8
DASA 2019-2
FREMONT-SMITH:
You are unique, anyway.
I think I've said enough to give you a picture of what we're after.
{ did want to mention one point, and that is that we try to do a combination of two things at once. We try to have the maximum of freedom of interchange, that is, people speaking perfectly spontanecusly
and not holding back, and interrupting when they feel hike it; and, on
the other hand, the interchanges are so exciting that we want a record
of them. In order to have a record of them without inhibiting the
interchange, we have a stenotype reporter here with us who is taking
downteverything that we say. Dut, if you want to say somethiug off
the record, if what you are going to say about somebody ia ao awlul
that it has to be off tne record, you just aay ‘off the record” and
you will see that the reporter will caise his hands and not take anything duwa, However, | beg peaple to keep it on the record because
before publication each person will have an opportunity to delete
anything he wishes he hadnt said, or to improve or otherwise modify st. You can't modity anyone else's remarks but your own, Over
the years—and [ve been at thia business for some forty years—we
have found that this systeny works out fairly well,
{ would mention one othee thing that Ll believe in, and | think this
goes along with aumething that you said, John, about getting out all
the facts that cune from the past. I think that the half-life of facts
is getting siorter and shorter.
I think that this is a very important
point to keepin mind, that facts are not very steady. In fact, | often
challenge anybody to produce any two facts, or any fact for that matter, that isn't based on at least three unproven assumptions, Therefe-e, we will perhaps try to get a little bit behind the assumptions.
In a group of this sort, with this kind of interaction, you do get
some new agreements and these are quite useful. But even more
important 1s the specification of the nature of the residual disagreements. [f you can specify the nature of a disagreement you often are
‘on the track to its resolution. Very often the research that is necessary for its resoiution, the newtearmmork which is necessary, becomes self evident, or it may be that there is no technique lor res
solving the issue and you knowthat you have to put it aside for a
white until the technique is developed.
The other thing that happens is that you get to know each other,
that you become friends, that some of you even cooperate with cach
other, [have known people who have met at our conferences who