the price of peace

For a $100 billion upfront investment plus some operating expenses, you could theoretically build a system that remotely disables nuclear weapons. Less than two market caps of Google — and you buy world peace. Tempting, very tempting.

Suppose for a second that such a system is indeed physically possible. Will it be built? If US starts unilaterally constructing one, every other current nuclear power will get very upset. An alternative is an international consortium of some sort, that would enforce the NPT but would never disarm the existing nuclear club members. I wonder who would authorize the use of the device under this scenario.

(via mulki)