Cargo Cultists of Technology

When familiarity leads to rituals, obsession & bad tech decisions

During the Pacific campaign of World War II, Japanese and American forces occupied a wide swath of islands. In an area as vast as the Pacific Ocean, these islands were often the only way to reliably deliver supplies and material to the front lines. Thus these islands were of vital strategic importance to both sides.

Little known to these newcomers was the fact that many of these islands were populated. Often the occupants were primitive tribes…