Rick, the “Morris Worm of Intelligence” analogy is a sharp and unsettling way to frame what decentralization really breaks. I’m fully aligned with the techno-optimist vision and agree that regulation alone can’t keep pace with the speed of code. Where I’m still wrestling is less with whether something like a SIRT is needed, and more with where the real leverage lives once autonomy and scale arrive together.

Even a hybrid “Navy SEALs” model risks being reactive by default. If decentralized agents propagate exponentially, a human-led response (even with Hunter AIs) may always be fighting a linear battle. Near-term defense may live as much in architecture as in teams: aggressively gating high-level inference upstream, enforcing identity or proof-of-personhood for certain capabilities, and building systemic friction that buys time. I don’t see that as an argument against SIRT—if anything, it defines the hard operational work such a team would need to own.