Do you really think the "powers that be" in Russia and the U.S. were suicidal?
YES! and they still are!!
Which of them have committed suicide recently? I must have missed that nuclear war we had "back in the day".
Your lack of understanding of the programme and its explanations is quite astounding.
Your lack of reading comprehension ability is quite astounding. See below.
The fact that Randy was actually trying to get over to you is that conflict and war drive development. Peace just drives apethy.
Your first sentence is often true, but there is no basis for the second statement. Now, regarding your lack of reading comprehension ability, I have already addressed this claim of Randy's, which means I am well aware of the point he was trying to make. Additionally, this wasn't even the main "Cold War connection" the show was trying to make. Randy already summarized the main connection they were trying to make when he said this:
videogames offered escapism from a world where everything was not wonderful, and where there was constant talk of nuclear armament and doomsday scenarios.
Now that is exaggeration is best, and pure BS at worst. Video games offered an escape from boredom, i.e., something to do, like a comic book, a movie, or a game of checkers. Who was sitting around thinking, "Gloom, despair, and agony on me! The oppression of this Cold War is too much to bear! I fear we'll be annihilated at any moment! But lo, yonder lies a video game! It is sure to drown my sorrows and sooth my pain..."
The sociopolitical and global political situation was what drove the development of the technology, that permitted video games to exist. It's important to recognise and understand the social and political history, in order to understand the context of the development of the games.
The driving force behind the development of hardware is not necessarily the driving force behind the development of software—no more than the driving force behind the development of paper is the same as the driving force behind the development of art or novels.
What was that carefree attitude at Atari all about? They must have been concealing their deeper Cold War misery, lol.
If it was not for conflict, you wouldn't even be able to write or respond in the way you are now, because there would be no internet to write on and no computers to connect to it. You'd be using a quill pen and a pot of ink, while attaching your message to the leg of a pigeon.
Or so you say (my usual response to speculation). But either way, it is irrelevant.
It's very clear that you fail to understand how everything that happens in this world is a result of chains of cause and effect. Until you understand that you won't understand the programme.
It is clear that you either haven't read my posts, or you didn't understand what you were reading.