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[-] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 12 points 21 hours ago

Honesty there are worse things

[-] grubberneonbelly@lemmy.world 8 points 21 hours ago

When he started his presidency he also asked White House staff where the war room was, like the one from Dr. Strangelove

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 20 hours ago

I mean, valid question lol

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

He probably just wanted to get away from all the fighting.

[-] hOrni@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago

Too bad he didn't watch Star Trek. Fucking cunt.

[-] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 2 points 20 hours ago

Apparently he picked up Gene Roddenberry's cane for him when he visited the set of Trek one time.

Bastards look out for bastards.

[-] Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 12 points 1 day ago

he also early onsent alzheimers dementia at the time too, so that played a part.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 5 points 18 hours ago

It wasn't early onset. He was fucking old.

[-] AngryRedHerring@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

I've read reports that his mind started to noticeably go south after he got shot. Yes, he was fucking old, and that shock to his system did not help. He came very close to death, and many people who knew him said he was never the same after that.

And that happened two months into his first term.

[-] spittingimage@lemmy.world 51 points 1 day ago

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

[-] GraniteM@lemmy.world 8 points 20 hours ago

That's arguably one of the greatest values of scifi, to get people to ask what might happen in a world where plausible technological or cultural changes take place, or what we could learn about our own world from such possibilities.

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 67 points 1 day ago

Ronald Reagan?! The actor?!?

[-] Maiq@piefed.social 24 points 1 day ago

Then who's vice-president, Jerry Lewis?

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 14 points 1 day ago

With dementia?

[-] baggachipz@sh.itjust.works 109 points 1 day ago

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

[-] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 42 points 1 day ago

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

[-] MunkyNutts@feddit.online 25 points 1 day 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

[-] IWW4@lemmy.zip 60 points 1 day 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.

[-] bufalo1973@piefed.social 34 points 1 day ago

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

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 0 points 18 hours ago

Star Wars is not sci fi. It's religious fantasy.

[-] RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

... With space ships, lasers, and aliens. Is this like when people say heavy metal isn't rock?

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 16 hours ago

yeah....you think space ships, lasers, and aliens is science?

How do you focus a laser to project a meter only?

[-] uselessartifact@lemmy.zip 3 points 15 hours ago

Well, it wouldn't be a laser, more something like magnetically confined plasma.

[-] etherphon@piefed.world 12 points 1 day ago

Spies Like Us skewers this quite well.

[-] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

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

[-] rayyy@piefed.social 17 points 1 day ago

Both Reagan and the orange pedophile are severely demented.

[-] hodag@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 day ago

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

[-] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 points 20 hours ago

Nancy AKA the throat goat

[-] Manjushri@piefed.social 5 points 1 day 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."

[-] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 1 points 1 day ago

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 4 points 1 day ago

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 4 points 1 day 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.

[-] quick_snail@feddit.nl 1 points 1 day ago

See also the genocide committed by AI in Gaza

this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
322 points (99.1% liked)

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