I thought I arrived at this idea independently, and then was surprised to see that it featured in the book.

OTOH, considering I've read every Iain M. Banks book, it's a bit silly to talk about arriving at a conclusion independently (rather than having followed the same path).

http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm

Edit: this is a rather splendid wee story where "weakly godlike agencies" are treated like any other strategic cold-war weapon, leading to an even scarier version of the Cold War.