bstempleton@watmath.UUCP (Brad Templeton) (06/09/83)
The Joshua AI project says: "The only winning move is not to play." Which is essentially the corny little message of the film. If you forgive the fact no AI project could ever come to this conclusion, we still have to face the fact that it is wrong within the context of the movie. Picture the following. Instead of being a kid from Seattle, are hero could be a Commie spy as Coleman suggests. So he breaks in, sets up the war game, and arranges to contact Falken, whom the KGB surely know of. As the war game progresses, the Russians send a real first strike at the same time As the computer simulation. Falken rushes in at the same moment as he does in the film, convinced by the spies his simulation is running. He says "Don't launch, it's just a simulation. Get your bases on the phone and listen." He does, and they talk to the bases. Instead of "We're still here, General." we get "BOOOOOOM". Almost all the US retaliatory force is dead. Some weapons would get through, mostly submarine based, but the two spies inside Norad can now destroy it from the inside in the confusion since they weren't searched in the rush to go in. In the meantime, the Russians, prepared for it all, have got the interceptors ready and the public in shelters. They would take some losses, but they would be withing the crazy military definition of "acceptable". Thus, again by military definitions, the Soviets win the war. "An interesting game, Professor Falken. The only winning move is to fool the enemy computer." -- Brad Templeton - Waterloo, Ont. (519) 886-7304