3 ms·
Anecdotally, Engineers seem to want to prove relativity wrong as it places unfortunate limits on the kinds of things that could be built. No one is flash gordo
by lumost 5y ago
Anecdotally, Engineers seem to want to prove relativity wrong as it places unfortunate limits on the kinds of things that could be built. No one is flash gordoning around space anytime soon.
On the other hand it also gave us marvelous energy sources such as nuclear power. However this connection is often missed amongst lay observers.
- ncmncm 5y agoWe would arguably be better off, all around, without that, if it meant no atomic bombs. We weren't getting FTL anyway.
- lumost 5y agoThis is a very complex topic. however - even if we ignore the civil application of nuclear technologies for radiation therapy, nuclear energy, x-rays etc. Nuclear weaponry has been successful in preventing further destructive wars on the scale of WW2. I don't believe anybody would have expected the western allies and the Warsaw pact countries not to go to war with each other had nuclear weapons not existed.
- tsimionescu 5y ago> Nuclear weaponry has been successful in preventing further destructive wars on the scale of WW2. This will unfortunately remain true only until a nuclear war does break out. After such a moment, the few that survive may say "if only nuclear weapons weren't invented, we could have had another WW2 instead of this disaster". The other arguments about nuclear physics that you make are much more convincing as an unmitigated good.