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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?

Read Debates, a new Web-only feature culled from Readers' Opinions, published every Thursday.

rshow55 - 07:19pm Jan 7, 2003 EST (# 7459 of 7479)
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.

U.S. 'Willing to Talk' With North Korea on Nuclear Issues By BRIAN KNOWLTON, International Herald Tribune http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/07/international/07CND_KORE.html

is encouraging.

I worked hard today, and felt very good about some things - but got a warning that I should go slowly. Something unexpected went wrong, in a sequence that looked otherwise like it was very right. I'm "going around in circles" - checking that loops that ought to close do, making sure that things that ought to be getting smoother and better matched up do.

If you "go around in circles" in some sequences (like dancing) you can "switch leads" again and again - as seems comfortable. Adding a step, or subtracting one, works too.

Indirection has its uses - and a system that is very indirect, with many switching points - can "get from anywhere to anywhere."

Which is just what's needed, if you want to do "anything you want" - and do it slowly.

Once you know WHICH point you want to connect to WHICH - and in what sequence - and with what particular signs - there can be a lot of simplifications. Some simplifications on that sort of thing seem to have become locked down - among animals, at the beginning of the Age of Fishes.

I thought of doing something sharp and elegant - worked it out, I thought - and decided not to do it. It could be unstable - and I can do it tomorrow just as well (maybe with a little "going around in circles" - or adding or subracting a step - to change signs.) I was worried about stability, some - but then something happened that caused me to worry more.

I bought a big, fancy computer - and I've been setting it up. The monitor has been beautiful, but hard to adjust to. It doesn't flicker - and yesterday, I could only look at it for about 5.3 minutes at a time - after some time to adjust. After sleeping on it, I'm up to almost twenty minutes now. But I had a reason to hesitate. The CD writer, and dvd-rom writer on my new computer have been disconnected - and when something that primordial goes wrong -after things have been going right . . . it is time to hesitate.

It seems to me that things are close to a point where everything needed to work out some peaceful relations can be set out - but without trimming of proportions. Worked out pretty easily to a level where setups for peace, and setups for treachery look the same, from the perspectives of the different parties. That is, set up so that peace could work, if things are balanced, not too fast, and crosschecked.

That's progress, it seems to me.

I'm out for tonight.

almarst2002 - 09:00pm Jan 7, 2003 EST (# 7460 of 7479)

Act now against war - http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,869832,00.html

"...this will be a war without even the flimsiest of pretexts: an unprovoked attack whose purpose is to enhance the wealth and power of an American kleptocracy. Far from promoting peace, it could be the first in a series of imperial wars. The gravest global crisis since the end of the cold war is three weeks away, and most of us seem to be asking why someone else doesn't do something about it."

almarst2002 - 09:48pm Jan 7, 2003 EST (# 7461 of 7479)

http://www.opendemocracy.net/home/index.jsp

lunarchick - 10:12pm Jan 7, 2003 EST (# 7462 of 7479)

An interesting read Almarst ... highlights Showalter's DITHER factor ... begs the question - how long to dither - but shows why ... illustrates there are many factors to be weighed by people 'on the ground' who don't want to be caught fatally by repercussions.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense