In the July 29 press release announcing the cancellation of the FutureMap program (see my July 28 posting on this subject here), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) stated: “The FutureMAP research project was meant to explore the power of futures markets to predict and thereby prevent terrorist attacks. Futures markets have proven themselves to be good at predicting such things as elections results; they are often better than expert opinions. The program was part of DARPA’s overall thrust to find new ways to thwart terrorism…Our job at DARPA is to explore new ideas and innovative research to enhance national security. The resources that would have been applied to this project will be applied to other more fruitful pursuits.”
Senators Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) spearheaded the call for the program’s immediate termination.