Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: can.ai,can.politics Subject: Re: Star Wars North Message-ID: <1496@dciem.UUCP> Date: Sun, 31-Mar-85 13:11:03 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.1496 Posted: Sun Mar 31 13:11:03 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 31-Mar-85 14:45:21 EST References: <890@ubc-vision.CDN> <6@aquila.UUCP> Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 37 Summary: >unreasonable. As many people have observed, the Japanese fifth >generation project seeks to provide the tools for transition to an >information society. This includes lots of things like improving >quality of life, improving the the production and delivery of good and >services, and providing better access to knowledge of all kinds. >I would like to see those who have defended defense research on the basis >of our ``imperfect world'' try their hand at explaining why these goals >are not more important? > >Randy Goebel Of course these goals are more important than the *goal* of defence. But if defence is necessary at all, it is so that goals like these can be pursued. I remember a science-fiction story once about the late stages of a looong world war "to preserve the West for poetry" and so forth. It turned out that to win the war they needed a poet, but the last one had been drafted and killed long since. If we don't have a reasonable defence, we may not have much quality of life; if we don't remember why we want defence, we may not need any, because we will have lost anyway. I don't think there are many people doing defence research (in Canada) who think of defence as a *goal*. It is a perversion of language to equate defence with aggression. Unfortunately, this perversion seems to have a tendency to reflect nature in some countries. For some, it may well be a goal to have their country dominate much of the world. We don't have to support that attitude in order to support the increase of our *defensive* ability. [I have taken can.general out of the newgroups, and added can.politics]. -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt