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20130401

Yes We Can, With Atoms!

By harnessing the power of the atom we can achieve a glorious worker's paradise that not only would achieve complete equality on Earth, but allow us to export this equality to the stars. Atoms!

Or not quite. Like with any Godlike power - and the power of the atom could certainly be considered Godlike (consider, the matter within you now has the equivalent power of thousands of the biggest nuclear bombs) - there's a downside. And that would be the extinction of humanity and a good bit of all life on Earth.
From one of the earliest H bomb tests.
Loose slots and mushroom clouds on the horizon - visit Nevada! Nukes are good for business.
Where would the fall out shelter industry be without them?
And they can help with marketing choices.

But seriously, folks, nuclear bombs are bad, m'kay? Take it from Mr. Oppenheimer:
It's a heavy legacy - to be considered the "Father of the Bomb" or perhaps "Destroyer of Worlds". But he was but one man among many, and the morality of the Bomb at the time is complex. Such is the price of opening Pandora's Box. Wonders and terrors hitherto never even conceived! Consider it - before the concepts of the atom were understood (late 1800's), all of this was unimaginable, literally. And now, today, we could destroy our world in the next 30 minutes. Also literally.

Or, if we were more mature/wise, we could power all of humanity's technology using safe nuclear power.

But we're not very mature now, are we?

5 comments:

l.e.s.ter said...

Using scantily clad bathing beauties to market your fallout shelter? For some segment of the world that's the biggest crime here.

Redshirt said...

"Nuclear Jihad" ain't just a cool band name.

Marmot said...

Wow. I can't believe I've never seem that Oppenheimer letter before!

Marmot said...

Arg! "seen"

Redshirt said...

His life is sort of sad. He got smeared after the war by Hoover and the rest of the Anti-Commie brigade which deprived him of many opportunities. And along with Einstein and several others involved in the Manhattan Project, he became very anti-nuclear weapons in his final years.