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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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(7144 previous messages)
rshow55
- 06:56am Dec 31, 2002 EST (#
7145 of 7147)
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.
Lunarchick and I have been worrying some about
control theory - and related matters with close connections to
life and death, peace and war, prosperity and muddle.
If you're trying to build something that works (or if
evolution is to produce a successful result) - these very
basic principles, or dimensions, are vitally important - at
every level, and in detail.
. Order
. Symmetry
. Harmony
Usually in that order, though there have to be exceptions.
Sometimes you have to mix them up. But if something is to
develop (or evolve) that works - these principles, in
interaction together, are important again and again.
Sometimes there are assemblies that are designed (or
evolved, or some of both) - and if they are subject to a lot
of work - over a lot of time (or a lot of evolution) patterns
happen - with very good order, very good symmetry, and
complete harmony witin the system itself, and in the system as
it is placed in the system (environment) that it is a part of.
But things that are perfect for one purpose can be
perfectly awful for some other purpose - and so sometimes
there have to be exceptions. After all, sometimes a system
has to do different things at different times, or has to fit
into different contexts. The more specialized and perfect that
system is for one job - the more ill fit it can be for
another. If both jobs need to be served - there is a
"contradiction" - a need for exception handling according to a
pattern that may be more or less mechanical.
And the exception handling, after a while, if things are
complicated and there are a lot of things going on, has to be
organized itself, and becomes another system - connected to
the first, lower system - with ways of changing or switching
that lower system in detailed ways, through interfaces with
the components.
rshow55
- 07:00am Dec 31, 2002 EST (#
7146 of 7147)
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.
As the exception handling system sorts itself out, or
evolves, or is developed - the exception handling itself
becomes a system - and many of the same sorts of issues that
applied at a lower level to the lower system now apply (though
at a higher level) to the exception handling system.
An exception handling system that works well has to involve
these very basic principles:
. Order
. Symmetry
. Harmony
Usually in that order, though there have to be exceptions.
Sometimes you have to mix them up. But if something is to
develop (or evolve) that works - these principles, in
interaction together, are important again and again. The
higher the level of control, the more complicated notions of
order, symmetry, and harmony have to be.
And a system of exception handling - or exception
handling system trimming - if it is complex enough, or exists
in a complicated enough context, will itself involve
conflicts, or problems, or situationally inappropriate
responses that require a higher level of control.
And so on.
Things sort themselves out into levels - the image in
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs by William G. Huitt Essay
and Image : http://chiron.valdosta.edu/whuitt/col/regsys/maslow.html
is a clear, important, and general example of a heirarchical
system with controls and interfaces of mutual constraint.
Look at the picture.
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