New York Times on the Web Forums Science

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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

jorian319 - 01:01pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10712 of 10719)

Looks like an opportunity for a betting pool here...

I think Rshow is correct in the dcougar and almarst are seeing two different, and very possible, outcomes while looking at the same thing. There is no way to know at this point which of those outcomes will be the better guess. But I have a fin for dcougar's.

almarst2003 - 01:09pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10713 of 10719)

jorian319 - 01:01pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10712 of 10712)

A "DREAM" or "NIGHTMARE"?

Anyway, it seems we already passed a a critical point of a chance to transform one into another.

The proof will come. Eventually. Hopefully not in a years time full of death and destruction. But no guarantee...

jorian319 - 01:26pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10714 of 10719)

The proof will come. Eventually. Hopefully not in a years time full of death and destruction.

Amen to that, Almarst!

Like they say in sports, if they knew who was going to win, they wouldn't play the game.

The interesting thing to me is the severity of the dichotomy of views - it almost seems sure that one of two extremes will come to pass. The bad is very, very bad indeed, and the good holds all hope for the future of global civilization. Things are rarely so cut-and-dried in real life, but this looks to be an exception.

rshow55 - 01:31pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10715 of 10719)
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.

Experience shows that good results are harder to achieve than bad ones. Usually, only a relatively few things work - in combination and sequence - carefully. There are lots of ways for things to screw up.

But a lot of careful planning and work has been done.

A lot of people are watching.

rshow55 - 01:45pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10716 of 10719)
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.

Jorian's assumption that

" it almost seems sure that one of two extremes will come to pass."

illustrates one of the most common fallacies that people make.

Who says things are that well under control, or understood?

jorian319 - 03:07pm Mar 29, 2003 EST (# 10717 of 10719)

Robert, I guess you missed:

Things are rarely so cut-and-dried in real life

IMHO this does appear a likely exception. "Under control" and "understood" are out of the question. But very very bad and very very good outcomes are not.

(2 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense