![Nuclear Gandhi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Nuclear_Gandhi.png)
Nuclear Gandhi is an
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
and
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
relating to the 1991 video game ''
Civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
'', in which there was reportedly a
bug that would eventually force the pacifist leader
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
to become extremely aggressive and make heavy use of
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s.
The bug was first noted in 2012,
two years after the release of ''
Civilization V
''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014.
In ''C ...
''. In 2020, the series' creator,
Sid Meier
Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...
, contradicted the urban legend, saying there was never a bug like that in the original game.
Nuclear Gandhi is one of the most recognizable video game glitches, has been used as an example of
integer overflow
In computer programming, an integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation attempts to create a numeric value that is outside of the range that can be represented with a given number of digits – either higher than the maximum or lower t ...
in computer science, and was included as an
Easter egg
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...
in other games in the ''
Civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
'' series.
Background
According to the legend, each leader's
game AI
In video games, artificial intelligence (AI) is used to generate responsive, adaptive or intelligent behaviors primarily in non-player characters (NPCs) similar to human-like intelligence. Artificial intelligence has been an integral part of vid ...
in ''
Civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
'' had a parameter that described their aggression on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being least aggressive and 10 most aggressive.
Other sources say the scale went from 1 to 12.
Indian leader
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
was the only leader in the game with the lowest possible aggression rating of 1
and, as a result, was only able to wage defensive wars.
Once the AI changed its government form to
democracy
Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
, which was preferred by peaceful nations such as India,
its aggression level decreased by 2. In the case of Gandhi, this would lead to an aggression level of −1.
However, the aggression level was stored as an
8-bit unsigned integer variable that could only store values in the range from 0 to 255 (or ). The negative value would therefore result in an
integer overflow
In computer programming, an integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation attempts to create a numeric value that is outside of the range that can be represented with a given number of digits – either higher than the maximum or lower t ...
(specifically an integer underflow), with the value being stored as 255
and Gandhi becoming about 25 times more aggressive than the most aggressive leaders in the game.
In ''Civilization''
's
technology tree
In strategy games, a technology, tech, or research tree is a hierarchical visual representation of the possible sequences of upgrades a player can take (most often through the act of research). Because these trees are technically directed and acy ...
,
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s are generally unlocked only after democracy, so Gandhi's aggression level would have already spiked by the time India became nuclear-capable. This led to India suddenly attacking other civilizations with nuclear missiles.
The bug was supposedly fixed in later versions of the game,
but the developers liked it so much they decided to re-implement it in successive games as an
Easter egg
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tr ...
and joke.
According to other sources, the bug first appeared in ''
Civilization II''.
In reality, according to the ''Civilization II'' lead
game designer
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
Brian Reynolds, there were only three possible aggression levels in ''Civilization'', and even though Gandhi's AI had the lowest possible aggression level, he shared it with one third of all leaders. Additionally, based on his memories of ''Civilization''
's source code, Reynolds stated that there was no unsigned variable in this section of code and that leaders could not act more aggressively than the most aggressive leaders of the game. A leader with an aggression level of 255 would act the same way as a leader with an aggression level of 3.
According to
Sid Meier
Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...
, since all integer variables are
signed by default in both
C and
C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
(the programming languages of ''Civilization'' and ''Civilization II'' respectively), overflow would not have occurred if Gandhi's aggression were set to –1; moreover, the government form does not affect AI aggressiveness at all, so Gandhi's aggression level remained the same throughout the game.
During wars, India could use nuclear weapons just like any other civilization, but Gandhi would not use nuclear weapons more often than
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
or any other peaceful leaders.
One possible origin of the legend could be India's tendency to discover nuclear technology before most of its opponents because of the peaceful scientific nature of this civilization.
Appearances
![Jon Shafer 2012](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Jon_Shafer_2012.jpg)
Through ''Civilization IV'', a popular misconception held that Gandhi was "still" programmed with a tendency to use nuclear weapons as an Easter egg, but no such behavior was purposely added to the games by
Firaxis
Firaxis Games, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Sparks, Maryland. The company was founded in May 1996 by Sid Meier, Jeff Briggs and Brian Reynolds following their departure from MicroProse, Meier's earlier venture. They were ...
. The first such intentional inclusion of Nuclear Gandhi was in ''
Civilization V
''Sid Meier's Civilization V'' is a 4X video game in the ''Civilization'' series developed by Firaxis Games. The game was released on Microsoft Windows on September 21, 2010, on OS X on November 23, 2010, and on Linux on June 10, 2014.
