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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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rshow55 - 06:31am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15315 of 15316)
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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/21/opinion/21TUE1.html also includes this: "Blackmail is a fair description of North Korea's behavior."

From other perspectives there could be other "fair descriptions." Other groups - including the North Koreans - might find other words besides "blackmail" fair. A great deal of negotiation - including negotiation that everybody approves of - involves compromise in the presence of mutual threats - on issues involving both status and money.

Here's a fact - a fact that isn't so important to know if explosive fighting without end is the objective - but a fact that is important to know if stable resolutions that pass reasonable tests of fairness are to be achieved.

For stable end games - people and groups have to be workably clear on these key questions.

How do they disagree (agree) about logical structure ?

How do they disagree (agree) about facts ?

How do they disagree (agree) about questions of how much different things matter ?

How do they differ in their team identifications ?

Odds are good that if the patterns of agreement (or disagreement) are STABLE and KNOWN they can be decently accomodated. Though it isn't easy to find those accomodations. But if these patterns of agreement or disagreement are NOT known - then situations that involve disagreements are inherently unstable.

We need to Iearn how to agree to disagree clearly, without fighting, comfortably, so that they can cooperate stably, safely, and productively - and when it matters enough, we need to learn how to agree about facts. Even when we happen to hate each other - even when we have reasons to hate each other. It is easy to use words as weapons to keep that from happening.

I believe that this thread is now, and has been for a while, the largest interconnected corpus devoted to negotiation practices in the world - or at least one of very few. It includes some probably distinguished, if anonymous, posters. http://www.mrshowalter.net/Sequential.htm I'm hopeful that the work it represents will be worthwhile - in the public interest, and from the viewpoint of The New York Times

I've done a great deal of work on this thread, with lchic , since Sept 25, 2000 - some summarize from 9003-9 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@13.krHGbqktQLB.3810123@.f28e622/10529

The part of this thread prior to March 1, 2002 is archived - and available at http://www.mrshowalter.net/ by number or date http://www.mrshowalter.net/calendar1.htm

I think readers may be interested in http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md8000s/md8298.htm , which summarizes practical problems as they appeared ten days before 9/11

At that time, I thought a great deal had been accomplished, and more could be. There was so much effort - on this thread and elsewhere, that hope seemed reasonable, along with plenty of concern.

The world changed with on 9/11/2000. Here's the Front Page of NYT on the Web - September 12, 2001 - http://www.mrshowalter.net/NYTWebFrontPage_9_11_02.htm

This thread was set up about Missile Defense - but it has evolved to involve more, with plenty of assistance from the NYT. This thread has been based on the "fiction" that staffed organizations were looking at it - and has prototyped patterns that staffed organizations could use. Sometimes I've hoped some staffs have looked at it.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense