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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?
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(10274 previous messages)
rshow55
- 06:17pm Mar 20, 2003 EST (#
10275 of 10291)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click
"rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for
on this thread.
Things sort themselves out into levels - the image
in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by William G. Huitt Essay and
Image : http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html
is a clear, important, and general example of a heirarchical
system with controls and interfaces of mutual constraint. The
generally pyramidal organization is general to essentially all
such structures that work.
Look at the picture.
In ordinary business, politics and war there are times when
groups that function as assemblies have to be dealt with as
they are grouped - as assemblies. People have to act from
where they are. If you're near the top of the pyramid in a
logical sense, that's what you have to do.
You're Bush - or Putin - or any other leader - or a
responsible subordinate - like Casey. You have to make
decisions - and there are times when there is no option at all
but to "play God" - either by actions with consequences - or
by inaction under circumstances where inaction
also has consequences.
People can only do as well as they possibly can -
with mistakes expected, insensitivities expected, biases
expected, even for the best of people because they are
people.
Everything considered, it seems to me that things are going
well. People are being pretty careful, considering
circumstances as they are. The unpopularity of this war
doesn't mean it is wrong - but it surely means that the way it
is conducted will be carefully watched - and reasons things
are done will be carefully studied.
Workable systems - at the level of neurons - small groups -
large groups - and groups of groups - tend to work themselves
out - with interfaces and multiple levels of control -
according to a pattern much like the picture in the Maslow
reference.
We're in the process of such a resorting (you might almost
call it a recrystallization) now. The old rules will still
apply - with some exceptions - and I think a lot of things
will work better than before. Better, I suspect, for people
and nations of reasonable competence and honesty, within the
human limits - all over the world.
rshow55
- 06:23pm Mar 20, 2003 EST (#
10276 of 10291)
Can we do a better job of finding truth? YES. Click
"rshow55" for some things Lchic and I have done and worked for
on this thread.
There have to be limits on the Treaty of Westphalia
rules - connections, and constraints -between actors at "the
top of their pyramids" and of course that means limitations on
the US as well.
We're moving toward that - and this is a time where
historically new things are happening. All in all, though
there may be so much tragedy in the next few days that one
could actually detect it in world mortality statistics, I'm
optimistic.
Is Bush "playing God?" You bet. And, my guess is, doing the
best he can. Muddled, screwed up, and multiply motivated as he
may be. (You can check, we've had our differences.)
Other leaders have to "play God" as well. How
could even God himself change that? ( You don't have to
believe in God to ask that question - it is a
logical-structural question.)
I hope Putin, and the leaders of other nation states, face
up to the fact that sometime they can't escape "playing God" -
and do so, when they have to, sensibly and responsibly.
With their emotions under decent control.
Soon, we need to have some patterns of responsibility
that go beyond Treaty of Westphalia constraints. For basic
reasons.
Look at the picture. Look at the pattern of
the picture. http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html
Right now, under Treaty of Westphalia rules, leaders
have an essentially unlimited "right" to play
God - to kill or mistreat subordinates - and to lie. Some
leaders, in limited ways - have to "play God" to change
that.
In limited ways. Bush, for example, has to listen to
a lot of other people. And often, he does. And then, as a
personal holder of power - acts.
As leaders have to do.
We have basic control problems here - and workable
systems have to be sorted out. What we have now, too often, is
a mess.
Right now, considering, there are a lot of opportunities
opening up, along with the dangers, and things seem to be
going pretty well.
jorian319
- 06:39pm Mar 20, 2003 EST (#
10277 of 10291)
Nice posts, Robert. I, too get irritated by those who
simultaneously abdicate responsibilities and criticize those
who take them on.
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