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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?

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rshow55 - 09:06am Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10470 of 10476)
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.

Almarst , we've got a mess, but there's plenty to hope for, if some leader with real power are willing to take some action to get some facts straight. Things are complex, and thank God (or nature) that it is - or there would be no hope now. But there's plenty of hope - if we work at it.

9011 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.mZBaaMvd5je.1374878@.f28e622/10537 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/383

rshowalter - 05:31pm Mar 17, 2001 EST (#1128 http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1125.htm includes this:

When we apply SIMPLE models of structure to circumstances that have a more complicated structure than we are thinking of, we can get into trouble.

We can fail to see how thing work.

And we can be misled by thinking we see "contradictions" where there are no logical contradictions -- though there may be aesthetic or moral tensions.

A complex system can be two "contradictory" things at the same time -- in different places within the larger structure -- without contradiction.

Bertrand Russell got caught up with this one -- but for complicated circumstances, and for dealing with complicated histories, it is an essential thing to know.

It you know it -- solutions that seem "classified out of existence" are seen, and these solutions can be real.

Some moral points can get clarified, too.

6432 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.mZBaaMvd5je.1374878@.f28e622/7937

9415 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.mZBaaMvd5je.1374878@.f28e622/10953

Me, I'm wondering what Casey would think, and want - if he looked at things now. He might think the sort of things going on on this thread were working pretty well.

I don't think Casey ever heard this joke - but he would have appreciated it:

Q: How many psychiatrists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: Only one. But the light bulb has to be ready.

- - - -

These days, it seems to me that a lot of problems could easily be sorted out - if people were ready.

Casey's rule of thumb about when people were ready was clear - and emphatic. He "rubbed my nose in it." When the stakes are high - if you want to really persuade - people are only ready to listen when they ask for the answers.

For the most basic answers, by the time they're ready to ask - they're a long way along towards figuring them out for themselves.

. . . .

Some people are a long way along.

If leaders actually wanted some problems checked to closure - it would happen. It couldn't be stopped. And a lot would sort out. But those leaders, themselves, would have to face up to some embarrassments (small, maybe, but real) themselves.

It would be worth it.

rshow55 - 09:11am Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10471 of 10476)
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.

I think Putin , for instance, would have to face some big things.

Perspective is a problem - 250,000 people die on the average day. Many under wrenching circumstances. In many, many tens of thousands of cases, there are careful, emotionally intense funerals - where the people involved spend time, and ache, and agonize, and adjust - and it is almost too much for them to bear. There's more to feel about than anyone can relate to.

Ever tried to count - just count - to 10,000 - yourself, as a physical animal?

We need to get things into balance.

Luckily - to sort out a lot - we only have to agree on a few things. Almarst , I very often think that your outrage isn't helpful - and isn't balanced.

Wrong as some other people also are.

almarst2003 - 09:26am Mar 25, 2003 EST (# 10472 of 10476)

The freedom of information - No information = No Freedom.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense