Replace, 11/29/20: It is a very totally different Thanksgiving weekend right here in 2020, however even when tables had been smaller and journey non-existent, Ars workers is off for the vacation to be able to recharge, take a psychological afk break, and possibly stream a film or 5. However 5 years in the past round this time, we had been following a newly declassified authorities report from 1990 that outlined a KGB laptop mannequin… one that just about pulled a WarGames, simply IRL. With the movie now streaming on Netflix (thus setting our off day schedule), we thought we would resurface this story for an accompanying Sunday learn. This piece first revealed on November 25, 2015, and it seems unchanged beneath.
“Let’s play International Thermonuclear Warfare.”
Thirty-two years in the past, simply months after the discharge of the film WarGames, the world got here the closest it ever has to nuclear Armageddon. In the film model of a worldwide near-death expertise, a teenage hacker messing round with a synthetic intelligence program that simply occurred to regulate the American nuclear missile drive unleashes chaos. In actuality, a really totally different laptop program run by the Soviets fed rising paranoia in regards to the intentions of the USA, very almost triggering a nuclear conflict.
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