In ''C ...
''. ''Civilization V'' lead
game designer
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
Jon Shafer
Jon Shafer is an American designer and programmer of computer games. He was the lead designer of the strategy game ''Civilization V'', developed by Firaxis.
Currently, Shafer is the president of Conifer Games, a video games development company ...
set Gandhi's "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" parameters to the highest possible value, 12. Shafer said that he did this as a joke: "it's fun to imagine that an Indian politician promoting
Satyagraha
Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone w ...
may have a desire to nuke his neighbors". Following the game's release in 2010, players noticed Gandhi's incongruous behavior; it was addressed in ''
The Escapist'' magazine's comic ''Critical Miss''. Players nicknamed ''Civilization V''s Gandhi "Thermonuclear," "
The destroyer of worlds," and "
Kurchatov."
![Civilization V AI Chart](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Civilization_V_AI_Chart.png)
Gandhi is actually one of the most peaceful leaders in ''Civilization V'', but his artificial intelligence parameters that control building and using of nuclear weapons have the value of 12, which is the highest of any leader. The next three leaders have a value of 8, and most leaders have a value between 4 and 6.
To bring more diversity to the gameplay, at the start of each game, ''Civilization V'' adjusts these parameters by adding a random value between −2 and +2 to each of these two values; in the case of Gandhi, this means the "Build Nuke" and "Use Nuke" parameters will never go lower than the maximum rating: 10 out of 10.
''
Civilization VI
''Sid Meier's Civilization VI'' is a turn-based strategy 4X video game developed by Firaxis Games, published by 2K Games, and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. The mobile port was published by Aspyr Media. The latest entry into the ''Civiliz ...
'' introduced a secret agenda mechanic that regulates the artificial intelligence behavior. Each leader has two agendas: the first is constant and based on each leader's personal history, and the second one (as well as a third one in ''
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm'') is chosen randomly at the start of each game. Gandhi's fixed goal is "Peacekeeper": Gandhi is much less likely to start wars, and disdains civilizations that do, as well as appreciating those that do the opposite. However, he has a fixed 70% probability of getting "Nuke Happy" as his secondary agenda, which causes him to focus on building nukes, appreciate civilizations that do, and disdain civilizations that do not.
Meme
In early 2012, 21 years after the original ''Civilization'' was released, a
TV Tropes
TV Tropes is a wiki website that collects and documents descriptions and examples of plot conventions and devices, which it refers to as tropes, within many creative works. Since its establishment in 2004, the site has shifted focus from coveri ...
user named Tunafish claimed that a bug existed in ''Civilization'' that caused Gandhi to be much more aggressive. Tunafish did not provide any proof.
In November, the same information was added to
Wikia
Fandom (formerly known as Wikicities before 2007 and later Wikia before 2019) is a wiki hosting service that hosts wikis mainly on entertainment topics (i.e. video games, TV series, movies, entertainers, etc.). Its domain is operated by Fandom, ...
.
According to
Sid Meier
Sidney K. Meier ( ; born February 24, 1954) is a Canadian-American programmer, designer, and producer of several strategy video games and simulation video games, including the ''Civilization'' series. Meier co-founded MicroProse in 1982 with B ...
, over the next two years, the story spread across the Internet, and each time someone doubted it, a
link to a wiki was used as a proof.
In 2014, the story gained publicity after a reposted ''Critical Miss'' comic caused a discussion in the comment section on
Reddit
Reddit (; stylized in all lowercase as reddit) is an American social news aggregation, content rating, and discussion website. Registered users (commonly referred to as "Redditors") submit content to the site such as links, text posts, images ...
over why Gandhi was made that aggressive.
Ten days later, the video game news website ''
Kotaku
''Kotaku'' is a video game website and blog that was originally launched in 2004 as part of the Gawker Media network. Notable former contributors to the site include Luke Smith, Cecilia D'Anastasio, Tim Rogers, and Jason Schreier.
History
...
'' posted the article "Why Gandhi Is Such An Asshole In Civilization",
which prompted other news websites and blogs to republish the information.
Because of interest in mass media and the
blogosphere
The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can p ...
, many series fans discovered this story, and "Nuclear Gandhi" became a common video game
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
and a joke.
Moreover, due to the
Mandela effect
In psychology, a false memory is a phenomenon where someone recalls something that did not happen or recalls it differently from the way it actually happened. Suggestibility, activation of associated information, the incorporation of misinforma ...
