http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html It's 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is hard to describe to anyone too young to remember it the sheer joy of the occasion. The ending of the Cold War was a time of indescribable relief for millions. The constant fear of death through ... en Steve Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:00:40 GMT Pebble (http://pebble.sourceforge.net) http://backend.userland.com/rss http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1258362735648 Oh absolutely. If you create a system with the potential for a disastrous cock-up, eventually you will get a disastrous cock-up. MAD was extremely dangerous.<br /> <br /> My point was about the human component, and that we are still in a scary situation. Any individual wrong turn will probably have less immediately disastrous consequences. But each individual wrong turn is orders of magnitude more likely when you have religious lunatics who wish the end of the world with their fingers on the button. Elephant http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comments http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1258362735648 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 09:12:15 GMT http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1257794759491 Apologies for the automatic moderation on this site.&nbsp; I need to fix it.<br /> <br /> The problem with the MAD premiss was that an infrastructure was set up to implement it.&nbsp; There were several occasions during the Cold War when false alarms nearly triggered first strikes.&nbsp;&nbsp; The ideologies may have been that life was better than death, but that was not what was programmed into the computers, or was the policy for those in the military who had control. Steve http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comments http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1257794759491 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:25:59 GMT http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1257794422159 Sorry.&nbsp; My server seems to think just about everyone is spamming.&nbsp; Except for anyone who posts in Russian, Steve http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comments http://blogs.parkplatz.net/steve/2009/11/09/1257755100000.html#comment1257794422159 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:20:22 GMT