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 [F] 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.


Earliest Messages Previous Messages Recent Messages Outline (7599 previous messages)

rshow55 - 07:33pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7600 of 7612) Delete Message
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'm sorry to move slowly - but I'm trying to communicate some lessons about canonicity - about order-symmetry-and harmony - and about the golden rule - under circustances where some key players will not meet with me face to face in ways that can generate clear, clean, neat, documented truth tables.

Things can comb out if we're careful.

Some things are uncertain - but you can be sure enough about the things that matter for action - if you take your time.

There is a "real world" in the ways that ought to matter for action. And we can agree on everything that matters for action. With small disagreements. And small oscillations.

We can't agree on everything - some disagreements happen in systems of disagreement - and we shouldn't want to agree about everything. Or even want to agree about all the big things.

We can do much better than we've been doing - if we're careful - and there's good reason for hope now.

I wish I could move more quickly - but I'm trying to be careful.

Got a better glasses perscription - though it would be impossible to reconstruct how that happened in detail - about some things - though everything could be sorted to within a sequence of "big disagreements" that don't matter for action - as far as the perscription goes.

The statistical argument you get to when you click "rshow55" in the upper left hand corner of my postings is important if you're wondering how a completely degenerate code like language can work as wonderfully as it does. Some things can be very clear to everybody - even there is massive disagreement about other things.

We don't have to kill each other - or even much inconvenience each other - at the nation state level - about these "massive disagreements" - if we're careful - and ask even friends, and even enemies - to explain themselves in public, and be subject to some testing, when it matters enough.

I'll be taking some time - worrrying about how to explain ways to improve canonicity - where improve means more beautiful - more orderly - more symmetrical - more harmonious - every which way that matters enough that we ought to worry about it, when we're decent about balancing what we do in human terms that can be explained in public.

rshow55 - 07:44pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7601 of 7612) Delete Message
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.

7567 rshow55 1/10/03 1:27pm . . you can do this many times - and comb out a lot.

Enough so we can do a lot better than we've done -without being either smarter or more honest than we are - except for this.

When it matters enough - key things need to be set out in public - and checked to closure in specifiable ways. If people could accept this - that would be a big change - and a lot could converge to much better states - cleanly and neatly.

It has to be possible to check Americans , too.

Out for a while.

bbbuck - 08:04pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7602 of 7612)
"You can't eat this, it's people, it's people"-B....."What about the cherry pie?"

Promise?

lchic - 08:32am Jan 12, 2003 EST (# 7603 of 7612)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Iraq


lchic - 08:48am Jan 12, 2003 EST (# 7604 of 7612)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Greece, which has just taken over the presidency of the European Union for the next six months, says the final decision on any military action must rest with the United Nations.

    It intends to lead a diplomatic mission to the Middle East soon.
    The Greeks have plenty to occupy them as they take over the helm of the EU for the next six months. UN weapons inspectors need time to do their job
    But they admit their presidency could be dominated by Iraq.
    And on that issue their main goal is very clear - they want to avoid a war.

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