New York Times Readers Opinions
The New York Times

Home
Job Market
Real Estate
Automobiles
News
International
National
Washington
Business
Technology
Science
Health
Sports
New York Region
Education
Weather
Obituaries
NYT Front Page
Corrections
Opinion
Editorials/Op-Ed
Readers' Opinions


Features
Arts
Books
Movies
Travel
Dining & Wine
Home & Garden
Fashion & Style
Crossword/Games
Cartoons
Magazine
Week in Review
Multimedia
College
Learning Network
Services
Archive
Classifieds
Book a Trip
Personals
Theater Tickets
Premium Products
NYT Store
NYT Mobile
E-Cards & More
About NYTDigital
Jobs at NYTDigital
Online Media Kit
Our Advertisers
Member_Center
Your Profile
E-Mail Preferences
News Tracker
Premium Account
Site Help
Privacy Policy
Newspaper
Home Delivery
Customer Service
Electronic Edition
Media Kit
Community Affairs
Text Version
TipsGo to Advanced Search
Search Options divide
go to Member Center Log Out
  

 [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 (12113 previous messages)

rshow55 - 07:00am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12114 of 12130)
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.

Great posts!

I liked almarst's a lot better than I liked Fredmoore's - though Fredmoore's were fascinating, too. And, as usual, lchic came up with analysis and connections of superb quality - and humanity.

Whenever I hear someone use QM in an argument - I'm suspiscious - for good reasons - that someone's looking for an excuse for mysticism - or grotesque illogic. But what Fredmoore said about Russia being a muddle, injured society was true - only all societies are, to a dangerous extent.

To avoid sensory overload and bad judgement - for myself and others - I'm moving slowly. But I think that if we looked, now, honestly and with enough completeness to really see what was there - at how the Cold War happened, and how it was "won" and the victory squandered - we'd be a lot better off.

And more able to solve problems that the "3d world" has.

There's plenty of greed and fear in the world - almarst is surely right about that. And both are out of good control a lot of places - including in the US. But another problem is that people don't know how to do things that they want and need to do that take complex cooperation.

Eisenhower's "containment policies" - continuations of those of Truman - who he serves as commander of NATO - happened with plenty of analysis - but to an enormous extent they happened because he, and the country, had no idea how to talk effectively, safely, and to clean closures to the Russians about anything.

I was asked to work on that - and maybe didn't get so far - but thought about the matter anyway - and a good deal of the body of this thread, from Sep 2000 - involves efforts that lchic and I have made to facilitate clear communication with Russians and others very different from Americans.

rshow55 - 07:07am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12115 of 12130)
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've thought that the ideas of

"connecting the dots;"

"disciplined beauty;"

and the idea that, when it matters enough, getting facts clear needs to be morally forcing

have been essential contribution-clarifications - that leaders of America and other nations could use effectively - that would have been useful to Eisenhower. I think Eisenhower would have thought so.

Lchic and I may have been "belaboring the obvious" working on these points. But we've worked to focus the obvious, too.

I think that if Eisenhower had had these points as focused as we've got them now - he could have done a lot better. And Soviet leaders could have done better, too.

Both American and Soviet leaders could have used the math work, as well. To use it now - some problems of status and organization are still tough - but maybe soluble. It would help if I could get my classification constraints finally dealt with decently.

lchic - 07:18am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12116 of 12130)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

" ... the whimper of a species which ran out of air, water, resources and food."

http://www.global-vision.org/un/position.html

lchic - 07:37am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12117 of 12130)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

OCEANS

http://ioc.unesco.org/iocweb/default.htm

Ocean Carbon http://ioc.unesco.org/iocweb/co2panel/

http://ioc.unesco.org/goos/

lchic - 07:54am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12118 of 12130)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Tehnically - stategic planning

http://www.oit.doe.gov/aboutoit/pdfs/strategicplan.pdf

lchic - 07:57am May 28, 2003 EST (# 12119 of 12130)
~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

above: Office of industrial technologies -- strategic plan

More Messages Recent Messages (11 following messages)

 Read Subscriptions  Subscribe  Search  Post Message
 Your Preferences

 [F] New York Times on the Web Forums  / Science  / Missile Defense