How do we address that? So I just wanted to kind of set the stage, and Peter, you can go into more of the, uh, recommendations now based on the, the four different scenarios that, that occurred.

Yeah.

So, you know, at the high level, you know, the United States, you know, needs the kind of instrumentation that we can confirm or disconfirm, uh, that a nuclear weapon is on orbit, um, so that we're not reacting, you know, to a bluff or that we know in advance that there's something we need to react to.

Secondly, we need, uh, tools to negate it.

Um, how to do that, you know, uh, you know, there are a lot of, of potential ways that you might negate a, a nuclear weapon.

Um, you know, but, uh, with the exception of maybe some cyber or electronic warfare tool, um, you know, at present it doesn't look like we have such a, such a system fielded.

And then, you know, as Rich mentioned, um, we need a plan.

Any thoughts on how those challenges impact how we can, uh, counter these threats?

And when you can cut the cost and time in half and deliver, uh, you know, goods and services to people around the world, um, you become the dominant economy, and that then gave us the power to be able to defend our values against, um, the, you know, uh, Hitler and the, and the Third Reich.

You know, we, uh, w- we were kind of pri- prior to the use of the, the nuclear weapon at the end of that war, we were a nation of profound technological optimism.

And then sort of following, um, you know, our creation realization that we, you know, we could also, you know, wreak great harm with our technology, um, many in the scientific, uh, and philosophical communities sort of retreated from a position of technological optimism.

But the results of that retreat, you know, have, have not been good for humanity.

And, you know, similarly, you know, we were, uh, for a very long period of our history, we were a frontier nation, and then that frontier closed.

And I agree with you that, you know, human beings, you know, are an exploratory species.

We are also a, a migratory species.

So Peter, if you can just talk about some of the other books that they ought to take a look at, and I'll put those into the comments, and then also, uh, some of the questions you think, and you can kind of wrap us up here.