3 ms·
>However, a crazy person in 2024 with access to a hydrogen bomb could theoretically kill billions. People have been predicting this possibility ever since H-bo
by jhbadger 2y ago
>However, a crazy person in 2024 with access to a hydrogen bomb could theoretically kill billions.
People have been predicting this possibility ever since H-bombs existed. It's been a common trope in fiction -- Peter George's 1958 novel "Red Alert" featured a mad US general who starts WWIII (it's the novel that Kubrick adapted to make his Dr. Strangelove, although he made it a comedy and George was being serious).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- tharne 2y ago> People have been predicting this possibility ever since H-bombs existed. It's been a common trope in fiction First, this misses the point entirely. The H-bomb was just an example. The point is that technology allows an individual with access to the right tools the ability to scale their will, for good or evil, orders of magnitude beyond what they could do in a pre-industrial society. Second, the H-bomb was only invented in 1952, so it's only been around a little over 70 years. Saying that nothing bad has happened yet as a result of the H-bomb, isn't saying much. Put another way, the H-Bomb is younger than the last two U.S. presidents.