@Tfmonkey The idea that Russia wouldn't retaliate to the west nuking them is ridiculous. The Russia has a system in place called "the dead hand" which will automatically nuke the west if the west does a strategic first strike. This automated system does not give a fuck about politics or empathy, because its basically a simple yet robust expert system (AI precursor) that does not blink when threatened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand
So next time Halsey says "nuh uh" bring this up "the dead hand."
@ergo @Tfmonkey @shortstories Why wouldn't they be real? Far more difficult, gruesome, and cruel methods of killing others were developed and implemented.
@ergo @Tfmonkey @shortstories Thats ridiculous, because there are manual over-rides that must constantly be engaged to PREVENT it from attacking. A locomotive has a button on it that has to be pressed every hour, otherwise the brakes automatically engage. Automatic systems that engage without constant human intervention are common. They are used in nuclear power plants to control the reactor core and prevent meltdown if people walk away. The inverse is also true for the Dead Hand.
@ergo @Tfmonkey @shortstories To an engineer, it is mechanistically identical, regardless of the societal outcome, the machines do not know or care. It like a tripwire or sentry turret, such machines do not care if the cop and his polished badge has a warrant or not, nor does the machine care about their fancy titles, or proclamations that they have "authority" to do whatever. Sentry turret go BRRRR. Same with dead hand. If it doesn't receive its routine stand down signal, it will activate.
@ergo @Tfmonkey @shortstories An accidental nuking is effectively impossible. It would require extreme human negligence. The order to not reset the timer would need to be given out, in which case just activate the launch sequence manually. Its technically possible to do this, engineering it is trivial, and the incentive to make it is there. You're still thinking this is an AI system that can interpret data, thats not how it works. Its nothing more than a timer thats reset on a recurring basis.
There is no timer that if not pressed would set off a nuclear attack, that's what they did on the TV show Lost, a show, not real life.
@ergo @Tfmonkey @shortstories The Russian military is incompetent? Is that why they've recently defeated NATO in a proxy war? Nobody denies, not even NATO, the existence of the Dead Hand system. Nobody is going to "accidentally" forget to reset the dead hand. It would require untold dozens, potentially hundreds of people, simultaneously, to all forget to their their one job, which is to reset the dead hand. It takes ALL parties, simultaneously, to not reset it. That's very reliable.
Russians can win with an incompetent military because the other militarizes are more incompetent
How can they have super high tech in the military if the military is incompetent? Most of the people in militaries are incompetent but there are a small minority of competent people less than 20% of them building the super high tech. These competent people are competent at specific skills but blind order followers are not ethically competent.
The point is you can afford to have a train stop and be late or a nuclear plant go down and lose some money but you can't afford to nuke the USA by accident.
Much less important things are not automated due to fear of malfunction, nuclear war is perhaps the most important thing one can think of.