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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 - 03:15pm Dec 11, 2002 EST (# 6488 of 6506)
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 think a lot of things have gone well this year, and I'd like to repost this - where Lunarchick and I say things that still seem right, and on track:

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5441 rshow55 11/1/02 12:23pm

In negotiations going on, in rearrangements and adjustments that are going on, we want reasonable endings - good endings, endings as happy as we can make them.

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

For that to be possible, we need to find shared space - shared understandings.

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

For entirely hard-headed and practical reasons, and other reasons, we need to be able to communicate as human beings. That means, for the highest levels of function (which can be practically essential) that we have to be able to find ways to communicate at the level of our separate aesthetics .

Results on the basis of one set of assumptions or values may be beautiful - - and the very same result may be ugly in terms of another set of values and assumptions.

If the values and assumtions are clear - these things can be discussed, and arrangements can be negotiated - even when feelings are very different.

According to almost all standards, muddle is ugly.

The beauty or ugliness of a treaty, or any other arrangement, can be judged in terms of the context it was built for, and other contexts, including the context provided by data not previously considered.

As negotiations proceed - questions of what is ugly, and what is beautiful, in specific terms, can be very useful. Definition and discussion of these questions can avoid muddle, and produce arrangements that can be understood, remembered, and worked with for long times - in the face of the stresses, strains, and unforseen circumstances that have to be expected. MD5437 rshow55 11/1/02 8:40am

It seems to me that the Security Council, and the nations involved, have a chance to make the world a more beautiful place than it is today in very practical, specific, and important ways.

When the people involved have strong emotional feelings - strong aesthetic feelings - that is practically important - and to adress the reasons for those feelings - it seems to me that the formality of "disciplined beauty" described above, can be useful.

lchic 5442 lchic 11/1/02 2:06pm ~~~~ It got understood and exposed ~~~~

Showalter predicting 2002 as a DIPLOMATIC MILESTONE

correction ...

' a beautiful diplomatic milestone '

_ _ _ _ _ _

It seems to me that if things unfold as they have been since November 1 - that may turn out to be true. I hope so. 6460 rshow55 12/11/02 12:21pm

People don't have to become either geniuses or saints for us to work out much better solutions than we have now.

almarst2002 - 03:48pm Dec 11, 2002 EST (# 6489 of 6506)

Ironically, the Wars may become the thing of the past only when the consequences will be too costly even to the winner.

We are clearly moving toward this point. The danger is, some may not recognise the crossing in time.

May be God indeed lost any hope with his "experiment" on this Planet?

almarst2002 - 03:49pm Dec 11, 2002 EST (# 6490 of 6506)

BTW. I completely agree with assessment done by Commondata.

almarst2002 - 04:04pm Dec 11, 2002 EST (# 6491 of 6506)

U.S. missile defense system fails test - http://www.msnbc.com/news/845497.asp?0cv=CB20

A minor inconvenience on the march toward "total invincibility".

almarst2002 - 04:13pm Dec 11, 2002 EST (# 6492 of 6506)

A Bush administration strategy announced yesterday calls for the preemptive use of military and covert force before an enemy unleashes weapons of mass destruction, and underscores the United States’s willingness to retaliate with nuclear weapons for chemical or biological attacks on U.S. soil or against American troops overseas. - http://www.msnbc.com/news/845955.asp?0cl=c3

Robert, still hopefull?

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