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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 - 07:47pm Jan 4, 2003 EST (# 7337 of 7344)
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.

7199 rshow55 1/1/03 6:57pm

7200 rshow55 1/1/03 7:01pm reads:

"Looking back- 2002 was a good year - and I don't think, in terms of what I can know, that we're so very far, logically , from the hopes expressed in Someday At Christmas by Stevie Wonder http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/xmas/97xmas.html

"Can we sort the remaining logical problems out soon - and communicate them well enough so that people agree in the ways that matter for action?

"It looks possible to me.

"People need to collect "the dots" and connect the dots to form ideas - from the perspectives that matter to them - and that fit what they know and then check those ideas against other things - - and go at it again --

(insert: and again and again, as necessary - anybody looked at how computer sorts actually work?)

at the same time evaluating their ideas in terms of order and symmetry and harmony in the ways that make aesthetic sense to them when applied to the particular details of the case.

"If people did this, and kept at it , we'd live in a lot safer, more hopeful world.

"Nobody would have to be any smarter than they are today. I'm hopeful - and feel that we have time to get a number of things sorted out.

. . . . .

Logically, from my perspective, good things have happened since.

This is time for me to quit for tonight, and rest. I know I have to - I've got big cause for concern. I'm feeling very, very hopeful.

That's dangerous.

I'm also feeling swamped. Tried to answer a question harder than the one John Nash answered, remembering just a few things:

Question: What would happen, if the people playing this "game that is not a game" set out honestly and in public what they actually wanted - in such detail that it could actually work in the (relatively few) interfaces between the "players" that have to exist for peace, prosperity, and comfort?

I got a big headache, quickly, almost explosively, after looking at this question in the cases people worry about most now, and then got this terrible hopeful feeling.

That made me know I had to quit - because my logic wasn't trustworthy. I've relaxed a little since.

I'm on my second beer and I'm knocking off to rest, relax and sleep on things.

Seems to me that solutions might well be easier if the "players" thought about the question above. If they can't define what they want - they surely can't get it cleanly.

And if they can't admit what they want, they can't get it stably.

I know I have to quit - because I'm feeling too optimistic. Even when you know it isn't going to last, it is a nice feeling sometimes.

out.

rshow55 - 07:50pm Jan 4, 2003 EST (# 7338 of 7344)
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.

lunarchick 1/4/03 7:43pm - dither and damping are important!

We have some, in most of the right spots, though not calibrated. That's hopeful!

Lunarchick is wonderful!

gisterme - 03:20am Jan 5, 2003 EST (# 7339 of 7344)

rshow55 1/4/03 7:47pm

"...People need to collect "the dots"

"collect" doesn't make much sense WRT "dots"..."discover" might be a more sensible term since it doesn't imply moving them into one place...but let's not quibble over a word.

"...and connect the dots to form ideas...at the same time evaluating their ideas in terms of order and symmetry and harmony in the ways that make aesthetic sense to them when applied to the particular details of the case..." [emphasis added].

Who doesn't do that, Robert? It's true that most folks who do may not think of such lofty terms as "order", "symmerty", "harmony" or "aesthetic sense" in doing so; but, that doesn't really seem necessary does it? When a person is happy with their idea, it has order symmetry and harmony from their point of view, even if they don't think of it those terms...and even if they are insane megalomaniacs.

One person's aesthetic sense of order, symmetry and harmony, can and has lead to the ugliest sort of disrder, assymetry, discord and death for millions of others.

Stalin... Hitler... Hirohito... Chariman Mao... Pol Pot... Saddam Hussein...

See the point? If not, let me make it by answering the question that caused you such a headache. (continued)

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