[Zeke]

Excellent post, Gatac. I feel much smarter now. Just one thing I'd take issue with:

Originally Posted by Gatac

You're sitting on a twisted form of the Prisoner's dilemma: Rationally, we all want peace.

Unfortunately, that's just not something we can assume. Western civilization has mostly moved beyond the idea of waging war just to gain power (a very recent development -- it certainly wasn't true of Hitler). We're basically reactive now; even Russia and China are no longer into conquest, though that can always change. But right now we're facing groups like al Qaeda and people like Ahmedinejad who are very much active. They want Israel wiped off the map and Islamic rule extended. It doesn't count as wanting peace if the prerequisite is killing everybody else.

(I'm not breaking my own rule and trying to start a political debate, btw. These guys are on record about what they want, so repeating it is politically neutral.)

Originally Posted by Infinite Improbability

For that matter, what are we accomplishing by having armies of robots attack each other? A waste of resources, no question.

Uh... don't you mean what would we be accomplishing?