The immune system does not care if it wins or loses, game theory and etc., I agree. But the reason it doesn't have to care about that stuff is because the natural selection already did that job for it. The culling of most types of immune systems by the culling of the genes that generate them has happened throughtout natural history, and we cannot say the same about the Shivans, unless the following is true:
- We live in a kind of natural selection megaverse where the survival of the universe is required to make "child universes" (ala Smolin, etc.);
- The Shivan system is anti-fragile itself, and unlike the immune system, it actually learns, adapts and alters itself with every encounter with any other species
The Shivans are analogous to an immune system in that, although they have certain heuristic patterns, the elements of which may be at least theoretically predictable, the manifested outcomes of the heuristics are not.
I'm not sure I agree with the part of your analysis I've quoted. The immune system and its genes actually function quite a bit differently from any other part of an organism's evolution as we understand it. Identical twins have genetically-different immune systems. It's not subject to natural selection in the same way an organism is. The reason the immune system doesn't "care" about game theory is because it is merely a component of a whole organism with no innate sentience, yet its functions demonstrate intelligence (it does indeed adapt and learn, and it self-modifies its actual DNA bp structures).
The Shivans, I think, are analogous to this. They have internal functions that mimic natural selection processes within the Shivan 'species' as part of the universe, much like immune systems experience accelerated and unique natural selection within a host organism.
I keep coming back to the line about the Shivans not being made, but calculated. Nothing "made" immune systems - they were a consequence of natural selection in the host organism which have now partially detached their evolution from the host. I think the Shivans are the same thing, on the scale of the Universe itself. They were a probabilistic outcome of the creation of the Universe.
And to attach onto the idea someone else posted - seeking their destruction would be a decidedly "bad" thing. The Shivans appear to have a great deal more knowledge and capability to gather knowledge about the universe than do the Vishnans. At this juncture, I'm far more likely to think that the Vishnan path is the road to destruction paved with good intentions.
Which, despite my irritation at the GTVA for invading and being somewhat solidly on the side of the UEF before actually puts me on the side of - oddly-enough - a combined approach of both the GTVA and Laporte/Fedayeen now. The GTVA's Shivan paranoia is going to get everyone killed, so I'm thinking seriously that Ken is right-ish about Laporte being the best option for ensuring humanity's survival.