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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 - 09:38am Nov 23, 2002 EST (# 6208 of 6213)
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.

Connecting the dots:

Pathos and folly may be understandable, but still regrettable, when matters of life, death, and agony are at stake. Here's a piece of my MD382 rshow55 3/11/02 12:13pm

"Facts and ideas, combined together in space and time so that people can "connect the dots" , as Erica Goode says in Finding Answers In Secret Plots http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/weekinreview/10GOOD.html form the ideas that people and groups have. -- These ideas are patterns, which work well enough to sustain action and belief in some ways, though they may be totally invalid otherwise. These ideas, constructed by "connecting the dots" may produce grossly pathological results -- . . . Or they may be correct. . . . .

"To judge that, one checks the "facts" "connected together" and one sees if the pattern conjured up fits more facts - - including many more facts. The process of judging this, like the process of putting the "explanation" together - happens in people's minds - and can't be forced. But the matching process -- the "connecting of the dots" -- is what effective persuasion is all about. And the internet offers new ways, some shown here, of connecting information in space and time that would otherwise be diffused and unconnectable. "

We have to learn to connect some of it, make some better decisions, and negotiate some better, warmer, safer arrangements than we have - where there is too much ugliness and danger now.

References, with connections to this thread, in Psychwarfare, Casablanca . . . and terror

#290 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/308

#308 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/328 (With connections to Plato's problem ).

#318 http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7a163/339 includes this:

" When we try to impose our will . . . however reasonable our reasons -- we ought to remember these ancient lines from Maurice. Not to say that they apply simply - but that the compexities connected to these words are vital matters of decency, life and death.

" This only makes a war lawful: that it is a struggle for law against force; for the life of the people as expressed in their laws, their language, and their government, against any effort to impose on them a law, a language, a government that is not theirs."

People in the Islamic countries want to accomodate modernity - in many ways - but they are conflicted and confused, so are we, and some things are going very wrong - many times surreally wrong. It is a time to be very careful.

There are times when it is possible to "set up the logic" where fights - in terms of that logic - seem "inevitable" and "right."

That means it is right - morally right - obligatory - - for people to have the wit to look at their logic - at the structures involved - question that logic - and find better solutions.

We seem to be approaching times when we have to do that, and the leaders of Islam are going to have to do it, too.

That's both a moral and an intellectual problem. And right answers are essential - including some very basic answers about facts.

lunarchick - 09:42am Nov 23, 2002 EST (# 6209 of 6213)

^{U.S. and International Research and Development: Funds and Alliances International Comparisons of National R&D Trends http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/c4/c4s4.htm}

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This demos how necessary it is for communication (terminology) to be absolutely 'understood' when conducting a census ... http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/glossary.html http://www.census.gov/dmd/www/glossary.html

rshow55 - 09:46am Nov 23, 2002 EST (# 6210 of 6213)
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.

And that's a vital point - and the more important - the more important the stakes, and the more logically articulated the material - in terms of human models, and real facts.

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