A hypothetical example uses three powers of unequal strength. The smallest power's hacker could be coerced into making the strongest power's systems attack the middle power while disguising who caused the intrusion. Anger over casualties might prompt retaliation against the apparent attacker before anyone establishes what happened. Claims that a system is unhackable, or reliance on a recovery back door, can add vulnerabilities rather than solve the command problem. The technology changes the mechanism, but the strategic logic is the familiar one of false flags, mistaken attribution, and manipulated escalation.
Notable Point · 55:39-58:53
Hijacked autonomy can trigger false-flag escalation
A third party could redirect autonomous weapons so that one power appears to attack another, exploiting rapid retaliation before attribution is complete.