Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mcnc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!harpo!decvax!mcnc!akt
From: akt@mcnc.UUCP (Amit Thakur)
Newsgroups: net.politics,eunet.politics
Subject: Re: Nuclear arms race
Message-ID: <1956@mcnc.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 17-Feb-84 02:19:23 EST
Article-I.D.: mcnc.1956
Posted: Fri Feb 17 02:19:23 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 18-Feb-84 01:44:39 EST
References: <1745@tekig.UUCP>, <5678@mcvax.UUCP>
Organization: Microelectronics Ctr. of NC; RTP, NC
Lines: 39


or, we could ship them some  PDP's instead of VAXen.  surely their
technology is advanced enough that they would not be getting any
new technology?  one problem though: all calls to and from the
soviet union must go through an operator.  an automatic system
was installed for the 1980 olympics, but has since been disconnected
because of objections by the kgb that there was insufficient manpower
to monitor international calls.  i suppose a (soviet) operator would
censor incoming (and outgoing) traffic.
maybe we could donate a few digital switches (4ESS,5ESS) and some
optical disk drives so they could store previous articles.  of course,
phone line quality would have to increase quite a bit such that
bit error rate was not too high.  an AI program to translate between
russian and english (and vice versa) would be nice also.  i imagine
that most of the articles submitted by russians to netnews would be from 
'anonymous' or 'games' or somebody like that.
maybe the 4ESS and 5ESS are too advanced. i'm sure they're just as
good for military communications as they are for POTS (plain old
telephone service).

i think the best way to decrease tensions with the russkies is
to encourage trade between the countries.  sell them as many 
consumer goods as they can buy.  build plants that produce washers
and dryers and refrigerators and hair dryers and so on.  then they
will need generators to produce all that electricity.  we could
start small by producing (in the soviet union, so that hard currency
problems are reduced) chewing gum and bubble gum.  move on to nerf
balls and frisbees.  what russian child would not want a frisbee?
how could they possibly believe that americans are evil if they
produce such nifty things?  they maybe they'll get a sneaky
feeling in the back of the mind that capitalism and uncle sam
are not so bad after all.  maybe this feeling will grow over a few
generations, so that after a couple of centuries (if both countries
are not atomic dust by then) maybe things will be better.

am i too optimistic?  am i reinventing the wheel? 

akt at ...decvax!mcnc!akt