[geeks] Special skills draft?

[Lionel Peterson]

> From: Matthew Braun <geeks at leydenjar.com>
> Date: 2004/09/21 Tue PM 11:40:25 GMT
> To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
> Subject: [geeks] Special skills draft?
> 
> No, I'm not freaking out expecting I'll be drafted after the election. 
> I'm just curious about the "Skills Draft" that suggests that people 
> with specialized skills (geeks, linguists, and medical personnel) may 
> be eligible for a draft if circumstances warrant. How would this be 
> implemented?

Very easily - via a focused census and a well-designed "lottery".

I just finished reading a book about IBM and the Holocaust, and in it it described how the Germans in the late '30s and early 40's relied on Hollerith technology to describe the populations of conquered nations, including their skills. The book was sort of interesting, but it seemed very repetitive, adn it dfinitely could have been distilled down to a hundred pages or so, instead of the 400+ pages I think it was.
   
> For medical staff, they have to be state-certified, so there's a nice 
> body of data that already exists on them. But techs or linguists? What, 
> subpoena the membership rolls of the ACM? Have posts to Slashdot and 
> then track by IP? I'm just curious of the mechanics of this. It seems 
> like it would be very hard to do, and then they'd have to prove that 
> people were in fact in possession of the desired skills.

Just add some boxes to the draft registration form, require everyone of draft age to complete the revised cards, and wait...

And as for your stated "proof" requirement, if they get you to list your skills, then the onus is on you to deliver the skills you claimed ;^)