Computer War

The need for a new way of thinking in our nuclear age has been lately affirmed by many. Man has become all too powerful; so great is his might that he can annihilate all life on the Earth, his own kind included, a situation that was deemed unthinkable early in this century. Under these new conditions, man cannot afford to think and act solely in terms of the welfare of his own kin, his own community, or his own country. Nowadays man must also heed the global consequences of his actions. The global nature of human activities is discernable in various ways and makes itself felt in the exhaustion of our resources, in ecological problems and, unquestionably, in the arms race. When humanity meets the challenge of ecological problems, " to err is human " may be an acceptable rationale. The ecological processes are sufficiently slow that they can be observed and studied with a certain measure of detachment so that necessary adjustments can be made to change the human course. If these adjustments prove ineffective, new measures can be taken and the problem would ultimately be solved by trial and error. In the event of a nuclear war, errors would produce entirely different consequences. There would be no time to correct mistakes. The first mistake is likely to become the last. The time of a ballistic missile flight is