IRobot Rolls Out Pocket-Sized, One-Pound Machine, Ready to Swarm

Re:IRobot Rolls Out Pocket-Sized, One-Pound Machine, Ready t... by ivankirigin on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @03:01PM (#617383)

Given how close we came to killing every human on the planet during the Cold War (and avoiding it through dumb luck), I'd have to say our capacity to kill each other far outweighs our capacity to survive.

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Re:IRobot Rolls Out Pocket-Sized, One-Pound Machine, Ready t... by run4yourlives on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @03:16PM (#617427)

I'd have to say our capacity to kill each other far outweighs our capacity to survive

Well, we're still here aren't we? Seriously though, when push came to shove (Cuban missile crisis was the closest) we (collectively) backed down. It seems nobody really wanted to fight when it meant certain death to themselves.

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Re:IRobot Rolls Out Pocket-Sized, One-Pound Machine, Ready t... by icey on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @03:28PM (#617448)

There have also been narrow misses that could have gone either way:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/coldwar/...

[TLDR version: Stanislav Petrov prevented nuclear war by correctly guessing that the nuclear launch his station detected was a false alarm, and not a true attack on the USSR. If he had decided the other way, nuclear war may have ensued.]

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