# As far as I know, the "Information Awareness Office" is not defunct at all.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [August 6, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445 "2010-08-06T19:40:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Scotch68](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Scotch68](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scotch68)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445/1 "2010-08-06T19:40:12Z")

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Congress voted the whole program (the “Total Information Awareness System”) down, but the Bush admin told them to keep right on building it, led if I recall correctly by John Poindexter. Then I read a while later in Popular Mechanics that some private industry folks were looking for ways to connect automobile information systems to the TIAS net. Ridiculous.

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**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445/2 "2010-08-06T19:41:04Z")

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What are you talking about?  
Powers &8^]

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**Author:** ![conway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ec9cab/32.png) [@conway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/conway)\
**Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445/3 "2010-08-06T19:55:27Z")

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I’m guessing it’s in reference to this one: [What secret technology is DARPA hiding from us?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2941/what-secret-technology-is-darpa-hiding-from-us)

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/as-far-as-i-know-the-information-awareness-office-is-not-defunct-at-all/549445/4 "2010-08-07T12:27:18Z")

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Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, **Scotch68** , we’re glad to have you with us.

When starting a thread, it’s helpful to other readers if you provide a link to the column under discussion. There’s zillions of columns in our Archives, and others won’t know what you’re commenting on. It’s no biggie, but you can see the confusion in **Powers** ’s post: I’d guess that’s not the kind of response you wanted.

Anyhow, **conway** has made a guess and provided a link; if he’s wrong, please either post the appropriate link or email me and I’ll fix it. It’s no biggie, but you can see that the lack of a link is distracting the discussions. You’ll know for next time, and, as I say, welcome!