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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 07:27am May 4, 2001 EST (#3213 of 3215)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I also believe that we need to consider what has been done, and what human consequences have been, and deal, in a way that makes sense to us when we are paying attention, with consequences.

You've given me fine direction, and I'm going to try to adress the concerns you've set out as best I can, in the hope that some ideas may be useful. Some issues involved are deeply involved with issues of persuasion, and here are citations, about concerns that the truth can be "somehow, too weak" that I hope interest you.
markk46b "Science in the News" 8/23/00 2:44am
rshowalt "Science in the News" 8/23/00 7:31am

I'm looking at a lot of things that I hope are useful on this thread, but want to cite one link especially 2866 -- 2887
rshowalter 5/1/01 12:25pm

rshowalter 5/1/01 12:31pm . . . reads

"I feel that we need to move away from Dr. Strangelove "solutions" -- and toward the kinds of focused, disciplined, graceful solutions that ordinary people so often craft in their own lives -- the sorts of solutions that make room for life -- the kinds that another very tough character, Mary Poppins , might approve of.

"Something I've always liked about the movie Mary Poppins is that the heroine moves into a ugly mess. The ugliness is realistically portrayed. With some steadfastness, and some grace, she uses very specific knowledge of specific people and situations. There's the occasional coercive act or credible threat, but always she is proportionate, and graceful outcomes are arranged as well. Things are worked out to a higher level of grace and practicality than existed in the household before, though nobody loses their basic weaknesses and flaws.

"We've had a lot of Dr. Strangelove in our international arrangements. Maybe we can't do away with all of it, though I think we can.

"But we could use some of the Mary Poppins virtues, too.

Permit me to say that I still think of myself as a "tough guy" , even though I say this.

rshowalter - 07:28am May 4, 2001 EST (#3214 of 3215)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I'll be doing a lot of work to respond to your gisterme 5/3/01 10:41pm ..... Let me tell you some of what I'm doing, because it illustrates, I believe, new possibilities that come from the extended memory, and the extended ability to handle complexity, that computers and the internet have made possible.

I've downloaded all this thread, and, of course, much else, onto hard disk. Using a search tool, I can access passages with key words. This morning, I've run seven searches, and I'll be doing more.

Guided by these searches, I can use references and ideas worked out before, and combine them and reconsider them in ways that may be useful for particular concerns.

It seems to me that, with these technical capabilities, people can come to better and more beautiful answers to problems than would have been possible before, because memory and the ability to handle complexity both have uses in human affairs. And now those abilities have been extended.

It now makes much more sense than it did before to "send in clear." rshowalter "Science News Poetry" 2/14/01 7:18am

rshowalter - 07:35am May 4, 2001 EST (#3215 of 3215)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

lunarchick 5/3/01 11:23pm
leungki 5/4/01 5:23am
make essential points about human needs, and priorities, and I agree with the concerns raised there. I believe that most people, who looked, would too.

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