All of this suggests an approach to North Korea that has little in common with threatening “fire and fury like the world has never seen,” as President Donald Trump so quaintly put it. He’d have been barely less in sync with the times if he’d promised to make it rain for 40 days and 40 nights.

Instead, Yoo suggests, the U.S. should go on the offense with cyberweapons designed to do things like make missiles malfunction (which maybe it has already done, but shh!), erase data from military computers, wipe out the country’s bank accounts or even steal and publicize Kim’s smoochy emails to Dennis Rodman. It might send out tiny, barely detectable, AI-driven drones that work together like swarms of bees to take out key assets or people. In the longer run, Yoo says, it’s feasible to develop satellite-based anti-missile technology armed with AI that could watch other nations, learn what an impending missile launch looks like and immediately fry the thing with lasers.