Game theory on steroids

doomsday machine, game theory, nuclear weapons, Perimeter 1 Minute

Nicholas Thompson’s article in Wired Magazine on a legacy Soviet-era doomsday machine called Perimeter.

Money quote:

The point of the system, he explains, was to guarantee an automatic Soviet response to an American nuclear strike. Even if the US crippled the USSR with a surprise attack, the Soviets could still hit back. It wouldn’t matter if the US blew up the Kremlin, took out the defense ministry, severed the communications network, and killed everyone with stars on their shoulders. Ground-based sensors would detect that a devastating blow had been struck and a counterattack would be launched.



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Published by jlolds

Native Angeleno, professor of Neuroscience and Public Policy at George Mason University

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