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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 - 06:59pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7597 of 7600)
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.

Some things are clear - and some not - and I'm at a stage where I've got to make a decision.

A. For some sequences, you have to do clear bookeeping about loop counting - and the guesses you make about the counts. There are some big advantages and disadvantages to these sequences.

B. For some other sequences, you can't possibly do clear bookeeping about loop counting - except in a statistical sense that can be VERY good or VERY bad depending on cases - and you have no hope of achieving any but oscillatory solutions - which can be VERY good if the oscillations are small enough in magnitude, high enough in frequency, and have little enough crosscorrellation. There are times when you can do beautifully with these oscillatory solutions - and they can occur in rather predictable, safe sequences.

If you're to work carefully, some of the time, you have to know that you're either in case A, or case B. You can be pretty sure of that, but not certain.

If I return lunarchick's phone call, I know that I'm in case B - I can't possibly count loops - or keep track of my guesses about them - and talk to lunarchick . I have to listen to her when I talk to her, for one thing. She's much too fast and switchy, for another. That makes her superb for case B sequences - but poison for case A sequences - of the kinds I'm thinking about now.

I don't know whether it is better, on balance, to call lunarchick back now, or not. I can't even guess. Flipping a coin can be a totally arbitrary and deeply biased way of guessing (a lot of probabilities are VERY different from .5) but it is determinant.

I need to make a decision. This time - I will flip a coin.

bbbuck - 07:14pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7598 of 7600)
"You can't eat this, it's people, it's people"-B....."What about the cherry pie?"

Someone please rip the modem out of this idiot's computer.
Thanks in advance.

rshow55 - 07:30pm Jan 11, 2003 EST (# 7599 of 7600)
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.

Tails. Maybe a bad choice - but I'll choose to accept it.

I won't return luncarchick's phone call. I'm certain that I regret not doing so in a lot of ways - and certain that I need to apologize.

Sorry partner.

I'm also certain that as long as she does things that make sense to her - and posts on this board as she has - connecting the board to external facts - and external-uncorrellated sequences we can use to make judgements on this board - I'll be grateful- and the posts will be helpful. I think lunarchick is the most valuable mind I've ever encountered - and think she's beautiful in every way that matters to me.

I'm going to work through some problems about canonicity - for a while. We're at a point where if we just keep moving carefully - in small enough steps - step by step - we can do much better.

Some things are sure on the basis of many different assumptions - or from many different perspectives.

It is sure that neither the Iraqis nor the N. Koreans want to fight us.

It is sure that we're a lot bigger than they are.

It is sure that we don't have to agree on everything - even at basic levels - to live together without killing or injuring each other.

If we're careful, and take some reasonable time - and move in small steps - we can certainly reduce the incidence of death and agony from war -for the forseeable future - and do better in a lot of other ways.

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