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Notes -
Sure, and that's been true for some time, for example there are weapons from the 19th century which easily allow 1 person to kill dozens or even hundreds of other people before they can be stopped. But they do get stopped.
So perhaps the real way to frame the question is to ask whether technologies might arise which make offense sufficiently easy as to overwhelm defenders even with the advantage of time and scale.
Right.
I agree that's a step in the right direction. Still, it seems to me that it will take at least a few years before humanity can start dispersing. Hopefully nothing terrible happens in the meantime.
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