. "If someone's really excited during the game and that's correlated with poor performance, the machine might tell him to slow down via a pop-up message," says Merkle. "On the other hand, it might tell the team leader, 'Take Bill out of loop, we don't want him monitoring the space shuttle today. He's had too much coffee and too little sleep. Sally, though, is giving off the right signals to do a great job.'" A recent study sponsored by Sandia indicates that personal sensor readings caused lower arousal states, improved teamwork, and better leadership in longer collaborations. The focus behind the effort, funded by Sandia's Laboratory-Directed Research and Development Program, is to map the characteristics that correlate to "personal-best" performances. "The question is, how do we correlate what we observe with optimum performance, SO that we improve your ability and the ability of your team leader to make decisions? He can't tell, for example, that your pulse is racing. We're extend- ing his ability," says Merkle. NUTS AND BITS-TELECOM HARDWARE, SOFTWARE, AND MORE Figure 2-2 Tom-Clancy based computer game. People concerned about privacy-who may see this technology as an incur- sion similar to HAL's, the supercomputer that took over the spaceship in the movie 2001-can always opt out, says Merkle, just like people choose not to respond to e-mails or decline to attend meetings. But in a sense the procedure no different from that followed by people who have heart problems: they routinely wear a monitor home to keep informed of their vital signs. "In our game, what we learn from your vital signs can help you in the same way," he says. "It's almost absurd on its face to think you can't correlate physiological behavior with the day's competence." No theory yet exists to explain why or how optimal group performances will be achieved through more extensive computer linkages. But Merkle doesn't think he needs one. "Some people think you have to start with a theory. Darwin didn't go with a theory. He went where his subjects