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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 01:40pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4241 of 4466)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Points I was making that horrified people not very long ago have become "common ground." The little drama described in #163 of "Mankind's Inhumanity to Man" http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?13@@.ee7b085/193 happened in at the NYT DC office last September.

(The poem cited is Chain Breakers http://talk.guardian.co.uk/WebX?14@@.ee79f4e/618 )

There's been progress since.

smartalix - 02:30pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4242 of 4466)
Anyone who denies you information considers themselves your master

Missile defense could work if deployed as part of a multinational peace initiative. They could tie the space-based surveillance portion into the ISS.

lunarchick - 04:31pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4243 of 4466)
lunarchick@www.com

My point re nuclear waste is the 'not in my backyard syndrome' .. if it's so wonderful then let's dump it under the little league base ball pitch at the White House.

The reality is that when the Nuclear Power Stations (UK) were offered to privatisation .. there were NO NO NO takers. Because the costings for Nuclear power are a 'fairy story' that later turns ugly!

lunarchick - 04:57pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4244 of 4466)
lunarchick@www.com

Archival wise, there is no real reason why NYT could not archive and maintain the links to past forums. The funding could be raised via an appeal for a DataBase Philanthropist.

Interesting that for some C20-C21 identities archivalists will almost go as far as ironing and saving their used toilet paper :)

The factors re NYT would be that the threads offer a contemporary 'take' on how knowledge was seen and understood from varied viewpoints.

Take a look at the background and lives of NYT posters .. put a value on their:

Education
(each unit of which is assigned a dollar value)
Experience
(ditto)
Individual perceptions
(unique?)
Proactivity re emergent issues
(interesting)
Reaction to, and embracing of, Change
(acceptance of new, time taken, redundancy factors, adaptation )

The NYT could hold the science/mystery threads in alliance with DataWarehouse archivists.

The NYT is a quality paper with cp readerships. To trash it's own treasureTroves comes down to 'not knowing what you've got is a good thing 'til it's gone'.

NYT is a dollars&cents commercial operation - that's why a philanthropy archival element should align.

If only NYT had a perceptive stringer or staffer ... just ONE with the competency and foresight to value contemporaty history and put such a plea-ladened proposal on one of its pages ... WWWWWH

rshowalter - 06:41pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4245 of 4466)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

I bet the idea would be embraced -- I used to know a number of rich folks --- I think a LOT of them would be proud to fund the archiving (which can't be so much money -- for "bragging rights."

Because it would be an HONOR to do. Archiving the Guardian would be an honor, too.

rshowalter - 07:10pm May 26, 2001 EST (#4246 of 4466)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

smartalix 5/26/01 2:30pm

"Missile defense could work if deployed as part of a multinational peace initiative. They could tie the space-based surveillance portion into the ISS."

If the development of missile defense was combined with an effort to negotiate mulitnational peace (and the peace efforts were funded at, say 10% of the development cost, like an overhead) -- with the negotiation pushing the state of the communication arts as the hardware would have to push the state of the control arts -- I believe that multinational peace could advance very far - even though the missile defense hardware most likely wouldn't.

In such a scheme, everybody would have plenty of time and communication to find ways past MADness , to a more sensible world.

The percieved threat of the hardware might, in fact, focus the minds of the negotiators, and facilitate serious work, and closure.

Probably too idealistic, but fun to think about.

Though I think engineers should find themselves more interesting things to do.

Like fixing global warming, which is fixable, and getting sociotechnical systems working better -- among MANY other things.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense