[ExI] test of icbm intercept

[spike]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat [mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf
Of Bill Hibbard


>>...  Shall we start a betting pool on whether the attempted intercept will
hit  the target?

>...Cool Spike!

Ja, I am impressed.  I am shamed that I only offered 30 cents a share for a
hit.

https://www.rt.com/usa/390362-pentagon-missile-intercept-video/

>...This one worked. N Korea responded by threatening to reduce the US to
ashes. This work is partly an honest effort to defend against N Korea and
partly, I believe, to pressure China and Russia into helping to halt the N
Korean and Iranian programs... Bill

Ja, it would hafta give pause to the Dear Leader.  Or was Dear Leader the
old man?  Is this kid the New Leader?  Young Leader?  Fat Leader?  In any
case, the calculus of any attack would change.  Now if he pops one in our
direction, it might or might not reduce anything on this side of the
Pacific.  It would certainly reduce his local environs to ashes.

We are entering a scary new era, after living so long in a scary old era,
where mutual assured destruction kept the peace.  Consider now: the cost of
an interceptor is all in the design.  Once you get the design working, you
can churn out arbitrarily many of them for not much money.  We could have
every major city bristling with ABMs in short order, if we can get the
commies to play along.  

We haven't really dealt with China under MAD; that whole notion has been
Russia and the yanks all along.  If we are to believe what we are told by
the news people, the commies like the current POTUS and helped him get
elected.  Perhaps that means they will make a deal, then both countries get
as many ABMs as they want, then suddenly... for the first time in a typical
human lifetime, we can no longer destroy the planet, even if we wanted to.

Terrifying!  How shall we cope?

spike