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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

bluestar23 - 12:32pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17088 of 17106)

"enough to produce systems "

Showalter's conceptual error is in believing that there is some "system" that human society should adhere to that will bring about great universal happiness. It is natural for a scientist to think this way. historians don't, because the study of history, not mathematics, is what is required to understand what human civilization needs. And history teaches one thing...that there are NO logical rules, NO "scientific" system ("scientific Socialism") being the most obvious example (eg, Marxism) that have EVER brought about the desired results. Human society, like human nature, is irrational, illogical, emotional, not subject even to scientific study, though the "social scientists" ( a misnomer, I think) might disagree. History is a complex collection of mixed and contradictory human thoughts, ideas, and actions. Save the "scientific" analysis for objects that can be understood in this manner, showalter....human experience is impervious to mathematical computation...

jorian319 - 12:46pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17089 of 17106)

Blue, you touch on the very thing that brings on frustration with rshow55 (well, ok there's more than one thing, but...) and elicits so many vitriolic responses. Robert seeems consumed with the desire to model human behavior in the aggregate, where it can be said to perform systematically. Solutions to human problems can almost never be applied in that matter, because the appearance of systematic behavior is simply due our ability to "average" behaviors and form composite pictures of how and why people do things. In fact, there may or may not be even one individual who actually conforms to those models. Robert's sociological paradigm reminds me of a children's clothing line manufacturer loudly protesting the need for 1/3 garments to cater to the 0.3 child in every family - pointing out the urgent need felt by every "average" family, which has 2.3 kids.

cantabb - 01:03pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17090 of 17106)

Bluestar: History is a complex collection of mixed and contradictory human thoughts, ideas, and actions.

This fact-and-fiction mixture called history is always edited/revised and even re-written ("1984"). Unsubstantiated and unsubstantiable assertions are just that: fact-free, a peephole look at a selected tiny spot of a large and fluid picture. And a selective recall.

And, cast in a moralistic tone, it's just nauseating !

bbbuck - 01:32pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17091 of 17106)

Hey cnttub and bluey are beginning to sound like showalter.

lchic - 01:35pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17092 of 17106)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

"When we attempt to ask the question 'What is history?' our answer, consciously or unconsciously, reflects our own position in time, and forms part of our answer to te broader quesion what view we take of the society in which we live. ....

The nineteeth century was a great age for facts.

'What I want', said Mr Gradgring in HardTimes, 'is Facts....Facts alone are what are wanted in lfe.'

isbn 0 14 01.384 7 p8

cantabb - 01:41pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17093 of 17106)

lchic - 01:35pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17092 of 17092)

'What I want', said Mr Gradgring in HardTimes, 'is Facts....Facts alone are what are wanted in lfe.' isbn 0 14 01.384 7 p8

And, 'Facts' is what some posters do not want or don not want to have [upsets the apple-cart]. Or can't face. Life, to them, is a set of 'oscillating' convenient thoughts!

lchic - 01:45pm Nov 10, 2003 EST (# 17094 of 17106)
ultimately TRUTH outs : TRUTH has to be morally forcing : build on TRUTH it's a strong foundation

That was the nineteenth century perspective

What Is History? E.H. Carr Penguin Books Ltd

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