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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 - 03:18pm Sep 9, 2003 EST (# 13579 of 13582)
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.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md9000s/md9467.htm . . includes a request - and right now I'm not exactly sure whether it was granted, or sort of granted, or not.

rshowalter - 05:22pm Sep 19, 2001 EST (#9469

"C.P.Snow said that

" In any crisis of action, you have to be positive of what you want to do, and able to explain it."

"I think we should get some core questions answered, to real closure, I think we can, and I think the problem is big enough that it has to be staffed - - with the sort of staff that can easily be supported, funded from private sources, if heads of nation states want it done - - but may not be possible otherwise.

"We're looking for win-win solutions, where current results are gruesome and expensive. They are there to be found. "

- - - -

Snow's quote continues in a way I've found ominous - and that Ike found ominous.

"... It is not so relevant whether you are right or wrong. That is a second -order effect. But it is cardinal that you should be positive."

In 2001, I was positive of what I wanted to do - but not able to explain it adequately- not even to lchic , hands down the best writer I've ever been anywhere near.

Since that time, working together, with help from other posters and NYT support of this thread, we've been able to explain the request further - and gotten some staff support from the NYT, a sort-of-private source in semi-direct contact with nation states.

"Connecting the dots" works because, when patterns are put together in different ways, and checked for internal consistency and for fit to external information workable "connections of the dots" are very sparse . So sparse that, if you keep at it - there is a very good chance that you'll make progress- and might even find exact truth in a particular situation.

Because often enough there are relatively very few alternatives consistent with what is known. Uniqueness may not occur. But there are few enough options, often enough, that they can be checked, and the checking is worth it.

Focusing matters. And it is also possible.

3792 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.RDqHbvVjEwV.8124336@.f28e622/4772

Getting the most basic, most frequent facts and relations straight is very important.

For fundamental reasons, for the most common things, it is also very hard. That's both a challenge and a source of hope.

When we learn basic things, the odds of our successfully solving problems can get much better - and impossible jobs can become possible, and sometimes even easy.

rshow55 - 03:21pm Sep 9, 2003 EST (# 13580 of 13582)
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.

Including problems of effective war and effective stable peacemaking that have eluded people before.

We need to be able to distinguish disagreements about logical structure and about weights and about team identities - and sort out enough so that peace and stable relations are possible.

And get closure where agreement is both necessary and possible.

We can do a lot better than we're now doing, and better than we have been doing.

To deal with terrorism - and other challenges - we have to make contact at the level of ideas - at the level of right or wrong (both morally and logically) - we have to go beyond brute force.

The things that Americans are proud of can stand up to examination - as al Queda can't, by reasonable human standards. And the things that Americans ought not to be proud of need to be thought about - and changed when change is possible.

rshow55 - 03:22pm Sep 9, 2003 EST (# 13581 of 13582)
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.

We can solve problems that we haven't been able to solve before - if we work at it.

Including problems of effective war and effective stable peacemaking that have eluded people before.

We need to be able to distinguish disagreements about logical structure and about weights and about team identities - and sort out enough so that peace and stable relations are possible.

And get closure where agreement is both necessary and possible.

We can do a lot better than we're now doing, and better than we have been doing.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense