Do you really think that protecting our children from the garbage on these platforms is contrary to free speech?
The fact is that these platforms are run for profit. They are not fit for purpose if they can be exploited to exploit children, and, for that matter to facilitate unelected billionaires to overthrow elected democracies.
100% agree. Also, if you liked that, try his follow on, "Dark Sun", focusing on the fusion bomb development after the war. There is probably a much greater focus on politics, especially involving Teller.
Dark Sun is not bad, but it is definitely overshadowed by Rhodes' magnum opus.
I recommend Igniting the Light Elements for people who want a keystone piece about the early thermonuclear. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/10596 - it's an extensive Thesis on the history of early thermonuclear period. Also one of the last comprehensive looks before classification fully obscures the plurality of the programs.
Thanks for posting that reference. I came to do the same after finding that thesis while searching for another book I remember reading. The book covered Wheeler's (I think it was Wheeler) work simulating the first thermonuclear device on borrowed IBM calculating machines in the basement of some place in NYC (I think it was a commercial organization), basically beginning the HPC industry. Anyway, the Fitzpatrick thesis begins asking why it took so long for thermonuclear devices to be developed. I haven't yet had time to read to the conclusion, but presumably "not fast enough computers" is the answer.
The first half of this book is kind of a slog, focusing on the minutiae of the Soviet's espionage effort. Which, to be fair, was the basis for the Soviet's rapid development of fission and fusion weapons. I just wasn't expecting a (rather boring) spy book. The 2nd half is much more interesting as they get into the truly genius science and engineering of the hydrogen bomb. And boy, Teller really does come off as a complete jerk who wasted a lot of time on his preferred Super design.
Soviets also benefited a lot from German scientists pulled from post-WW2 Germany in their own version of a Paperclip-like program. Recommended reading: Forgotten Creators by Todd Rider. Free and online, over 4,000 pages including references and important appendices, so one has to navigate to the chapter / section of interest.
This is the same Todd Rider whose PhD work at MIT (advised by the late Lawrence Lidsky) showed aneutronic fusion was unlikely to be workable. Lidsky had previously argued DT fusion wasn't going to cut it because of inherently low volumetric power density and had argued aneutronic fusion should be pursued. Between those two approaches lies lower neutronicity D-3He fusion, which may be fusion's only real hope. Helion has the lead in pursuing this approach, with a design focusing on highly efficient energy recirculation that feels informed by Rider's analysis.
a big man came to me, tears in his eyes, great guy...Sir, he said sir, why do we let Europe screw us on anti-matter? they just make this stuff negative like it doesn't exists and they want us to pay us, when we invented the anti-matter...so unfair
Do you really think that protecting our children from the garbage on these platforms is contrary to free speech?
The fact is that these platforms are run for profit. They are not fit for purpose if they can be exploited to exploit children, and, for that matter to facilitate unelected billionaires to overthrow elected democracies.