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Missile Defense

Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

rshowalter - 11:53am Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10154 of 10166)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Out for a while -- to do some napping, and maybe some studying. (will delete).

jorian_s - 11:54am Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10155 of 10166)

Robert, how do you find time to read all the documents you reference, given that you generate a virtually nonstop series of posts in this forum?

rshowalter - 11:58am Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10156 of 10166)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I work pretty hard at it.

I've also got an "ulterior motive" -- that I'm trying to be clear about.

I'm illustrating, as clearly as I can within the limitations of the medium, how human associative memory works in some significant logical ways, and how consistency relations, if you have enough of them, make for connections in a culture.

That isn't a small thing, in my view -- since there are problems with complex communication that happen again and again, that are basically the same, and can be fixed.

I'm taking a nap, now, because my eyes hurt from all the reading.

rshowalter - 12:00pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10157 of 10166)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Also how much "internal logic" scaffolds the connections to external references. My role, as a logical entity - is much like "the voice in your head" that yeilds organization - - which can be creatively useful organization, or misleading organization - - to an animal's thought processes.

If I'm "writing all the time" -- a person interested in a subject is "thinking about it all the time" too. There is plenty of "redundancy" --- though that's a treacherous word. But things focus, too.

rshowalter - 12:01pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10158 of 10166)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

My eyes really do hurt, and I'm taking a nap.

And I read what I can. Have you ever searched at the Patent Office? It is amazing what people can do, as logical sorters.

applez101 - 12:58pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10159 of 10166)

Jorian S -

"I still say we could eventually defuse this whole Islamic rule thing by immediately beginning to deliver all of our third class mail (catalogs, samples of l'eggs, superwhitening crest, alkaseltzer etc.) to Kabul and Baghdad by high altitude bomber."

What?! And bring an end to civilisation?! (ref. 'Motel of the Mysteries' by David Macaulay). :)

jorian_s - 01:25pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10160 of 10166)

Dammit, Applez I'm serious here. Lets get this thing going while Robert's taking a nap!

applez101 - 01:48pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10161 of 10166)

LOL! No point, he'll just drown this forum with illegible monologues later anyway. :)

rshowalter - 01:56pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10162 of 10166)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

yawn . . . stretch . . .

jorian_s - 02:12pm Oct 6, 2001 EST (#10163 of 10166)

Shhhh!

(3 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense