OODA

Full Title or Meme

"Observe Orient Decide Act" is the model for

Context

The philosophies of COL John R. Boyd never cease to amaze me.

In his paper, "Destruction and Creation," to describe a fixed mental model or concept, he combines Gödel's incompleteness theorem, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, and entropy or the 2nd law of thermodynamics to state, "According to Gödel we cannot—in general—determine the consistency, hence the character or nature, of an abstract system within itself. According to Heisenberg and the Second Law of Thermodynamics any attempt to do so in the real world will expose uncertainty and generate disorder. Taken together, these three notions support the idea that any inward-oriented and continued effort to improve the match-up of concept with observed reality will only increase the degree of mismatch."

In other words, I'm insane to try the same mental model/concept over and over again expecting different results. If I want to increase my capacity for independent action, I need a new model, I need to destroy the failed concept and create a new concept, over and over again, to fight entropy and to remove or overcome obstacles to my independent action.

Boyd concludes by stating, "Taken together, the entropy notion associated with the Second Law of Thermodynamics and the basic goal of individuals and societies seem to work in Dialectic Harmony driving and regulating the destructive/creative, or deductive/inductive, action—that we have described herein as a dialectic engine. The result is a changing and expanding universe of mental concepts matched to a changing and expanding universe of observed reality. As indicated earlier, these mental concepts are employed as decision models by individuals and societies for determining and monitoring actions needed to cope with their environment—or to improve their capacity for independent action."

... in briefings Boyd would talk about constantly observing from every possible facet (as countermeasures to numerous kinds of biases) ... also references to observation, orientation, decisions, and actions are constantly occurring asynchronous operations (not strictly serialized operations).

... when I was first introduced to Boyd, I felt a natural affinity from the way I programmed computers. There is anecdote from after the turn of century about (Microsoft) Gates complaining to Intel about transition to multi-core chips (from increasingly faster single core) because it was too hard to write programs where multiple things went on independently in asynchronously operating cores

Agentic OODA

The OODA loop (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) is a framework used in artificial intelligence to enable rapid, adaptive decision-making in dynamic environments. In AI, the loop involves agents gathering data (Observe), processing it through AI and machine learning to understand context (Orient), choosing an action (Decide), and executing it (Act). AI significantly accelerates this process, but this speed also creates challenges, particularly the risk of making errors based on untrustworthy data or a compromised "orientation" phase, according to researchers at IEEE Xplore and Security Boulevard. How the OODA loop applies to AI

• Observe: AI systems gather vast amounts of data from various sources, such as sensors, user inputs, or online information.
• Orient: This is the most critical step, where AI and machine learning algorithms analyze and synthesize the observed data, provide context, and build an internal model of the situation.
• Decide: Based on the oriented model, the AI selects the most appropriate course of action from a range of possibilities.
• Act: The AI executes the chosen action, and the results are fed back into the system to start the next cycle, allowing it to learn and adapt.

Challenges and implications for AI

• Speed and vulnerability: While AI can accelerate the OODA loop to a speed far greater than a human's, this speed can become a vulnerability. It leaves less time for verification and makes the system susceptible to errors if the initial observations or orientation are manipulated.
• Data integrity: For the loop to be effective, the AI must receive and process high-integrity data. The "orientation" phase needs to be robust, but it relies on the input data, which can be untrustworthy.
• Strategic considerations: At a strategic level, some experts argue that an automated OODA loop may oversimplify complex human cognitive processes, especially the nuanced "orientation" step that involves emotion and heuristics.

You can watch this video to learn more about the OODA loop and its application in AI: Jul 25, 2022 — John Boyd's OODA loop has been firmly established in many strategic, business, and military tropes. Several scholars have criticized Boyd's OODA loop... CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies

References

• Boyd in his own words
• See Wiki Dialectic Harmony for John Boyd's using the OODA paradigm.
• And more in Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Brown, Ian T. author | Osinga, Frans P. B. author | Boyd, John, 1927–1997 author | Marine Corps University (U.S.). Press Title: Snowmobiles and grand ideals : John Boyd’s vision for thriving in chaos

Chaos and Order

Evolution and Disruption are the yin and yang of the process of change in any ecosystem. In the General Theory of Living Systems the case is made that an identity ecosystem has all of the characteristics of living ecosystems. in the General Theory of Thinking Systems the case is made that non-organic beings also evolve.