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.

rshow55 - 07:31am Oct 1, 2003 EST (# 14200 of 14201)
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 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FeyIbAWHKjF.2897684@.f28e622/15900 says:

You simply made up that ridiculous baloney you claim I "suggested" you post. I knew noting about that tripe until you posted it. To me it was not interesting at all. Your statement that I suggested you post it is a lie.

Is gisterme intentionally misleading? Am I? Could this be an honest difference of opinion?

Or a partly honest one?

I went back and checked - and I want to be careful what I say - because I personally think gisterme is, or represents, the Bush administration - and I wonder about both intention and judgement in making that posting. ( http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FeyIbAWHKjF.2897684@.f28e622/15900 )

What's under discussion relates to 4701 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FeyIbAWHKjF.2897684@.f28e622/5949 and what happened, and was written, afterwards.

I'm choosing my words with care - and wondering what gisterme's motivations may be.

Postings of mine a little later - for instance here - http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/352 - bear on the case. Note that at that time I didn't think gisterme was Bush - but thought that gisterme was so high in the administration that (he-she) might be Rice.

I'm taking my time here - because the stakes seem high - and opportunities for learning and progress seem high, too.

rshow55 - 07:57am Oct 1, 2003 EST (# 14201 of 14201)
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.

Sometimes I move more slowly than I intend because of social pressures. 13214 - 13215 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.FeyIbAWHKjF.2897684@.f28e622/14897

For instance, yesterday, I promised to do a technical posting - on the connection of latent semantic analysis - statisitics - logic - and schema - and the importance of loop tests. Worked on it all day. Haven't finished it. I didn't mention these key things when I discussed it yesterday - things that go well beyond statistics and logic - that go into our being human .

How a Story Is Shaped http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/ducksoup/555/storyshape.html

A Communication Model http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML

Our society, and all mankind, have some difficulties we need to be clearer about pertaining to what lying is - in real contexts - and what cheating is.

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense