From: Charles Hixson (charleshixsn@earthlink.net)
Date: Fri Nov 22 2002 - 14:58:52 MST
Anders Sandberg wrote:
> ...
>
>Multiplayer games of MAD has some interesting effects - the players
>who doesn't participate in a mutual nuking will benefit (or at least
>not be harmed), and might get a safer world. So it would be to their
>advantage to get others to blow each other up (shades of James Bond
>villains).
>...
>
You should probably think again about the cost to bystanders. Some
bystanders on the opposite side of the equator might get off easy in a
very small nuclear exchange. Perhaps. But anything that escalted could
have costs that are quite difficult to measure to ALL parties, whether
or not they were participants in the conflict. I'd really be quite
surprised if anyone at all benefited in any measurable way from any
major nuclear or biological warfare. Even with "conventional" weapons,
the general populations end up saddled with immense debts, though in
that case there are, indeed, some beneficiaries: Those who sold the
weapons, and those who lent the money.
-- -- Charles Hixson Gnu software that is free, The best is yet to be.
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