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0 pointsVecr2y ago0 comments

Dead hand was probably (though to what confidence I don't know) people in a remote mountain bunker. It's not actually any better to have the computer fire, it just provides the people information. Retaliation does not have to be instant, 40 minutes is probably good enough.

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News-Dog2y ago

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) - Second-Strike Capability : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction#Sec...

>Perfect detection

No false positives (errors) in the equipment and/or procedures that must identify a launch by the other side.

The implication of this is that an accident could lead to a full nuclear exchange.

During the Cold War there were several instances of false positives, as in the case of Stanislav Petrov[2].

[2] Stanislav Petrov : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanislav_Petrov

[2] 1983 Soviet Nuclear False Alarm Incident : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...

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