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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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rshowalt - 01:03pm Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3156 of 3339)

While I'm summarizing, I'd like to point out that there's been a great deal of discussion, some in my view well thought out and well written, about the idea of "connecting the dots." There were similar ideas on this thread (and a lot of other places) - but I was impressed with the phrase "connect the dots" used by Erica Goode. MD324 contains this:

Facts and ideas, combined together in space and time so that people can "connect the dots" , as Erica Goode says in Finding Answers In Secret Plots http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/10/weekinreview/10GOOD.html form the ideas that people and groups have. -- These ideas are patterns, which work well enough to sustain action and belief in some ways, though they may be totally invalid otherwise. These ideas, constructed by "connecting the dots" may produce grossly pathological results -- fueling hatred, wars, and cycles of poverty. Or they may be correct.

To judge that, one checks the "facts" "connected together" and one sees if the pattern conjured up fits more facts - - including many more facts. The process of judging this, like the process of putting the "explanation" together - happens in people's minds - and can't be forced. But the matching process -- the "connecting of the dots" -- is what effective thinking and persuasion is all about. . . .

Since then, the idea has been worked through, to some degree from different angles, on this thread. This thread has also cited the use of the phrase, and the associated ideas, by others.

rshowalt - 01:04pm Jul 19, 2002 EST (#3157 of 3339)

324-5 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?14@167.KYOsaxDFPEG^3508231@.f28e622/401... 329 rshow55 3/10/02 3:03pm
382-4 rshow55 3/11/02 1:13pm ... 402-6 rshow55 3/12/02 9:19am
478 rshow55 3/13/02 7:17pm ... 485-90 lchic 3/13/02 9:06pm
592 rshow55 3/15/02 7:52pm ... 604-6 rshow55 3/16/02 12:51pm
613 rshow55 3/16/02 8:48pm ... 633 rshow55 3/17/02 10:00am
648-649 rshow55 3/17/02 7:45pm ... 721 rshow55 3/20/02 1:56pm
756 rshow55 3/22/02 11:50am ... 792 rshow55 3/23/02 10:33pm
859-61 rshow55 3/26/02 11:40pm .. 1055 rshow55 4/4/02 7:54am
1055 rshow55 4/4/02 7:54am ... 1055 rshow55 4/4/02 7:54am
1113-1117 rshow55 4/5/02 2:03pm ... 1374-1376 rshow55 4/15/02 4:54pm
1711-1712 rshow55 4/23/02 4:00pm ... 1741 rshow55 4/24/02 10:37am
2156-2161 rshow55 5/11/02 11:11am ... 2346-2347 rshow55 5/22/02 12:40pm
2346-2347 rshow55 5/22/02 12:40pm ... 2346-2347 rshow55 5/22/02 12:40pm
2408 rshow55 5/28/02 3:19pm ... 2461rshow55 6/4/02 6:51am
2461rshow55 6/4/02 6:51am ... 2462-3 rshow55 6/4/02 6:54am
2789-90 rshow55 6/30/02 10:26am ... 2856-7 rshow55 7/3/02 10:38am
2893 rshow55 7/6/02 8:25am ... 2906-7 rshow55 7/8/02 6:56am
2986 rshow55 7/10/02 3:58pm ... 3068 rshow55 7/15/02 6:47am

During this time there has been something of an explosion of usage of the idea - - and it may be in the process of becoming the most important kind of idea a culture has -- an idea used so often -- connected with so much -- that everybody knows it, and associates a lot with it. Such ideas are called "cliche's" -- and they have a status that is both "low" and "high" -- depending on how you want to think about it.

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