Before Personnel Computers, I tried a board war game about WWII in North Africa. A map of the area from Egypt to Libya had hexagons superimposed, and cardboard pieces represented the Brits and Germans.

That simulated the battles between Montgomery and Rommel; you could try various strategies to see if you could alter what happened. Educational. Then PCs came along. Gaming became a culture.

Now imagine war game simulations done by the military. On computers. Mainframes. Supercomputers.

Every possible scenario of logic-chains is mapped out; if this, then that. Do this, see results, then choose A,B or D. OODA loops in microseconds. Years of events in advance. Almost instantaneous adjustments of “the plan”.

If you read Asimov’s Foundation series, it’s the Seldon Plan made real. The PLAN. Trust the plan. It is a movie, and the script is in real time.