Q: you keep talking about hostility - why can't all these info systems, newest AIs and so on - be used defensively, to expose all plots for harm?
with sufficiently powerful defense, why would threats matter?
"angry dog running towards gate detected." *automated gate slams shut*
@mcd0w I think this is the key - you can scan a mind much much faster if you can write to it.
If it refuses to respond to you, you (1) cannot fully scan it and (2) it is probably hostile to you. Or thinks you are hostile to it