i might (dis?)respectfully (dis?)agree. i'd rather everyone just stop fighting for a bit, get the mathbooks out, do some field work in social behavior, etc. and decide what wars are worth fighting. i do like the war against nature (john nash), specifically the platonic or constructed universe of the 'knotted nots' that underlie mathematical logic and set theory (or math itself). attack that problem.
--- On Thu, 5/14/09, Michael H Goldhaber <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> From: Michael H Goldhaber <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: math model of war
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 3:17 PM
> This NZ physicist says in the video
> that his favorite news source is Fox, and he doesn't mean
> Herb. Consistent with this, he views his data as
> trying to show what "we" should be doing about
> "insurgencies," defining the problem as getting them
> to stop fighting, though he does mention the possibility of
> arriving at a situation where "they" will be organized
> enough to sit down and talk. I see little reason to doubt
> his rough conclusion that on average the form of
> organization the guerrillas have affect the number typically
> killed in each attack, and I suspect the Pentagon also has
> arrived at similar theories.
>
> This is just another use of science to enhance war fighting
> and therefore killing and control. Stopping such thoughtless
> or malign efforts was one of the starting points of SftP to
> begin with. I think this video may be a good tool to use to
> try to persuade young scientists what not to do and why.
>
> Best,
> Michael
>
> On May 14, 2009, at 6:11 AM, David Westman wrote:
>
> > My opinion of this is that he is totally clueless
> about the POLITICS behind war. War is not just a
> random series of killings, there is a political
> > reason behind all these killings, and this guy and his
> team totally fail to consider the political dimension. When
> they "extract the key pieces of
> > data" they ignore the political dimension
> entirely, they discard the back story and the causal
> relations between the economic and political
> > factors and war. War is not just an
> isolated series of killings, it is "politics conducted by
> other - violent - means" as Clausewitz said, and
> > that principle has been totally lost here.
> >
> > David Westman
> >
> > Bob Broedel wrote:
> >> I would love to hear the opinion of SftP folk
> about this
> >> video. It is fairly brief.
> >>
> >> http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/05/physicists-fool-proof-war-forumla-just-add-media-accounts/
> >>
> >> Bob Broedel in Tallahassee.
> >>
> >>
> >
>
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