Question: Explain the logic of another classic movie, Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. At the beginning of the movie, which is set during the Cold War, the audience learns that the Soviet Union has built a doomsday machine, a collection of nuclear warheads that when set off will kill all life on earth. It has been built and programmed to go off if the United States bombs the Soviet Union, whether with a single bomb or a mass attack. Sensors in the doomsday machine will detect the bombing and start its operation. Once it begins no one can take the machine off-line. One minor mistake occurs in the movie:
the Soviets have inexplicably delayed announcing the existence of the doomsday machine to the Americans, and during that interval a rogue U.S. general has sent planes to bomb the Russians. Show that this scenario is roughly equivalent to a game of chicken if both sides know of the machine's existence.
Then show what happens if the doomsday machine's existence is not known to the United States.