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Re:Can we survive technology? (1955) [pdf] by XorNot on Friday July 23, 2021 @07:17AM (#27929435)
This hasn't born out in practice. Dictators want to live - that's why they're dictators. They ubiquitously loot their countries widely enough to be able to retire to safer waters but don't.

Nuclear weapons in the modern world are useful deterrants, and that's it: a dictator with nuclear weapons has no external enemies they could consider targeting without guaranteeing total annihilation in response.

The one exception here is that using a nuclear weapon on your own country and people might be a useful exercise of power...but even then, it's abundantly clear that the most likely outcome is still total annihilation - the world won't tolerate a nation lighting off nukes against targets in it's own borders much either.

Re:Can we survive technology? (1955) [pdf] by selfhoster11 on Friday July 23, 2021 @02:18PM (#27933943)
> the world won't tolerate a nation lighting off nukes against targets in it's own borders much either.

Why do you think so? Famines seem to work just fine within borders.

Re:Can we survive technology? (1955) [pdf] by XorNot on Saturday July 24, 2021 @02:56AM (#27938994)
Famines don't blow fallout into the air, or have indistinguishable targets when a ballistic launch is detected.
Re:Can we survive technology? (1955) [pdf] by DaedPsyker on Friday July 23, 2021 @10:06AM (#27930786)
That's very true, I'm usually careful not to fall into the assumption of the 'mad man' since it's usually just an illusion to appear dangerous.