New York Times Forums
The New York Times

Home
Job Market
Real Estate
Automobiles
News
International
National
Washington
Business
Technology
Science
Health
Sports
New York Region
Education
Weather
Obituaries
NYT Front Page
Corrections
Opinion
Editorials/Op-Ed
Readers' Opinions


Features
Arts
Books
Movies
Travel
Dining & Wine
Home & Garden
Fashion & Style
Crossword/Games
Cartoons
Magazine
Week in Review
Multimedia
College
Learning Network
Services
Archive
Classifieds
Book a Trip
Personals
Theater Tickets
Premium Products
NYT Store
NYT Mobile
E-Cards & More
About NYTDigital
Jobs at NYTDigital
Online Media Kit
Our Advertisers
Member_Center
Your Profile
E-Mail Preferences
News Tracker
Premium Account
Site Help
Privacy Policy
Newspaper
Home Delivery
Customer Service
Electronic Edition
Media Kit
Community Affairs
Text Version
TipsGo to Advanced Search
Search Options divide
go to Member Center Log Out
  

 [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 (13677 previous messages)

jorian319 - 09:00am Sep 15, 2003 EST (# 13678 of 13680)

I do not believe gisterme when he says: "I will certainly not impersonate the President or any other government official."

Wow. A list of things and people rshowalter doesn't believe will certainly go a long way toward solving the problems of the world.

Maybe I can help. I don't believe Showalter ever worked with Eisenhower, I don't believe Showalter takes his own professed advice about "checking" (you might want to look into "savings", Robert), I don't believe anyone in any kind of position of power EVER reads this forum , and I don't believe Showalter's motives for prolix postings are anything more complex than a quest self-aggrandizement.

Gee, this is fun - impugning the motives of people I don't know, even as I solve the world's problems! </sarcasm>

rshow55 - 09:46am Sep 15, 2003 EST (# 13679 of 13680)
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.

Fair enough comment, Jorian.

We disagree about some things. I don't claim to be a saint. I know I make mistakes. And, as I've said - in some ways this thread is "just a game" - in Nash's sense and some others.

I feel like posting this:

manjumicha , and fredmoore - your posts are great. And yes, manj , the N. Korean situation could do with some sunshine. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/26/opinion/26WORK.html

Systems - inside people's head - and involving sociotechnical systems and teams - do change. Here's Piaget - on changing "paradigms" in the course of a single life. http://www.mrshowalter.net/PiagetCognitiveLimits.htm

Kids - "stupid" as they may seem in some ways - are very smart in others - for instance about learning words.

3694 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.p5d8b8q3F5a.9222188@.f28e622/4655

Could people get smarter?

I did a lot of work - set out in 13626-7 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.p5d8b8q3F5a.9222188@.f28e622/15319 at gisterme's request, and I'll be posting it at a little more length on Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and Woman - As natural as human goodness? - which has a first posting that I think is worthwhile here. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0

I would have carried it further - but I thought - at that particular time - I was dealing with "invincible ignorance" - people have to be ready. That's a fact about teaching kids to tie their shoes. Gisterme , who'd asked to see some output - cut me off with this:

7937 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.p5d8b8q3F5a.9222188@.f28e622/9462

gisterme - 02:43am Jan 23, 2003 EST (# 7937

rshow55 - 09:50pm Jan 21, 2003 EST (# 7887...)

"...I think some things in 7632-7635 were fairly clear about oscillatory solutions..."

Only that you apparently don't know what you're talking about. Give and take in discourse is not your invention, Robert. I has nothing to do with oscillation or periodicity.

Discourse does involve oscillation and periodicity. Give and take happens on patterns - and plenty of people know that. And the question of humanly workable stable solutions is an important one.

Piaget wrote an interesting book centered on the question what's cheating - from the point of view of children of different ages. It would have been a better book if he'd been able to read this piece by Natalie Angier The Urge to Punish Cheats - Not Just Human but Selfless http://www.mrshowalter.net/UrgeToPunishCheatsNotJustHumanButSelfless.htm

Piaget was very clear - as many researchers had been for years before him - that everybody lies - including children of all ages - and that children worry about it. As they grow up - they worry about it with more sophistication. But as people - our sophistication on this issue is still very problematic and limited - witness the associations in http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=liar

13666 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.p5d8b8q3F5a.9222188@.f28e622/15359 makes points that I think need to be repeated by a lot of people - till they learn them better.

If people are scandalized, and panic - and run around blinded with passion - every time somebody calls somebody else a ahem "knowing falsifier" - then we're in a hell of a mess.

The incidence of more or less conscious deception - and obviously repressed fiction is something like 10-20 times what people are admitting.

And people are stumped - in all sorts of obvious and stupid ways - some of them bloody - because they're missing that.

If people would admit that simple fact we

More Messages Recent Messages (1 following message)

 Read Subscriptions  Subscribe  Search  Post Message
 Your Preferences

 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  / Missile Defense