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Imagine if the resources being used to develop drones and bombs and other killing robots were instead being used to develop tools that would improve the lives o

Imagine if the resources being used to develop drones and bombs and other killing robots were instead being used to develop tools that would improve the lives of your average Afghani child. This would be a far more honorable investment than the current situation. Yes, I'm not sure I know what it would look like, but I'm pretty sure that its possible to develop the "B1 bomber" of education systems. I'm quite sure that the technology being used to deliver death from the skies can instead be used to improve the agricultural requirements of the average Afghani village. Heck, even an AK47 can be turned into a water pump, given the right intentions ..

sliverstorm 13y ago
This would be a far more honorable investment than the current situation. Honorable and effective are not the same. Seriously, the problem is hardly farming. The world has thousands of years of farming development, and Afghanistan has been farmed for just as long. Nor is the problem education systems. The problem is political, and I fail to see how we can drop K-12 educations on people who aren't allowed to or are unwilling to learn. But, of course, you appear to be a flower hippie pretty dead-set in your ways, so I don't really hope to change your mind. You keep working on that B2 Tulip Bomber- I'm sure if we can only manage to bomb Afghanistan with flowers & love, world peace will be immediately achieved.
- fit2rule 13y ago
  It is points of views such as yours which stand in the way of true peace being attained in the world. The problem is, and always has been: education. What sort of education gets delivered to the village when the US maims half its children, kills its elders, and terrorizes its mothers?
  - sliverstorm 13y ago
    Yes, the long-term goal should be education. No, we can't bomb them with textbooks. When women are killed for trying to get an education, perhaps more drastic action than a better water pump for farming is merited.
    - fit2rule 13y ago
      When all you know about a country is based on what you have been told by those who will profit from your point of view being skewed, there is no hope. Fact: Women are killed in the USA, too. Fact: the USA has its share of militant religious fanatics, too. Are we going to bomb the USA because of this fact?
      - sliverstorm 13y ago
        Ok, so why should I believe what you tell me? How do I know you don't stand to profit from skewing my point of view? If you can't trust what anyone tells you about foreign events, it's too late. The voting public does not have time to travel to Yemen, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, China, and every other country on the globe to develop personally informed opinions. Fact: Women are killed in the USA, too For attending school?
mikeash 13y ago
What you describe is an incredibly difficult and completely unsolved problem. While I agree with the sentiment, I disagree with talking about it as if it were something you could just decide to do one day, and then it would get done. I would love to see more effort put into making peace. But making peace isn't simply a matter of declaring that you will "make peace, not war".
- quinnchr 13y ago
  Making war is also an incredibly difficult and unsolved problem. We regularly just "decide" to make war for a particular objective, with very little thought to how it will be accomplished (And what plans we do have usually end up not working as expected). Why should resolving to make peace not war require more thoughtfulness than waging war?
  - mikeash 13y ago
    They both require thoughtfulness. I'd have the same kinds of things to say to someone who simply proposed "war", without details, as the solution to anything.
- fit2rule 13y ago
  >But making peace isn't simply a matter of declaring that you will "make peace, not war". Yes it is. Because the same is true of war: you have to decide to do it. The problem is, the American people have subjugated all their decision-making responsibilities to people who are too lazy, stupid, or just plain evil to think that anything other than non-stop war is their solution. This has been the case in America for 80 years now - so its a generational thing as well, at this point..
  - mikeash 13y ago
    It takes far more than just a decision. It's an extremely difficult problem. So is succeeding at war, of course. But we're not talking with anyone who simply advocates "war" as a solution.
  - 13y ago
tzs 13y ago
> Imagine if the resources being used to develop drones and bombs and other killing robots were instead being used to develop tools that would improve the lives of your average Afghani child The improvements would very likely violate Taliban law and the improved children and their parents would be targeted for accepting the improvements. Humans do not work the way you think they do.

sliverstorm 13y ago

This would be a far more honorable investment than the current situation. Honorable and effective are not the same. Seriously, the problem is hardly farming. The world has thousands of years of farming development, and Afghanistan has been farmed for just as long. Nor is the problem education systems. The problem is political, and I fail to see how we can drop K-12 educations on people who aren't allowed to or are unwilling to learn. But, of course, you appear to be a flower hippie pretty dead-set in your ways, so I don't really hope to change your mind. You keep working on that B2 Tulip Bomber- I'm sure if we can only manage to bomb Afghanistan with flowers & love, world peace will be immediately achieved.

fit2rule 13y ago
It is points of views such as yours which stand in the way of true peace being attained in the world. The problem is, and always has been: education. What sort of education gets delivered to the village when the US maims half its children, kills its elders, and terrorizes its mothers?
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  Yes, the long-term goal should be education. No, we can't bomb them with textbooks. When women are killed for trying to get an education, perhaps more drastic action than a better water pump for farming is merited.
  - fit2rule 13y ago
    When all you know about a country is based on what you have been told by those who will profit from your point of view being skewed, there is no hope. Fact: Women are killed in the USA, too. Fact: the USA has its share of militant religious fanatics, too. Are we going to bomb the USA because of this fact?
    - sliverstorm 13y ago
      Ok, so why should I believe what you tell me? How do I know you don't stand to profit from skewing my point of view? If you can't trust what anyone tells you about foreign events, it's too late. The voting public does not have time to travel to Yemen, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Korea, China, and every other country on the globe to develop personally informed opinions. Fact: Women are killed in the USA, too For attending school?

mikeash 13y ago

What you describe is an incredibly difficult and completely unsolved problem. While I agree with the sentiment, I disagree with talking about it as if it were something you could just decide to do one day, and then it would get done. I would love to see more effort put into making peace. But making peace isn't simply a matter of declaring that you will "make peace, not war".

quinnchr 13y ago
Making war is also an incredibly difficult and unsolved problem. We regularly just "decide" to make war for a particular objective, with very little thought to how it will be accomplished (And what plans we do have usually end up not working as expected). Why should resolving to make peace not war require more thoughtfulness than waging war?
- mikeash 13y ago
  They both require thoughtfulness. I'd have the same kinds of things to say to someone who simply proposed "war", without details, as the solution to anything.
fit2rule 13y ago
>But making peace isn't simply a matter of declaring that you will "make peace, not war". Yes it is. Because the same is true of war: you have to decide to do it. The problem is, the American people have subjugated all their decision-making responsibilities to people who are too lazy, stupid, or just plain evil to think that anything other than non-stop war is their solution. This has been the case in America for 80 years now - so its a generational thing as well, at this point..
- mikeash 13y ago
  It takes far more than just a decision. It's an extremely difficult problem. So is succeeding at war, of course. But we're not talking with anyone who simply advocates "war" as a solution.
- 13y ago

tzs 13y ago

> Imagine if the resources being used to develop drones and bombs and other killing robots were instead being used to develop tools that would improve the lives of your average Afghani child The improvements would very likely violate Taliban law and the improved children and their parents would be targeted for accepting the improvements. Humans do not work the way you think they do.