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 [F] 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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (10899 previous messages)

rshow55 - 01:32pm Apr 1, 2003 EST (# 10900 of 10900) Delete Message
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.

"It only prescribes consistency - that we not have our actions (toward another) be out of harmony with our desires (toward a reversed situation action). It tests our moral coherence. If we violate the golden rule, then we're violating the spirit of fairness and concern that lie at the heart of morality. .

" The golden rule, with roots in a wide range of world cultures, is well suited to be a standard to which different cultures could appeal in resolving conflicts. As the world becomes more and more a single interacting global community, the need for such a common standard is becoming more urgent."

A key issue, that I think is underappreciated, is deception . We are all in need of correct information, for fundamental reasons -- and we need it in such a complex world that we cannot predict what facts that we have not checked we will have to rely on. Lies, taken as correct, can and often do have very bad consequences.

An essential requirement, to make the Golden Rule more operational, is to find ways to increase the incidence of factually correct information, and reduce the amount that is deceptive.

Checking is a moral issue, as well as a practical one, right here.

_______________

When Arab leaders say, with some plausibility, that lying is the golden rule of the (Bush) administration," - - that's cause for concern.

The golden rule is a condition of symmettry - not necesarily charity.

The natural world is very full of different plants and animals - in ecosystems - in all sorts of interaction.

Every species, and every system of species, involves many cases of order and symmettry and enough harmony for function in context.

What kind of order do we want?

What kind of symmettry?

There's an interesting kind of symmettry that I happen to like. Enemies very often say things about each other that are true.

If we could find ways to cut the deception some - when it matters - we could make much safer and more decent arrangements.

Some patterns of order are very much more desirable than others.

Some patterns of symmettry are very much more desirable than other.

There are a lot of things I'd like a chance to tell Saddam and his followers about some things they might do, and might ask for, to improve things.

If Inside Saddam's mind By Pepe Escobar http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC14Ak05.html contains points that are true - there's room for improvement.

Not that the leader of Iraq is unique in having faults - including serious ones.

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