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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?
Read Debates, a new
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(13677 previous messages)
jorian319
- 08:00am Sep 15, 2003 EST (#
13678 of 17697) day length increases 1 second every
500 days. -James "Idiot" Nienhuis
I do not believe gisterme when he says: "I
will certainly not impersonate the President or any other
government official."
Wow. A list of things and people rshowalter doesn't believe
will certainly go a long way toward solving the problems of
the world.
Maybe I can help. I don't believe Showalter ever worked
with Eisenhower, I don't believe Showalter takes his own
professed advice about "checking" (you might want to look into
"savings", Robert), I don't believe anyone in any kind of
position of power EVER reads this forum , and I don't believe
Showalter's motives for prolix postings are anything more
complex than a quest self-aggrandizement.
Gee, this is fun - impugning the motives of people I don't
know, even as I solve the world's problems! </sarcasm>
rshow55
- 08:46am Sep 15, 2003 EST (#
13679 of 17697) 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.
Fair enough comment, Jorian.
We disagree about some things. I don't claim to be a saint.
I know I make mistakes. And, as I've said - in some ways this
thread is "just a game" - in Nash's sense and some
others.
I feel like posting this:
manjumicha , and fredmoore - your posts are
great. And yes, manj , the N. Korean situation could do
with some sunshine. http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/26/opinion/26WORK.html
Systems - inside people's head - and involving
sociotechnical systems and teams - do change. Here's Piaget -
on changing "paradigms" in the course of a single life. http://www.mrshowalter.net/PiagetCognitiveLimits.htm
Kids - "stupid" as they may seem in some ways - are very
smart in others - for instance about learning words.
3694 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.RErUbPHeYTe.1147014@.f28e622/4655
Could people get smarter?
I did a lot of work - set out in 13626-7 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.RErUbPHeYTe.1147014@.f28e622/15319
at gisterme's request, and I'll be posting it at a
little more length on Mankind's Inhumanity to Man and Woman
- As natural as human goodness? - which has a first
posting that I think is worthwhile here. http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee7b085/0
I would have carried it further - but I thought - at that
particular time - I was dealing with "invincible
ignorance" - people have to be ready. That's a fact about
teaching kids to tie their shoes. Gisterme , who'd
asked to see some output - cut me off with this:
7937 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.RErUbPHeYTe.1147014@.f28e622/9462
gisterme - 02:43am Jan 23, 2003 EST (# 7937
rshow55 - 09:50pm Jan 21, 2003 EST (# 7887...)
"...I think some things in 7632-7635 were
fairly clear about oscillatory solutions..."
Only that you apparently don't know what
you're talking about. Give and take in discourse is not your
invention, Robert. I has nothing to do with oscillation or
periodicity.
Discourse does involve oscillation and periodicity.
Give and take happens on patterns - and plenty of people know
that. And the question of humanly workable stable
solutions is an important one.
Piaget wrote an interesting book centered on the
question what's cheating - from the point of view of
children of different ages. It would have been a better book
if he'd been able to read this piece by Natalie Angier The
Urge to Punish Cheats - Not Just Human but Selfless http://www.mrshowalter.net/UrgeToPunishCheatsNotJustHumanButSelfless.htm
Piaget was very clear - as many researchers
had been for years before him - that everybody lies -
including children of all ages - and that children worry
about it. As they grow up - they worry about it with more
sophistication. But as people - our sophistication on this
issue is still very problematic and limited - witness the
associations in http://thesaurus.reference.com/search?q=liar
13666 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.RErUbPHeYTe.1147014@.f28e622/15359
makes points that I think need to be repeated by a lot of
people - till they learn them better.
If people are scandalized, and panic - and
run around blinded with passion - every time somebody calls
somebody else a ahem "knowing falsifier" - then we're
in a hell of a mess.
The incidence of more or less conscious
deception - and obviously repressed fiction is something
like 10-20 times what people are admitting.
And people are stumped - in all sorts of
obvious and stupid ways - some of them bloody - because
they're missing that.
If people would admit that simple fact we
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