On Tuesday, Pepperdine University livestreamed a conversation between billionaire weapons merchant Palmer Luckey and university president Jim Gash.
Between those two moments, Luckey talked about war.
If both sides understand who is going to win, its very rare for things to proceed to violence.
Palmer Luckey speaking at Pepperdine University on October 1, 2024.© YouTube screengrab
There are a lot of problems with Game Theory as a defense strategy.
Luckey acknowledged one immediately: ideological actors like Jihadists.
Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.
American Historian and retired U.S. Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich has called out this kind of thinking before too.
Belief in the efficacy of military power almost inevitably breeds the temptation to put that power to work.
Peace through strength easily enough becomes peace through war, hewrote in a 2010 essay.
Game Theory and peace through strength are great ways of thinking if you want to sell weapons.
Luckey is a defense contractor, after all.
But society needs them, he continued.
Luckey also endorsed the use of AI in weapons systems.
In his younger days in college, Luckey studied journalism.
Luckey told Gash someone had recently asked him if he still thought like a journalist.
Absolutely not, Im a propagandist, Luckey said.
Ill twist the truth.
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