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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 - 09:15am Sep 11, 2003 EST (# 13602 of 13606)
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.

Gisterme , your corpus will stay behind you. http://www.mrshowalter.net/sequential.htm

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We're Two Years On http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/opinion/11THU1.html from the 9/11/2001 attack.

Here's the Front Page of NYT on the Web September 12, 2001 - http://www.mrshowalter.net/NYTWebFrontPage_9_11_02.htm

A historical - ethical - even religious perspective is set out in

Two Years Later, a Thousand Years Ago By ROBERT WRIGHT http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/opinion/11WRIG.html

"In other words, the age-old tradeoff between security and liberty increasingly involves a third variable: antipathy. The less hatred there is in the world, the more security we can have without sacrificing personal freedom. Assuming we like our liberty, we have little choice but to take an earnest interest in the situation of distant and seemingly strange people, working to elevate their welfare, exploring their discontent as a step toward expanding their moral horizons — and in the process expanding ours. Global governance without global moral progress could be very unpleasant."

Wright is too optimistic, in some ways, because he assumes that people have logical problems solved that they don't in fact have solved. The solving takes some sorting out - something Lchic and I are working hard to do.

There's plenty to worry about - this piece could hardly be more serious:

Foreign Views of U.S. Darken Since Sept. 11 By RICHARD BERNSTEIN http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/11/international/11OPIN.html

. Contributing to this report were James Brooke, Frank Bruni, Alan Cowell, Ian Fisher, Joseph Kahn, Clifford Krauss, Marc Lacey, Jane Perlez, Craig S. Smith and Michael Wines.

BERLIN, Sept. 10 — In the two years since Sept. 11, 2001, the view of the United States as a victim of terrorism that deserved the world's sympathy and support has given way to a widespread vision of America as an imperial power that has defied world opinion through unjustified and unilateral use of military force.

"A lot of people had sympathy for Americans around the time of 9/11, but that's changed," said Cathy Hearn, 31, a flight attendant from South Africa, expressing a view commonly heard in many countries. "They act like the big guy riding roughshod over everyone else."

In interviews by Times correspondents from Africa to Europe to Southeast Asia, one point emerged clearly: The war in Iraq has had a major impact on public opinion, which has moved generally from post-9/11 sympathy to post-Iraq antipathy, or at least to disappointment over what is seen as the sole superpower's inclination to act pre-emptively, without either persuasive reasons or United Nations approval.

Many of Gisterme's positions have served the United States very poorly.

rshow55 - 09:21am Sep 11, 2003 EST (# 13603 of 13606)
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.

# 7335 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.tWS5b3UAEmI.0@.f28e622/8860

"Can we sort the remaining logical problems out soon - and communicate them well enough so that people agree in the ways that matter for action?

"It looks possible to me.

"People need to collect "the dots" and connect the dots to form ideas - from the perspectives that matter to them - and that fit what they know and then check those ideas against other things - - and go at it again --

(insert: and again and again, as necessary - anybody looked at how computer sorts actually work?)

I have.

4166 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@70006@.f28e622/5257

Here's a basic point.

The connection between statistics and formal logic is crucial - and a central issue in psychology, neural modeling, philosophy, and a lot else.

The logical connection isn't fancy.

For 2500 years, up to the present day, many millions of educated people, consistently over many generations, have felt that the idea of the syllogism has been a profound, welcome clarifying discipline for thinking. So far as my knowledge goes, few doubt or discount the importance of the syllogism.

Here's a statistical statement:

1. People are probably mortal.

2. Socrates is a person.

3. Therefore, Socrates is probably mortal.

Shift to a probability of 1, and you get the classic syllogism form:

1A. All people are mortal.

2A. Socrates is a person.

3A. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.

The connection between statistics and logic happens here. At this level, logic can emerge as a simple special case of statistics. In other cases, of course, logic stands alone.

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Lchic and I working hard and together - are breaking new ground - sorting out problems that America and the world has to solve. We're making some headway.

Gisterme , and people who follow him or share his views -are acting in treasonous disregard for the welfare of the United States and the world - and people should learn to be ashamed of many of the positions he takes. And willing to use logic and statistics together - to sort things out.

For human beings - most often - hope is getting things sorted out in ways that are true.

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