there is no formal application process. you have to be referred by a 500 Mentor / respected angel.

agreed. it's also widely considered to be a technology-inspired revolution.

What's disturbing to me about this is not the technology (which is awesome), but the fact that it's been buried in the government trenches for 40 years. That kind of knowledge hoarding seems highly antithetical to the "American spirit".

The CIA's always been antithetical to the "American spirit" - an intelligence organization is, by definition.

Agreed, though - it would be nice if this had seen the light of day before now, moreso given the fact that we still can't figure out how the damn thing works.

I remember an article perhaps 10 years ago about how these were displayed in the a (public?) CIA museum.

I don't think this means the 'end of email'. This seems to me like a natural progression. Before FB, Twitter and cheap SMS, email was the most effective means of digital communication. Now we have different tools for different types of digital communication. That doesn't mean email is becoming obsolete. It's a bit like saying mobile-touch computers will replace all other types of computers. I don't see that happening at all. Instead, we just use a number of different computers (in all shapes and sizes), for different situations.