{"product_id":"point-mugu-protocol-ariel-ives-9798241359377","title":"Point Mugu Protocol: Secrecy, Missiles, and the Birth of the Testbed State","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003ePoint Mugu Protocol\u003c\/i\u003e is a narrative investigation into how the modern experimental state was built-not through dramatic breakthroughs, but through procedure. In the aftermath of World War II, the United States did not merely develop new weapons; it constructed a permanent infrastructure for learning under secrecy. Coastal test ranges, guided-missile programs, telemetry systems, and archival protocols transformed uncertainty into a governable resource.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRather than focusing on spectacular launches or singular technologies, the book follows the quieter machinery that made power durable: test plans that defined what counted as evidence, instrumentation that translated violent events into archived traces, and classification systems that protected learning curves while fragmenting public understanding. Missiles appear here less as weapons than as epistemic devices-tools for forcing inference problems into measurable form.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUsing Point Mugu as a lens rather than a shrine, the book shows how experimental programs generate two outputs at once: internal capability and external ambiguity. Insiders see telemetry, failure curves, and indexed archives; outsiders see arcs in the sky, restricted zones, and silence. That asymmetry does not require deception to produce myth. It produces myth structurally.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe book introduces \"the protocol\" as its central concept: a ruleset that governs how knowledge is produced, validated, preserved, and protected. Once the protocol exists, experimentation becomes routine-and secrecy becomes infrastructural.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMethod-first and unsensational, \u003ci\u003ePoint Mugu Protocol\u003c\/i\u003e invites readers to think like auditors rather than believers. It asks how accountability can survive in systems whose learning depends on restricted visibility, and how modern power came to rest not on singular inventions, but on repeatable systems for converting information into authority.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Ariel Ives\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798241359377\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Independently Published\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 12\/26\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 92\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.19d","brand":"Ariel Ives","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48997334188287,"sku":"9798241359377","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/point-mugu-protocol-ariel-ives-9798241359377","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}