Comment by mrshadowgoose
15 hours ago
The arms race is an intrinsic game theoretical property of a multi-adversarial-actor scenario involving exponential growth of a universally potent technology. It's almost certainly winner-take-all, on a global scale, which behooves everyone to participate.
And no, I don't think it will end well.
The actors here are states or corporations embedded in societies that risk growing popular backlash against the technology.
The other factor is that if it is truly an "alien mind", racing incurs risks to all players. In game-theoretic terms it may be more like a stag hunt than a prisoner's dilemma. In which case cooperation is an equilibrium.
No previous technological arms race has ever concluded with a single winner.