No one ever seriously considered invading the US, since 1945. The Viet Cong merely succeeded in making the Americans leave, once the cost for them of continuing the war exceeded the loss of face from losing it. Likewise for the Afghans defeating the Russians.
However, I agree, nuclear weapons are in some sense a defensive technology, not an offensive one: the consequences (geopolitical and environmental) of using one are so bad that no one since WW2 has been willing to use one as part of a war of conquest, even when nuclear powers were fighting non-nuclear powers.
One strongly suspects that the same will not be true of ASI, and that it will unlock many technologies, offensive, defensive, and perhaps also persuasive, probably including some much more subtle than nuclear weapons (which are monumentally unsubtle).
No one ever seriously considered invading the US, since 1945. The Viet Cong merely succeeded in making the Americans leave, once the cost for them of continuing the war exceeded the loss of face from losing it. Likewise for the Afghans defeating the Russians.
However, I agree, nuclear weapons are in some sense a defensive technology, not an offensive one: the consequences (geopolitical and environmental) of using one are so bad that no one since WW2 has been willing to use one as part of a war of conquest, even when nuclear powers were fighting non-nuclear powers.
One strongly suspects that the same will not be true of ASI, and that it will unlock many technologies, offensive, defensive, and perhaps also persuasive, probably including some much more subtle than nuclear weapons (which are monumentally unsubtle).