, many people remembered that they were particularly annoyed by India in the first games of ''
Civilization
A civilization (or civilisation) is any complex society characterized by the development of a state, social stratification, urbanization, and symbolic systems of communication beyond natural spoken language (namely, a writing system).
Ci ...
'' series.
Information about "Nuclear Gandhi" was later added to ''
Know Your Meme
''Know Your Meme'' (''KYM'') is a website and video series which uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, Internet celebrities and more. It also invest ...
'', which stated that the bug first appeared in ''
Civilization II''.
On June 18, 2019, Firaxis marketing manager Kevin Schultz posted a tweet stating that he is going offline for two weeks due to a business trip to China, and offered to reflect on the question, "What if the widely shared and reposted story about Gandhi's love for nukes in the original ''Civilization'' being caused by a bug is totally false?" This prompted ex-''
Eurogamer
''Eurogamer'' is a British video game journalism website launched in 1999 and owned by alongside formed company Gamer Network. Its editor-in-chief is Martin Robinson.
Since 2008, it is known for the formerly eponymous games trade fair EGX ...
'' columnist Chris Bratt to start a
journalistic investigation.
Bratt contacted
2K's
PR department and asked for an interview with a Firaxis representative, but his request was denied. Bratt then contacted ex-Firaxis game designer
Bruce Shelley
Bruce Campbell Shelley is a board and video game designer. He is primarily associated as the co-designer of the video games ''Railroad Tycoon'' and ''Civilization'' with Sid Meier, and later the '' Age of Empires'' series.
Shelley had worked with ...
, who stated that he did not remember whether the glitch existed, since the development of ''Civilization'' was 30 years ago: "I vaguely remember an issue with Gandhi, but the guy you would have to speak with is Sid
eier" The next person Bratt contacted was lead ''
Civilization II'' game designer
Brian Reynolds, who replied: "Although it's been ~20 years since I've seen the Civ 1 code, I can still tell you with 99.99% certainty the Gandhi bug is completely apocryphal." Bratt contacted 2K and Sid Meier once again, but did not receive a direct refutation. Meier stated that he did not know the correct answer, but he thinks that the urban legend is a good thing: "given the limited technology of the time, the original Civ was in many ways a game that took place mainly in players' imaginations", so "I'd be reluctant to limit what that player can imagine by introducing too many of my thoughts". Bratt posted a YouTube video with his investigation's findings.
Later, in an ''
Ars Technica
''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...
'' interview, Sid Meier stated that the story about the Gandhi software bug was fabricated.
On September 8, 2020, Sid Meier's autobiography, ''Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games'', was released, containing a detailed background of the
urban legend
An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
's formation.
Legacy
Despite its non-existence, "Nuclear Gandhi" is one of the most recognizable
bugs in the history of video games.
It has spawned a large number of
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
s,
and has been used as an example of
integer overflow
In computer programming, an integer overflow occurs when an arithmetic operation attempts to create a numeric value that is outside of the range that can be represented with a given number of digits – either higher than the maximum or lower t ...
in
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
courses at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, among others.
See also
*
India and weapons of mass destruction
India possesses nuclear weapons and previously developed chemical weapons. Although India has not released any official statements about the size of its nuclear arsenal, recent estimates suggest that India has 160 nuclear weapons and has prod ...
*
Operation Smiling Buddha
Operation Smiling BuddhaThis test has many code names. Civilian scientists called it "Operation Smiling Buddha" and the Indian Army referred to it as ''Operation Happy Krishna''. According to United States Military Intelligence, ''Operation H ...
*
Pokhran-II
The Pokhran-II tests were a series of five nuclear bomb test explosions conducted by India at the Indian Army's Pokhran Test Range in May 1998. It was the second instance of nuclear testing conducted by India; the first test, code-named ''Smil ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
Nuclear Gandhiat
Know Your Meme
''Know Your Meme'' (''KYM'') is a website and video series which uses wiki software to document various Internet memes and other online phenomena, such as viral videos, image macros, catchphrases, Internet celebrities and more. It also invest ...
{{Urban legends
Civilization (series)
Cultural depictions of Mahatma Gandhi
Easter egg (media)
Fiction about nuclear war and weapons
Internet hoaxes
Internet memes introduced in 2012
Urban legends
Video game glitches
Video game hoaxes
Video game memes