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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 - 04:11pm Sep 25, 2002 EST (# 4531 of 4536)
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.

I thought I had pretty good answers in an all-day session I had with " becq " on September 25, 2000.

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I still think the suggestion is basically the right one, both morally and practically.

But I had forgotten something - and later, in some very interesting discussions, almarst explained it to me. I didn't have a stable, peaceful, robust equilibrium acceptable to all parties, in the dirty world as it was. Though I'd taken a step toward it. The problem was that conventional weapons could be out of balance - and out of balance so much that weaker powers would want nuclear weapons. Out of balance so much that there was no stable peace - in the real world where the complete hegemony of one power is not a culturally acceptable thing - with human diversity as it is.

As of now, we'd be quite close to stability - with military technology and human patterns in place -- if we didn't have bombing. But you can't outlaw bombing today - because America has a monopoly on it, and wouldn't agree.

That's anxious for other nations, and I don't know how to relieve the anxiety.

But it occurs to me that some engineers (perhaps competitive teams of student engineers) might divert themselves from the discomfort that comes from that anxiety by playing some fairly diverting, inexpensive games with radio controlled model airplanes. Using components available from standard catalogs, and whatever they can whomp up from odds and ends, as students often do in engineering competitions.

Why not make dogfighting between radio controlled airplanes a competitive sport, between engineering schools? Sounds like fun to me.

Might get robot airplanes about as smart in their way as bats and birds are in theirs. Pretty quickly.

Don't know if that would amuse Nash - but I like concrete things, myself 1566 rshow55 4/20/02 4:07pm -- I'm an engineer, rather than a mathematician - - though I do like equilibria.

Hope nobody minds if I talk a little about some enginering games undergraduate teams could have fun with.

lchic - 04:24pm Sep 25, 2002 EST (# 4532 of 4536)

... sounds interesting ...

(So George Washington got cudos from 'not telling lies' - cherryTreeChop etc ... but the USA government now demands that workers do tell lies - perverting the course of their careers and lives if they object. Did the CIA send you 'that letter' yet Showalter?)

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