ingenuity and has limits
  
• AI and ML can be useful. AI and ML can not replace the human element of wargaming and should only be used in a supporting and supplemental fashion
  

Finally, a comment Dr. Sabin made that still resonates with me is, “All models are wrong, but some are useful.”

For those that also watched Dr. Sabin’s keynote, if I’m off base, or I missed an important point, please let me know. I hope this was helpful.