ABSTRACT
This chapter serves two purposes. The first is to define the concept of "technology" in Information Processing Theory (IPT) terms. The second is to define the specific technology studied, and provide the reader with the necessary information to understand the role it plays in the US Navy, and why its accession is an issue to the organization. Conceptualizing organizations as streams of information and Information Processing activities, linked dynamically as conceptualized by both cybernetics theory and systems theory (hereinafter "cybernetic systems theory"), is a unified way to understand organizational processes and outcomes. In most situations (including many technology accessions), the risks are not so extreme, but reasonable effort needs to be made to avoid negative outcomes. Tradeoffs between the acquisition time and cost of information and potential negative outcomes constitute a first level IP problem, and the actual decision itself a second.
