![[F]](../_images/site.gif) New York Times on the Web Forums  Science
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.
 
  (2007 previous messages)
rshow55
- 06:54pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2008
of 2043) 
Prior negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians have
failed to close - though sometimes people have felt that agreement
was "almost in reach."
If the things now possible on the internet had been fully used at
the time, could those negotiations have closed?
Many of the problems would have been much less.
. . .
If people did a "blow by blow" of what worked, and what didn't,
in those negotiatinos, and asked --
"how could the internet have helped?
they'd find, I think, that most of the impasses could have
been better handled.
One major advantage would have been that people wouldn't have had
to be in the same room to state their case. Not initially. Not
always. Cases could be put side by side. People would have time to
think (and time to cool down) in ways meetings and step-by-step
negotiations don't permit.
People using the internet can arrange to do, for groups, many of
the things that the human brain does to correllate and make sense of
information in individual minds. So that "meetings of the mind"
become possible that were not possible before. Properly staffed and
used, the internet can handle, and shape to human needs, levels of
complexity totally intractable before. With staffing, it can provide
clarity, and tailored, checkable summaries not possible before.
An advantage is that one web site can use another web site, or
many other web sites, as a database. So that information can be
organized in MANY ways, for different purposes. For example, I
sometimes use a Guardian thread to organize references to this
thread, and vice versa. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/303
Long chains of discourse can be summarized concisely MD14-15 rshow55
3/1/02 7:07pm . . and reasons for what is said can be set out,
in as much detail as the people involved need - with means for
"collecting the dots" and "connecting the dots" so that people can
agree about facts and relations - - or disagree for clear reasons.
rshow55
- 06:55pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2009
of 2043)
lchic
5/4/02 6:26pm . . . and hiding is harder than it used to be -
and more easily penalized.
lchic
- 07:08pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2010
of 2043)
Ok so things may not be hidden very deeply ... they're just below
the suface - yet don't
lchic
- 07:11pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2011
of 2043)
bennieray
"The Economy (A Moderated Forum)" 5/3/02 12:21pm http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
rshow55
- 07:12pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2012
of 2043)
A lot is "just below the surface" -- but it has to be collected.
Summarized. Questioned. Considered. By the people actually involved,
with the concerns thay have. And the emotions they have, as well.
lchic
- 07:37pm May 4, 2002 EST (#2013
of 2043)
And NOT participating in International Agreements is a way of
limiting discussion that rakes up the past, thus protecting key
people --- even though the BEST interests of the USA would be to be
IN the world and show LEADERSHIP. So again the real question is -
with respect to each treaty that's bypassed - WHO is being PROTECTED
and from WHICH/WHAT previous actions?
lchic
- 06:59am May 5, 2002 EST (#2014
of 2043)
Bush has no concern for Human Rights even within the USA http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,710335,00.html
lchic
- 07:10am May 5, 2002 EST (#2015
of 2043)
Arafat : Power struggle
Our correspondent in Gaza says there is pressure from many fronts
for a real government which reflects a cross section of the society,
and an end to governing by favours. .... There is also widespread
expectation that moderates, including Hanan Ashrawi, will be
brought in from the cold and given ministries.
Mr Arafat himself has at least four ministries in addition to his
presidency
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1968000/1968234.stm
lchic
- 07:13am May 5, 2002 EST (#2016
of 2043)
In Ramallah, the
Egyptian Foreign Minster, Ahmed Maher and Osama al-Baz, a
political adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, arrived for
talks with the Palestinian leader.
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