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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 - 04:17pm Feb 16, 2003 EST (# 9012 of 9016)
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.

Kline's Index of complexity -- V + P + L < C < V times P times L ... a key reason why truth is critical for good function in complex systems.

MD1133 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:13pm ... MD1134 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:17pm MD1135 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:19pm ... MD1136 rshowalter 3/17/01 6:24pm MD1138 rshowalter 3/17/01 7:20pm ... MD1139 lunarchick 3/17/01 7:47pm MD1140 lunarchick 3/17/01 7:52pm ...

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1131_1137.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1137_1145.htm

The need for 3 views -- the need to account for positions that have "some of the truth, but not all of it."

MD1143 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:03pm ... MD1144 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:04pm MD1145 rshowalter 3/17/01 8:22pm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1137_1145.htm

MD1150 rshowalter 3/17/01 9:57pm ... http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1148_1150.htm

The dialog went on, and we got onto some crucial information, I felt, about economic efficiency, which I set out in:

MD1394 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:30pm ... MD1395 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:36pm MD1396 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:38pm ... MD1397 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:41pm MD1398 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:43pm ... MD1399 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:51pm MD1400 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:53pm . and, for emphasis, ... MD 1401 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:56pm

It is important for Russians to talk more informatively and reliably among themselves, and with others.

MD1402 rshowalter 3/23/01 5:58pm ... MD1403 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:22pm MD1404 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:33pm ...

MD1405-8 rshowalter 3/23/01 6:37pm

A key point that should be common ground, for all the disappointment and bitterness: MD1409 rshowalter 3/23/01 7:10pm

And I suggested an exercise in MD1410-1415 rshowalter 3/23/01 7:30pm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1394.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1402.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md01000s/md1409_1418.htm

After that week of dialog, I felt I understood the Russians better, and hoped that, if the Russians could understand these things, they might be able to sort out some of their internal and international problems better than before.

rshow55 - 04:18pm Feb 16, 2003 EST (# 9013 of 9016)
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 don't know if it has worked. But it seems to me that the Russians have done pretty well in a lot of areas since March 2001, and almarst , Dawn and I have kept talking. (As of July 24, 2001, there were 6258 postings since we cited "Muddle in Moscow" http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=533129 )

We've also had a lot of dialog with our "Bush administration stand-in" gisterme , starting with a powerful one in his first posting .. MD2997 gisterme 5/2/01 1:09pm ...

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2993.htm

http://www.mrshowalter.net/a_md2000s/md2998.htm

that has clarified a lot. ( For a full listing of gisterme's postings - see 8835 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@28.lwUaajj03k6.0@.f28e622/10361 almarst has paid attention to gisterme's dialog.

Has all this work been useful? Dawn and I have tried to make it so.

It seems me that, if Bill Casey was looking down, he might be smiling.

Maybe laughing at me. Hard to know.

_ _ _ _ _ _

Much dialog has occurred since gisterme joined the forum in May, 2001 - -- and I believe that this thread has made a contribution, either as a prototype, or as an actual (though deniable) channel of communication - after a long time when lines of communication between the US and Russia were astonishingly sparse.

1999 http://forums.nytimes.com/webin/WebX?8@71.pC4Ea5uwJT6^0@.f28e622/2484

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