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 [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 (4400 previous messages)

lchic - 09:03am Sep 19, 2002 EST (# 4401 of 4409)

A point re Iraq is that currently 'one guy' controls the purse strings ... has power, is power, but not good power.

Were there an alternative source of '$power$' - could things be different?

lchic - 09:11am Sep 19, 2002 EST (# 4402 of 4409)

An intesting program here - tells that the mind of man is 'compartmentalised' ... whereas in females the bridge joining the two halves of the brain is better connected - giving improved language skills.

Whereas males have 'the bull in the china shop' approach to problem solving ... females recognise a need to get help.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s680863.htm#transcript
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s680863.htm

[ Would be interesting to give an MD presentation to both .... see if they thought differently. Perhaps after a presentation of MD and then one on the 'real' needs of the world ... both genders would cut the bull and move forward. ]

rshow55 - 09:33am Sep 19, 2002 EST (# 4403 of 4409) Delete Message
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.

Finding common ground:

How a Story is Shaped. http://www.fortunecity.com/lavendar/ducksoup/555/storyshape.html

A Communication Model http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML

Disney Characters http://www.whom.co.uk/squelch/world_disney.htm

It seems to me that A Communication Model http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML is especially elementary - especially basic. It says key things - I believe - that will not be changed at their foundations in the next thousand years. (That's true about stories, too -- but for action, persuasion is not the same as just telling stories, though stories are moving and important.)

To communicate there must be common ground. A "shared space". http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML is short, and says the most basic things about what shared space is, and why it is needed.

The same logic and the same detailed solutions have to be explained and discussed in ways where "sender" and "reciever" really have a "shared space" . . . and that communication task is a different task from working out a solution (in isolation) in the first place.

That means different discussion - to fit the people involved. One size cannot fit all, when it matters. Great examples, to establish one shared space won't work at all where the examples are not shared, or don't have the same emotional connections.

The basic matters discussed in http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML are essential for all workable communication - and to understand them is to understand how communication often fails - and how communication can be made to fail less often.

A special kind of communication is sometimes needed - when there is doubt about what is right. That kind of communication is needed for "fighting out" questions of logic and fact. If the ideas aren't fought out - more bloody fights are sometimes unavoidable. To be merciful and responsible to human beings - sometimes you have to take a harsh, stark view of ideas that have consequences.

When consequences matter - getting logic and facts straight is vitally important - and though it has costs - if the basic requirements of communication set out in http://www.worldtrans.org/TP/TP1/TP1-17.HTML are satisfied - - it can be done.

We need to learn to do it better. This thread has partly been about that.

lchic - 09:52am Sep 19, 2002 EST (# 4404 of 4409)

It's got the bottom of a few matters ... including missile bunkers!

commondata - 10:02am Sep 19, 2002 EST (# 4405 of 4409)

"If the ideas aren't fought out - more bloody fights are sometimes unavoidable"

How big a part of conflict is bad communication? Mostly there is an excellent understanding by all parties involved as to what the conflict is about. Is it naive to imagine that many bloody fights are avoidable by contemplating Disney?

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