"Had"? Or "Allocated money for it, but all the bureaucratic grifters stepped in and now all we have is this janky egg timer to flip the switch?"

Its called the dead mans hand and it is still used today. If Moscow goes blank, then so does all of the last precomputed targets.

I’ll wager that today’s premiere AI engines would tell Vlad to go for it. Any way to test?

So maybe the doomsayers are right.

WOPR-ski?

"Would you like to:

1. First strike

2. test Dead Hand (BETA, please talk to Vladimir in opulent cubicle #Stalin-ФЮ

3. redirect power from closest nuclear silo to potato farm?"

clicks 3.

"Error: power redirected to Dead Hand. Power levels too high. System unstable. Task failed successfully."

Shall we play a game?

$>