With the evolution of print more information has become available than at any time in the past. Our history is built on data. Data is collected and then stored for future use. One layer of information is built on all of the preceding layers of data. Future layers of information depend on the accuracy and attention to detail of current educators, researchers, intellectuals and inventors. The task of managing these layers of information has
become more difficult than at any other time in our history. The volume of information available is enormous. Clearly understanding or comprehending what the data is saying has become a cumbersome and sometimes impossible task. Speculation, disagreement and in too many cases the wrong conclusions have been the inevitable product of this environment. In the early 1950's this problem became "a threat to national security" and the search for a solution had begun.
To find the beginnings of this astonishing "spatial data base" system it is necessary to examine the timeline following World War II. These were exhilarating as well as chaotic times. The order of dominance in the world politic had shifted. All of the parties remaining or wishing to remain significant in the global arena struggled for position and identity. As it has always been, information was power. All of the players in this worldwide game of "risk" to the extent that they were able, maintained extensive information gathering capabilities. In 1954, the United States was alerted by the best available information they could gather that the Soviet Union was undergoing a massive buildup in both long range bombers and nuclear bombs ("Eyes"). The fear was that this was the first overture to a Third World War. The result was the formation of the NRO (National Reconaissance Office) and the NPIC (The National Photo Interpretation Center) ("Eyes"). These offices became the United States government's "most closely guarded secrets" ("Eyes"). From this time forward the United States made exhaustive efforts to develop a system of technology that could confirm or deny with absolute certainty the "rumors" of conventionally collected information. The new system must be able to handle, without speculation, huge volumes of data. From this information it must be possible to see the truth behind the "rumors".
In the early 1960's the Air Force and the CIA began to funnel almost all of the resources of the United States' AeroSpace Program into a new research effort called the Discovery Project. The Discovery Project was a well-publicized "big-medical" research project that won wide-ranging acclaim in both the national and international communitiesIn the early 1960's the Air Force and the CIA began to funnel almost all of the resources of the United States' AeroSpace Program into a new research effort called the Discovery Project.