S
Solar Penguin
Guest
--- Jon Senior said:
>
> Thought experiment:
>
> A badly defended country (Smallium) is under attack from two sides.
The
> neighbour to the East (Biggus) is categorised as a Superpower and has
> highly advanced technology. He is making vast headway into the
civilian
> population of Smallium. The neighbour to the West (Tribus) has an
> aggressive populace armed with particularly sharp mangoes. As a large
> neighbour to both Biggus and Tribus you can stop either of them. Your
> mandate is to defend Smallium. What do you do?
>
Hmmm... I don't accept the premise of this thought experiment because I
don't accept that this is an "Either/Or" situation. (E.g. How do we
know that Biggus and Tribus aren't already allied against Smallium?)
And anyway, pedestrians would be in the position of Tribus, not
Smallium -- we've got the least to defend ourselves with out of any of
the three groups! Heck at least cyclists are armed with bikes.
Pedestrians don't even get a blunt mango to harm other road users with!
>
> Thought experiment:
>
> A badly defended country (Smallium) is under attack from two sides.
The
> neighbour to the East (Biggus) is categorised as a Superpower and has
> highly advanced technology. He is making vast headway into the
civilian
> population of Smallium. The neighbour to the West (Tribus) has an
> aggressive populace armed with particularly sharp mangoes. As a large
> neighbour to both Biggus and Tribus you can stop either of them. Your
> mandate is to defend Smallium. What do you do?
>
Hmmm... I don't accept the premise of this thought experiment because I
don't accept that this is an "Either/Or" situation. (E.g. How do we
know that Biggus and Tribus aren't already allied against Smallium?)
And anyway, pedestrians would be in the position of Tribus, not
Smallium -- we've got the least to defend ourselves with out of any of
the three groups! Heck at least cyclists are armed with bikes.
Pedestrians don't even get a blunt mango to harm other road users with!