It’s somewhat ironic that the talk starts with the example of nuclear bombs, which is almost a perfect counterargument to the rest of the talk. Imagine the talk being set in the 1930s:
“Nuclear fission is new technology that only a few very intelligent scientists think is possible, one that can grant god-like power to the wielder or destroy the world in an instant, and one that we might only have a single chance to get right. But obviously everything from human muscles to gunpowder only works based on oxygen combustion, and oxygen combustion can’t destroy the world. So clearly the idea of nuclear fission is a crazy cult of nerdy physicists.”
It’s somewhat ironic that the talk starts with the example of nuclear bombs, which is almost a perfect counterargument to the rest of the talk. Imagine the talk being set in the 1930s:
“Nuclear fission is new technology that only a few very intelligent scientists think is possible, one that can grant god-like power to the wielder or destroy the world in an instant, and one that we might only have a single chance to get right. But obviously everything from human muscles to gunpowder only works based on oxygen combustion, and oxygen combustion can’t destroy the world. So clearly the idea of nuclear fission is a crazy cult of nerdy physicists.”