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by piker 79 days ago
Makes some sense to me, as the prisoner's dilemma dictates at least some fraction will try to kill you. So you've got to go first.

Reminds me of the Dan Carlin take on aircraft carriers in World War II: if you in a carrier spotted an opposing carrier and didn't send everything you had before it spotted you, you were dead. The only move was to go all in every time.
1 comments
the_af 79 days ago
Surely that logic applies if you're at war with the other side? If you start attacking carriers of random superpowers, you only invite further destruction...
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piker 79 days ago
Yes, but in this case the aircraft carriers represent the entire civilization and there is no repeat player such as nations in times of peace. So if you spot an alien civilization with even a 1% probability of trying to kill you, you don't really have the opportunity to "wait and see". And there's no meta higher-level arrangement that will protect you.
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