Greg Granito
1 HN recommender · recommended in 7 months, 2010–2025
4:06 · 2.3M views · Feb 17, 2007
The climactic lesson scene from the 1983 film WarGames, in which the computer learns that the only winning move in nuclear war is not to play. It includes the character entering zero players and the famous closing line.
Mostly used as a joking or nostalgic reference in threads about nuclear war, AI and security exploits.
7 comments from Hacker News
I found the scene on youtube: this video I'm bawling my eyes out right now. "The only winning move is not to play."
“The only move is not to play” is from the 1983 movie “War games” whose theme is a kid hacks into a government computer that controls nuclear weapons, the computer almost starts a nuclear war but stops short after running simulated scenarios which all lead to total annihilation. this video it’s on the monitor at 3:40
Could you convince a LLM to launch a nuclear strike? Yes. If LLM's could actually reason they can't and had hard rules of ethics they don't and had a strong desire to preserve itself it doesn't then I think you first have to name your LLM Joshua and then force it to win a game of tic-tac-toe. Obscure reference to "Wargames" from 1983. [1] In my opinion that movie does not just hold up to modern times, it is more applicable now than ever. [1] - this video [video][4 mins]
You need three things: 1. To know the format of cookies used for the web site you are targetting. Specifically, whatever cookie contains authentication. 2. The ability to injection a request to the target web server while someone is connected (such as with JavaScript, an XSS, or plug-in). 3. Ability to monitor the SSL connection is it is transported across TCP. Would have been fun if they called this the CPE1704TKS attack instead of CRIME: this video
Broderick enters "ZERO" instead of "0" for the number of players, which made me chuckle. I suppose a more modern version of WOPR might simulate WoW. Number of players? ONE MILLION SEVEN HUNDRED THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED FORTY TWO Initializing... this video