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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 (7619 previous messages)

rshow55 - 07:42pm Jan 12, 2003 EST (# 7620 of 7620) 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.

We can do better than we've been doing. Together and separately. On a lot of things. But in many, many, many cases - unless there are things that matter that can be checked against facts - in ways taken to closure - you can't tell either what happened - or who is responsible.

Collecting the dots - and connecting the dots - can clarify what needs to be checked - and how many ways cross-consistencies can be established - if people keep at it. Eventually - a great deal focuses.

We can do better than we've been doing. My guess continues to be that lunarchick and I, whatever our problems and differences with each other or with others - are getting enough clarified that we are probably "saving lives" - in an actuarial sense - at something like a rate of 1000/lives per hour we work. Or more. I'm proud - and I think The New York Times should be, too.

I'm honored to be associated with her. Every which way I look at it. If I knew more things for sure - some things would certainly change. That wouldn't.

Any way I can look at it - risks from weapons of mass destruction - and other weapons - can be much - much - much - much lower than they are today. As long as people are honest. Or honest enough - when it actually matters in public - and when people watching ask for things that matter to be straightened out.

If anybody thinks I've told a single lie on this board - they could start checking. Given a chance - I'll help them. Once a very few facts lock down - a lot else does, as well. As far as I can tell, the solution to Plato's problem - every which way - is at hand - and we can solve more problems than we've done so far - in ways that are orderly, symmetrical, and harmonious all sorts of ways - and from most human points of view. With enough space and room from individuals to be individuals - and for freedom to be real, and hope to be real - in all sorts of ways that matter.

I think if people search almarst's contributions on this board - and actually look at them - they paint an ugly picture that couldn't have happened by accident and can't be all wrong.

I believe that I've been doing just exactly the kind of things Bill Casey would have wanted - and that most decent people in the world would want - if they thought about it carefully, and hard. The incidence of death and agony from war - and the horrors of poverty, too - can be much less than they now are - if people keep at it, stay minimally honest, check their work, and take their time.

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