MADdening MAD

[Require_love]

Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD, has been a thing since the Soviets tested their first nuke circa the '50s. In that funny little game, the two powers always remain paranoid about being blinked off the map by trans-uranic tomfoolery, but never take the bait and attack first out of fear of retaliation. It's the world's deadliest stare-down contest.

However, I'd argue that this is actually a great thing. In my opinion, humans don't do anything at all unless motivated by greed, lust, fear and laziness. Instantaneously changing into a subject of physics by atomic fire is absolutely frightening, and therefore we have researched into faster computers for ballistics calculation, better communication technologies, more investment into particle physics in general to develop better nukes, more research into radiation and its effects, so on and so forth. I can name one thing off my head rn, the nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imager (nMRI). I doubt we'd develop any of that without the progress in computation and nuclear science.

In history, warfare has been the greatest catalyst of progress. Rudimentary ballistics, industrial development, a lot of advanced chemistry, rocketry (the first rockets were firecrackers, I know. But it didn't take too long for some geniuses to fire them at forts). In essence, it is the Spirit of Competition driving innovation through necessity and rarely, dedication.

Destruction in warfare is bad. Very bad. But, if MAD keeps us from destroying ourselves entirely, and provides a path to lightning-fast progress in exchange for paranoia, fear and some proxy wars, I'm all for it. Maybe MAD isn't so mad after all.

 

[Grav]

I used to have some claissic arguements with an ex gf about MAD, nukes, and all that.

 

[bankai]

The problem is that leaders like in North Korea are completely invulnerable because of this. Horrible things are going on over there and no one will intervene since they know that guys like him might press the nuke button if they are on the way out.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Really interesting thread- thank you. I'd never heard it called MAD before- appropriate title. What kind of dumbass species creates tools that could potentially make itself extinct? That is mad.

True though, didn't superglue and teflon come out of warfare? Not that chemicals have helped us longer-term with the whole C8 pollutants. I'd never really considered there were benefits to war or at least, war research though. Interesting perspective.

 

[Grav]

It is pretty crazy how much stuff came out of wars or preparing for wars. Now only if that much energy and money could be used for something productive......

 

[obligatoryshackles]

But why is the speed of progress important at all? Why should humanity develop so fast technologically to begin with? The reality of the modern world is that our social culture is woefully behind the times because technology has progressed too fast for us as a society to keep up. Mass media was already breaking brains long before the information age and that has only gotten infinitely worse with mass access to the internet. Systems of government, especially those susceptible to populism and misinformation, are rapidly being torn apart by rampant abuses of information technology. Yes, we've come a long way from medieval barbarism, but we, as a society, haven't even adapted to the ability to communicate instantly to large populations at once properly, much less a world where literally anyone can just lie on the internet and have millions believe them.

Our planet will last us many millions of years. There is literally no need for humanity to develop this fast while risking nuclear annihilation. Sure, without competition, without external threats, technological development may slow to a crawl. But so what? Wouldn't it better for us to take 10,000 or even 100,000 years to make sure we can keep up as a society, build a world where nuclear annihilation isn't something anyone even thinks about as we develop the technology? As the old adage says: "Slow and steady wins the race."

That said, I'm actually somewhat in favor of the nuclear arms race because I think that a human society rebuilt after nuclear annihilation will be able to make a full reset from much of the historical baggage which weighs us down in the modern age while potentially learning a painfully valuable lesson from its past.

 

[Require_love]

It is pretty crazy how much stuff came out of wars or preparing for wars. Now only if that much energy and money could be used for something productive......

We'd probably be eating eggplants grown on the Moon.

But why is the speed of progress important at all? Why should humanity develop so fast technologically to begin with? The reality of the modern world is that our social culture is woefully behind the times because technology has progressed too fast for us as a society to keep up. Mass media was already breaking brains long before the information age and that has only gotten infinitely worse with mass access to the internet. Systems of government, especially those susceptible to populism and misinformation, are rapidly being torn apart by rampant abuses of information technology. Yes, we've come a long way from medieval barbarism, but we, as a society, haven't even adapted to the ability to communicate instantly to large populations at once properly, much less a world where literally anyone can just lie on the internet and have millions believe them.

Our planet will last us many millions of years. There is literally no need for humanity to develop this fast while risking nuclear annihilation. Sure, without competition, without external threats, technological development may slow to a crawl. But so what? Wouldn't it better for us to take 10,000 or even 100,000 years to make sure we can keep up as a society, build a world where nuclear annihilation isn't something anyone even thinks about as we develop the technology? As the old adage says: "Slow and steady wins the race."

That said, I'm actually somewhat in favor of the nuclear arms race because I think that a human society rebuilt after nuclear annihilation will be able to make a full reset from much of the historical baggage which weighs us down in the modern age while potentially learning a painfully valuable lesson from its past.

Interesting take. It does seem true that society has not kept up with progress.