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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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cantabb - 10:26am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15347 of 15354)

rshow55 - 09:42am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15344 of 15346)

Somebody might be interested in a Cast of Characters for this thread....

Could it be you, and you alone ! With obsessive interest in poster IDs, and speculative "Who's Who."

Rest, just idle rambling.

rshow55 - 09:57am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15346 of 15346)

Lchic and I have been working on a number of issues connected to the idea of getting "canonicity" - as that word is used technically, by "connecting the dots" ( every which way ) and keeping at it.:

Oh, there you go once again....

Do you NEED to repeat yourself constantly ?

More rambling.

I'm trying to show how to do a fair negotiation from all the perspectives that matter - in the presence of mutual threat and mixed motives - between me and the New York Times. Without asking that the question of "who is the good guy" be a subject of agreement. Problem is, I'm trying to do it while fencing on this board - - and I can be very much weakened by laughing.

Again, more on YOUR personal problems ! Totally irrelevant to this thread.

rshow55 - 10:32am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15348 of 15354)
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.

The problem is more than personal.

The standard pattern of narrative is set out in How a Story is Shaped. http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/ducksoup/555/storyshape.html - and NYT writers are all good at fitting that structure.

If you take the things that have happened during and since the Korean War that relate to the current interactions of N. Korea - and set out a "cast of characters" including every American, North Korean, South Korean, Chinese, and Russian leader - including Bush and Kim Jong Il - it is technically easy to write a set of stories - each based on the same facts - at least in the main - which can set any permutation of leaders in the role of either "the good guy" or "the bad guy."

You can do that with stories that are canonical in the sense that they cover exactly the same objective facts.

Some attributions of "goodness" and "badness" fit circumstances much better than others - in terms of assumptions and feelings we can be clear about - and fit matters. http://www.mrshowalter.net/DBeauty.html

But any way you set things out - there is plenty of "blame" and a lot of "extenuation" involved.

The same sort of thing can be true in most complicated human interactions.

Certainly including the human interaction involving me, the government, and The New York Times.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/RedemCyc.html

Sometimes the issues involved with the accomodation of significant fact are bracing, and morally important. . .

The technical problems are relatively easy. The psychological and moral problems are hard.

http://www.mrshowalter.net/TruthHope.html

A technical fact is that we have to communicate enough so that we have enough common ground so that we can learn to agree - or agree to disagree - safely and stably. And only fight when we actually "have to." A Communication Model http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML

rshow55 - 10:36am Oct 21, 2003 EST (# 15349 of 15354)
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.

Do you NEED to repeat yourself constantly ?

If you're trying to get kids to learn to tie their shoes - you can't avoid repetition.

On negotiation - there are basic lessons that lchic and I care about - and rightly so - that are matters of life and death - that we're trying to get across.

We have hopes it might work.

Speaking of work - lchic and I aren't the only ones who've done a lot of work on this thread. http://www.mrshowalter.net/Sequential.htm - so I suppose the NYT cares what happens here - and respects it some.

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New York Times on the Web Forums Science Missile Defense