Earlier quoted context omitted.
The irony is that he was both successful and a failure, a contradiction inherent in nuclear launch control. From a deterrence and military perspective, you want a robot on launch control. Every time, on orders, without fail. From a human and ethical perspective, you want a thinking individual with agency. Able evaluate orders and possibly disobey them. Curious at the height of the Cold War (and now), what percentage…
"Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration I've come to the conclusion, sir, that your new defense system sucks."
Well, they did put the system into production without Stephen Falken. Which seems like a shortsighted way to deploy AI in a high risk use case!