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Missile Defense

Russian military leaders have expressed concern about US plans for a national missile defense system. Will defense technology be limited by possibilities for a strategic imbalance? Is this just SDI all over again?

rshowalter - 12:59pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1860 of 1864)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Politicians, these days, can be destroyed by being called "liars" ..... a charge to which they are all subject -- and perhaps even more subject than other human beings.

The enemy of political truth, the main shield for political lying, is the passage of time, and the limitation of human memory.

The costs of memory, and the costs of having evidence and argument reappear at later times, are both costs that are shifting radically down.

rshowalter - 01:07pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1861 of 1864)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

What if different papers became not only sources of news, but effectively organized repositories of memory?

What if they made "second guessing" of their facts available, by making it easy, on the internet, for a person or group reported in the paper to comment on the story -- not just before it was published, but afterwards, as well. With all such comments made available on the internet?

Bandwidth and storage are both getting cheap enough to make this practical -- even easy.

Suppose this were done?

Many things now sloughed off would become much less deniable -- many issues left hanging would be much closer to closure -- the world would be a place where "common ground" on facts would be much easier to come by, and lies would be easier to peg.

Suppose the NYT became not only the outlet for "All the news that's fit to print..." but also became an outlet for "all said, by interested parties, about that news, available in public." ?

What would happen ?

People might get more honest, when it mattered, and fairly quickly.

Journalistic abuses would be disciplined, as well.

rshowalter - 01:09pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1862 of 1864)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

And, if as a matter of routine, people dealt with in stories were notified that they could comment about them, the "oh, I didn't notice" defense would be harder to maintain, when charges were serious.

And the dialog, one year, would be available when it might count for more -- perhaps at election time, or at a time where it might be used, by one side or another, in an argument at law.

rshowalter - 01:10pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1863 of 1864)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

Such a thing would have been very useful, many times since the 1960's, in the US - USSR nuclear arms talks.

It would be dramatic, wrenching, shocking, to set out just how useful those tools might have been, in blow by blow detail.

There would be no question at all, who was the agressor, and who was attempting to find a way to safety and peace.

rshowalter - 01:11pm Apr 1, 2001 EST (#1864 of 1864)
Robert Showalter showalte@macc.wisc.edu

The American people, I believe, would be saddened, shocked, and ashamed to see what was done (and continues to be done) in their name.

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