I just got finished watching "WarGames" (1983), starring Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy as a couple of high school students who get caught up in a potential WWIII. How did it all happen?

Broderick hacked into NORAD thinking it was a gaming company. He wanted to find the soon-to-be-released games and play them at home, ahead of time, for free. What he ended up finding in NORAD (which he didn't know about until it was too late) was a learning computer that also happened to play games. So he selected Global Thermonuclear War, and the computer began the simulation.

"Joshua" is the name of that computer, and it had recently been given control of the final launch sequence at NORAD (and perhaps elsewhere) for the nuclear missiles.

Joshua combined the simulation with reality, and it looked like it would eventually launch real missiles at Russia as part of the ongoing game. That would provoke a Russian counterstrike, and wipe out all our major cities.

Ok, you probably knew some or all of that already. But I realized a couple things watching the film that I hadn't thought of before. These don't relate to the movie, but to life in general in our Nuclear Age.

First, if we could conceivably scare ourselves into launching on the Russians because of a computer error…

…and the Russians themselves seem to have had a history of faulty, malfunctioning equipment…

…then it isn't inconceivable that they could launch on us because of a computer error.

The second thought I had was with regard to the President. I realized that…

…if all the high-up military officials are acutely aware…

…of the fact that the U.S., Russia, and other countries…

…each have nuclear missiles pointed at high-yield targets all over the planet…

…and those missiles are a little more than a button's press away from launching and wiping out millions of people…

…then the President must live by a different set of rules than most citizens. On top of the whole "He's the President, he can do whatever he wants," deal.

I hadn't really been worried about a nuclear war. I didn't really dwell on it, whether I'm outside, inside, whatever. Nothing to worry about.

But I thought for the President, there must be one of two possibilities. Either he knows the risk of an unprovoked nuclear strike at any given time, and is constantly aware of the possibility that in the next few minutes he'll have to seek shelter in a bunker somewhere…

Or he lets his assistants worry about that.

But I figure when you deal with issues this big on a daily basis, you might equate a nuclear strike with rain, and your hardened bunker with a house. Stay inside the house when its raining. Take an "umbrella" with you when it looks like rain. Always keep an eye out for other places to seek shelter from the storm.

But I guess with missile defense systems, and the apparent "calm" between the U.S. and the long-range Nuclear Powers, there's not much to worry about.

…Or is there?

I watched "Jericho" off and on before. Then it went away. Writers Strike. Then the strike ended, and that seemed to coincide with "Jericho's" return.

From what I've heard, the series was totally canceled. Then a bunch of people sent nuts in as a reference to a line from the show. They sent them to the producer, or the studio head? Anyway, their point was made, and the abrupt ending of the show was undone. The show continued until a conclusive wrap-up could occur. And boy did it! Fantastic.

For those who didn't know, "Jericho" was a show about what happens to one town in the aftermath of a nuclear strike perpetrated on U.S. soil. A bunch of cities were destroyed, the government turned upside down, towns were at war over limited resources… The show kept evolving until Ravenwood (i.e., Blackwater) and the government took over the town of Jericho.

Man, I wasn't super impressed by all of the episodes, but the finale seems to justify the whole series. I think I want it on DVD!

When are we going to colonize the moon? The earth is doomed. Let’s move on.

J/k. I love the earth. Let’s fix it! First, we need to solve hunger, war, thirst…and the housing crisis! Lot’s of people are hopping on the bandwagon and moving out of their expensive homes into cheaper, more affordable housing. With so many people moving, it must be a fantastic time for the moving industry! Such an influx of customers would probably create a need for more companies. And with an ever-widening pool of “professional” help, the chances are greater that you could end up with the lamest of the lame. You know, some company that just started up and doesn’t know what it’s doing? They offer low, low rates because that’s the only way they can sucker you in. And then they go and break your piano! How can we avoid this?

MovingOrbit.com allows you to quickly and easily sort among a bunch of professional moving companies. The real pros have their own moving trucks, and MovingOrbit.com can tell you who’s who. You can compare and see which company will offer the best protection for your personal items, and which will offer superior pricing. Basically, you’ll be able to get multiple estimates for both local and interstate companies.

The only way to avoid an unpleasant hiring situation is to get in the know. With MovingOrbit.com, you can.

I don't think this will really happen. It was just the first impression I got.

Reading on Yahoo today, I learned that "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki issued an ultimatum Wednesday demanding that the militias surrender their weapons within 72 hours."

Further down the page: "Maliki stipulated in his ultimatum that the militants would be spared if they surrendered their weapons within 72 hours."

Of course, if you run a country (or try to), and a bunch of people go around shooting the place up, it doesn't make much sense to nuke them. You'd be nuking yourself.

But I just figured than any kind of ultimatum in a part of the world that is so problematic might end badly. Like maybe he says, "I'm going to count to three. One…"

The conflict doesn't stop.

"Two…"

Some of the fighting groups' bigger brothers (i.e. neighboring countries) say, "Hey, fight's on!"

