this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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Today I Learned

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[–] etherphon@piefed.world 7 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Spies Like Us skewers this quite well.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 3 points 4 hours ago

Also - real genius - crossbow (the program name for the laser system) has SDI and CIA vibes everywhere.

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 24 points 10 hours ago

Yeah, speculative fiction causes people to speculate. That's what it's for.

[–] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 37 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Ronald Reagan?! The actor?!?

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 8 points 10 hours ago

With dementia?

[–] Maiq@piefed.social 11 points 11 hours ago

Then who's vice-president, Jerry Lewis?

[–] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 81 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

His economic and social policies were informed by dystopian sci-fi

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 28 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Much like MAGA is doing it today. The more things change the more they stay the same or something.

[–] MunkyNutts@feddit.online 11 points 12 hours ago

Even worse, Trump is informed by social media influencers and sycophants, some of the dumbest mother fuckers in our society.

Last Week Tonight did a good piece on it recently: https://youtu.be/p7ZG_xWYLzI

[–] bufalo1973@piefed.social 21 points 12 hours ago

Are they saying that the president that named the Strategic Defense Initiative as "Star Wars" was deeply influenced by sci fi?

[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 47 points 16 hours ago

WarGames pretty much defined what hacking was until the late 90s. Any business and organization that didn’t change policy because of WarGames was going to feel pain.

[–] rayyy@piefed.social 14 points 13 hours ago

Both Reagan and the orange pedophile are severely demented.

[–] Manjushri@piefed.social 2 points 10 hours ago

Yep. He even requested recommendations from SciFi authors of the time who were part of the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy.

Reagan's search for space-based options to enhance America's military had context prompted the Citizens' Advisory Council on National Space Policy to convene at [Larry] Niven's house. [Jerry] Pournelle chaired the meeting, and the result of a three-day weekend was an ominously titled document: "Space: The Crucial Frontier."

Pournelle's preamble for the policy, published in 1981, calls space "our most valuable natural resource" and a place that opens up "significant and possibly decisive military and economic advantages."

"We worked all weekend and produced a paper for the transition team, then at the president's request we started in on a plan for after inauguration at another meeting," Pournelle wrote on his blog. "The president read the full reports, which strongly recommended Strategic Defense. In 1983 he made his Star Wars speech. It included several phrases from the Council reports."

[–] hodag@lemmy.ml 5 points 12 hours ago

You should check out him and his wife and their psychic.

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 2 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

At that time, nobody had an idea how much time there would be left until AI could have such abilities as shown in the movie.

[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 32 minutes ago (1 children)

AI is dumb tho. It would never conclude that the only way to win is not to play. It would destroy all life on earth first.

[–] AngryRedHerring@lemmy.world 1 points 13 minutes ago

There are stories out there from just the past week about how in war simulations AI launches the nukes something like 90% of the time.