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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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lunarchick - 03:45pm Jan 10, 2003 EST (# 7573 of 7588)

Fossil | A person whose views and opinions are extremely antiquated; one whose sympathies are with a former time rather than with the present. http://www.hyperdictionary.com/dictionary/fossil

Fossilization:

Briefly, this is the process by which an animal or plant or any trace of its existence is preserved in rock or as a single unit. A fern on a piece of shale, an agatized shell, an unreplaced mollusc, trace fossils (tracks of all kinds), gastroliths (dinosaur gizzard stones) and coprolites (fish or animal dung) are all examples of fossils. http://www.fossilkingdom.com/FK-Fossil%20Dic.htm

Words & fossilized prejudices Weigh your words, please

Language mirrors our culture, and words, in a sense, are a key to our past, reflecting our customs, beliefs, prejudices and habits of thought. Expressions like ‘disoriented’ and ‘a left-handed compliment’ echo our age-old prejudices and beliefs. They also open up vast vistas that words like ‘salmonella’, ‘leotard’ or ‘napalm’ seldom do. http://www.chennaionline.com/columns/word/word59.asp

As time went on the language changed and in many cases the words that formed the original name passed out of use, leaving the fossilized form in the name. This is why we do not recognize the meanings of many names today. Their origins are in ancient languages from words that have passed out of use. http://www.sca.org/heraldry/laurel/names/namehist.html

lunarchick - 03:50pm Jan 10, 2003 EST (# 7574 of 7588)

Culture builds from the environment. Some cultural practises may once have made sound sense - but in their fossilized from no longer gel with the needs of a First World Economy and Society.

In harsh conditions with tribal context the family may have been more 'group' than nuclear.

Some cultures are built around this, and within such groups women may suffer supression. Supression in relation to their educational and career prospects.

Cultures that undervalue and fail to value the potential contributions of women must be declared fossilzed.

lunarchick - 03:57pm Jan 10, 2003 EST (# 7575 of 7588)

Looking at business entities, and the same has applied to geographic regional entities throughout time, they are subject to takeover when they weaken - as against others.

Fossilized business practise will include a failure to implement modern process to keep it vital and functional.

The same will apply to Nations that stagnate and fall behind general trends.

rshow55 - 05:39pm Jan 10, 2003 EST (# 7576 of 7588)
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 wish I was faster - and in some ways, fairer to gisterme , who is associated with an administration that heads a wonderful country - and a country that is doing many, many things right. I've been running tired - and haven't responded to as many things as I'd like. Or focused as tightly. But focus, most of the time, happens in steps. People find convergent stable sequences plenty of times.

When you are trying to describe something physical - such as the solar system, to pick a well-worked example - some perspectives - some frames of reference - are much more convenient than others - the solar system and the earth are the two most convenient frames of reference in the celestial mechanics case. The "simplest" and best frames can easily be spotted by looking at how many terms in successive approximations are needed to describe what is observed. The best frames of reference need many fewer terms to convege to very good description. In such specific contexts - what is best often comes to be agreed to almost perfectly.

Here's a way of looking that seems useful to me. In a particular case - the notion of disciplined beauty is the notion of fit to specific facts and assumptions for a specific case.

To me, beauty in that kind of context means order- symmetry, and harmony of explanation - every which way.

In general cases, you can't say all that much generally (though there are some things you can say) - - but in cases specific enough to apply the "disciplined beauty" idea - many people often agree on what is orderly (inconsistency is disorderly) - what is symmetrical - and what is harmonious. Different groups of people may have different views - but generally only a few positions stay stable. In these specific cases -it is usually possible to sort out workable agreements on what it makes sense to do, for all concerned, step by step. People often work things out very well.

I think we can learn to consistently work things out well enough so that the incidence of agony and death from war comes WAY down - and our ability to cooperate enough for successful relations and prosperity gets much better in the areas where it is most ugly now.

In local, restricted zones, people can be sure enough of what is right - and everybody can agree well enough. Often very well.

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