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 - 10:53am Sep 28, 2002 EST (# 4626 of 4633)
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.

Now, with the internet, some past mistakes may be easier to avoid than they've been in the past. Crossreferencing - so people can "connect the dots" in much more detail, and with the technical possibility of umpiring - even systems of umpiring - is much more possible, and much more checkable, than ever before. And not all that expensive - - though the costs are real.

The technology has more personal, emotional possibilites, as well as the logical ones. Web videocasting, for example.

There's a story of a lady, on her knees, praying about Darwin.

" Oh Lord, let it not be true .....

" But if it IS true ....

" Give us the STRENGTH to suppress it ."

If people on opposite sides of a question discuss things and that's shown on web videotape, the difference between open minded work, and "the will to supress" might be hard to hide.

Once the human point is somehow made that sane, credible people are raising a sane, credible issue, then the questions

" What would it cost to check? and " What gain could we get, or what loss could we avoid, by getting the right answer here? "

are questions that people can consider wisely, with both their heads and their hearts.

Some beautiful things might be possible, if people did that.

rshow55 - 10:55am Sep 28, 2002 EST (# 4627 of 4633)
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.

Missile Defense offers an example of a subject matter, important in itself, and also potentially clear - - where many things might be worked out. 1075-76 rshow55 4/4/02 1:20pm

Perhaps I've been slow - through muddle, a lack of courage, and problems with my security situation. But maybe things are getting better.

Enron was enormously respected -- an exemplar. And for a long time, enronation proceeded in broad daylight http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/27/opinion/27KRUG.html . But eventually, checking did occur - - and some things previously "hidden in plain sight" but not really seen, were seen.

That was progress. With some similar progress on military matters, including matters that have been discussed a great deal on this thread, I think that the world could be a much more peaceful, prosperous place.

Maybe my judgement is flawed. Given my background, that wouldn't be too surprising. As C.P. Snow said

"It takes a very strong head to keep secrets for years, and not go slightly mad.

and I've been keeping secrets for a long time. (The quote, in a longer passage in 4565 rshow55 9/26/02 4:34pm is from C.P. Snow's Science and Government . . . Chapter 10 ... Harvard U. Press, 1961.)

But perhaps I'm right on some things that matter. The argument that I'm restricted by classification laws is getting weaker . It may be possible to make some progress. That could, in my own judgement, be a useful step toward saving the world - - - using the verb "to save" in some very sensible and familiar senses.

(6 following messages)

New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense