Ancient Wisdom
The makers of the Dresden Codex observed, assessed, and worked out what would happen next, early enough to act on it.
The Dresden Codex was written in North America centuries before the United States existed. It has been held in Dresden, Germany, since 1739, which is where its name comes from. It survived the American and British bombing of the city in February 1945, damaged by water in a flooded basement.
Most of its pages look into the future. Its tables follow Venus through a 584-day cycle across 104 years and predict eclipses of the sun and moon, and its almanacs marked which days favored planting, trade or war.
Some 700 years later, we use the same technique for the United States and her allies. Each of those four steps has a counterpart in our work.
01 · Observed
02 · Assessed
03 · What would happen next
04 · Early enough to act
Decision superiority
Observed: Silent Dagger — find, fix, AFDP 3-60. Assessed: Iron Canopy — the running estimate, ADP 5-0. What would happen next: Prometheus — all valid threat COAs, ATP 2-01.3. Early enough to act: Decision superiority — faster than an opponent can react, JV 2020.
01 · Observed
They put Venus’s cycle at 584 days. Measured today, it is 583.92.
The codex · Venus table, pages 24 and 46–50
One cycle, to scale · 584 days
236
Morning star
90
Unseen
250
Evening star
8
Unseen
Our work · Silent Dagger
02 · Assessed
They reset their tables before the error built up.
The codex · Eclipse and Venus tables
One table · 405 lunar months
223
405
Next table, from month 358
358
Reset at month 358 or 223, not at the end
Our work · Iron Canopy
03 · What would happen next
They listed the days an eclipse might occur, not one date.
The codex · Eclipse table, pages 51–58
One of 69 columns · schematic
Glyph caption
Running total · in red
Interval · 148, 177 or 178 days
Three dates in the 260-day count
Our work · Prometheus
04 · Early enough to act
Their tables ran decades ahead.
The codex · How far the tables ran, to scale
Venus table
104 years
One eclipse table
32¾ years
Eclipse tables, reset in turn
About 700 years
Our work · The vision
Decision superiority
at the tactical edge.
Dresden Codex builds products to augment decision making, tighten the kill chain, and enable the warfighter.
Decision superiority: better decisions arrived at and implemented faster than an opponent can react (Joint Vision 2020).
Protecting the United States and her allies