Quote:A preemptive strike would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilisation may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand.
[size="3"]OK, that is clearly an academia-grade geopolitical scenario disguised as a crazy conjecture. That article was definitely not written by an hallucinator, innocent hobbyist, or a disorganized and crazed peculiar.
My guess is that they are testing the threshold of what is considered plausible (and actionable) by the lay public. If the general public reaction is that of fact-based disbelief ("Aliens don't exist") rather than dynamic-based disbelief ("why would aliens want to harm us"), then they know that a parallel scenario enacted in the real world is below threshhold. Even the 9/11 movie which preceded 9/11 can be explained so.
lo and behold, the article was featured on daily kos [url="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/08/19/1008618/-Another-Damn-Thing-to-Worry-About"](link)[/url], a quite mainstream site, by one [url="http://www.dailykos.com/user/Crashing%20Vor"]Crashing Vor[/url][/size]