"The only winning move...is not to play."
The conclusion of the WOPR (Joshua) computer regarding nuclear war
in the 1982 film Wargames.
I did not know that about LOTR - very interesting, thanks! Where did
you read it?
Though this is probably apocryphal (I read it on the Internet over 20
years ago), the Defense Department made a computer program to
simulate various war tactics. The computer kept concluding that not
fighting was the best way to go. The military boys had it reprogrammed
until the machine gave it the answers they wanted - a state of non-peace, of course.