"Three!" The enforcer tries to cut down the disobeying parties. Meanwhile, the big brothers say, "That's enough," and somehow escalate the conflict. Then they fight with each other. And it spreads and spreads, nation to nation, getting bigger and bigger, until someone says, "All right! I can finally use the nuke I got! Good thing I saved all the money I made on my paper route…"

FOOM!

Pure fiction? Or crazy like a fox? Stay tuned this weekend…

I recently read at wired.com that things are getting cheaper and cheaper. Like at Yahoo — unlimited data storage in your mailbox. That's insane. That's awesome! Technology is advancing so far that most of the average user's needs can be met for next to nothing. And someday soon, it really will cost us all nothing! Well, that's the vibe I got from the article, anyway.

I wish Health Care and Education were free.

In Star Trek, I believe there is no need for money. I've never really investigated this issue, but from what I can tell, the reason for this is the presence of replicator technology. It's like every room has a microwave-sized box that receives voice commands. So you say, "Computer, please make me a ham sandwich." And I guess nanomachines go to work to quickly engineer your food item. Or maybe they use a combination of hologram/transporter technology to immediately convert energy into matter in whatever configuration is required. So instead of decompiling half-eaten ham dinners and stale bread, and then reassembling the components into a ham sandwich (or instead of breaking down sewage and using that to make the ham sandwich), the machine would simply convert pure energy into a fresh meal. Cool!

I think, though, that the closest we are to achieving replicator technology lands on the side of nanotech. This means that all garbage would become fuel. Kind of like at the end of "Back to the Future" when Doc says, "I need fuel!" and tosses an old beer can into the Mr. Fusion. But instead of using the atoms and molecules of the can and beer inside for fusion, the replicator would strip the paint/label from the can, file that away, break down the metal, store that, and probably filter or process the beer somehow. Then later, you'd say "Computer, make me a can of Coke," and it would use the old metal and maybe some of the liquid. Or, you could say, "Computer, make me some aluminum foil."

With replicator technology, we'd rely on factories far less. Some would put out replicators of various sizes, and then the upgraded model would arrive that was self-repairing, and could even make copies of itself. Certain groups or institutions might have room-sized replicators, or bigger. "Computer, make me a house!"

So everyone would have access to any item, any material they wanted. All you need is the raw materials, and if they can't be found in your garbage, you'd have to get them somehow.

That would cost, right? I don't think so. I figure if nanotech is that advanced, we could have mining crews of nanotech machines digging, finding, and saving raw materials. Maybe even in your own back yard. "Computer, dig up my yard, find me some stuff, then put it back like it was. Oh, and make my lawn look better than my neighbor's." And even if you said, "Computer, make me a diamond," but were out of coal, you could probably find some carbon elsewhere. Like maybe it could break down the carbon of that leftover fruit salad in your fridge. And then if you ever got sick of that diamond, or your wife left you for the robot she conned you into replicating, then you could say, "Computer, take this diamond and make me a fruit salad."

Fruit salad! Yummy, yummy!

So, with all that technology at everyone's disposal, most things would probably be free. Maybe not land, though, in the traditional sense. But I bet there are probably ways to "make" more.

Give everyone in the world their own microwave-sized replicator. That's an end to hunger. Maybe the box can pull water from the air. An end to thirst? And it can take sand and make a palace. So some guy out in the middle of the desert could probably survive with one of those boxes, even with no plants around. He could use his own waste to make more food, (clean of course), use the sand to make connectible tiles with which he could build a house, pull water from the air (or filter sea water)…

Why not just make a jetpack?

Or how about this? If nanotech in the box can make anything, why not have nanotech in the guy's body? The machines would smoothly convert his waste into further nutrients, rearranging all the bad stuff into stuff that serves a purpose.

Seriously, I heard that they're working on some kind of artificial blood. It's so efficient that if you had it inside you, you could sprint for 10 minutes straight…

…without taking a breath.

Sure, this stuff could be used to create super soldiers, or a replicating goo that could decimate a country (or the world, and that's a widely-acknowledged fear). But I think it's so powerful that it should probably eliminate the need for war. All we need to do is to think, and figure out how to fix the problems of the chronically upset.

I remember just a few years ago I started wondering why we no longer seemed afraid of nuclear war. I had seen videos depicting the fear shared by members of my parent generation a few decades ago. I figured, "Well, the threat isn't that big a deal anymore." But then I wondered, if we still have the technology, there's still a threat. Sure, foreign countries aren't really in the news all that much (this was a few years ago, mind you) as being threatening in a nuclear sense, but that could change. Every time I heard another country became a nuclear power, I felt like one of the geeky kids cheated his way into the popular clique. "India has The Bomb? What in the world happened?"

The media wasn't really mentioning nuclear war as a major issue. Movies depicted end times scenarios, but that was about it. We focused on "lesser" battles, non-nuclear confrontations. And slowly, steadily, various nations began acquiring nuclear technology without any mainstream naysayer. Now, it seems, we may have reached a crystallization point. Enough countries have gone nuclear that there is an even greater threat to the world in general than when everybody lived in fear.

World War III is sometimes thought of as a dragged-out nuclear conflict. On the contrary. Nuclear weapons will greatly speed things up. If we ever do reach the point of a full-scale nuclear war with our neighbors, it will probably last less than 48 hours.