From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Thu Jul 12 2001 - 15:49:42 MDT
hibbert@netcom.com wrote:
>
> mlorrey@datamann.com said:
> > SDI is the only moral option for a libertarian society based on the
> > premise of not initiating violence.
>
> It might be the only moral option if it were plausibly shown to be
> workable. At this point it is still mostly a massive costly boondoggle in
> the making. The research done by Dave Redell of CPSR on the
> (in)feasibility of building software that would achieve the necessary
> claims of the SDI project are still the best reference on this subject.
> Not being able to shoot a single missle out of the air in a fair trial is
> one problem, but they also have to get their software to work correctly
> every time in the first battle, without any reasonable arena for evolving
> it into robustness beforehand.
The requirements for the SDI system are, according to the estmates for
the numbers of lines of code, fully within today's capability, as every
major operating sytem runs with more lines of code today. What is
illuminating is that every time industry capabilities reach the alleged
amount of code SDI's detractors claim is necessary, they move the mark.
>
> To the extent that government spending on defense is defensible, I wouldn't
> mind them continuing to spend money on research, but to talk about
> deployment is outrageous.
Which is why deployment is being deferred for more research with other
systems.
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