It's not obvious to me that there is any likelihood of severe damage and heavy casualties in a nuclear sub without catastrophic hull damage as well. Nuclear subs generally do not have internal pressure bulkheads, as I recall, because there isn't enough buoyancy reserve for the sub to survive with a flooded section anyway. This means that a serious hull breach is quickly fatal. To begin with, we cannot anticipate every possible scenario in a Soviet attack. Human commanders cope with unexpected situations by drawing on their experience, their common sense, and their knack for military tactics.
Computers have no such abilities.
They can only deal with situations they were programmed in advance to expect. Operating systems, compilers, editors, mailers, etc. Some people believe that computer reasoning is inherently less powerful than human reasoning, but it hasn't been proven yet. The public may be ignorant, but they aren't stupid. Don't lie to them.