Michael Cerre:

At the height of last year's North Korean missile crisis, Secretary of Defense James Mattis was in Silicon Valley visiting DIUX, the Defense Department's Innovation Unit Experimental.

Presumably, he had more than a passing interest in the companies it's working with, on miniature satellites for looking at any spot on the planet 24/7, even through clouds. Artificial intelligence programs for scanning millions of aerial images to detect changes in activities. Maritime drones for patrolling remote coastlines.

The Defense Department recently set-up a forward operating base of sorts right here in the middle of California's Silicon Valley to get closer to the new technologies they need for some of the more immediate strategic and tactical needs.

Don't let the artillery pieces fool you. The idea is to act less like a military and the government and more like venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.