Atmospheric Testing Grounds
There was a time when the Pacific atolls were testing grounds for nuclear devices, before they went underground. Underground, above ground, now the upper atmosphere. We just cannot seem to remove ourselves from the fascination of playing with dangerously destructive toys.Science and engineering and modern technology are wonderful tools, no doubt about it. Humankind's curiosity about anything and everything, forbidden or not, compels us to forge on.
And once a discovery has been made, how to ensure it will remain in trustworthy hands? How to keep a potentially disastrous device from wandering into the realm of danger? How to tame the whirlwind?
Are there capable and trustworthy hands to begin with? Those to whom can be entrusted instruments of catastrophic disaster? Are there responsible governments to whom atomic energy, nuclear-headed missiles can be entrusted?
Say, for example, the most wealthy, most socially progressive, most politically trusted nation on earth? Who, having the means by which they could visit the ultimate disaster on another country, would be trusted not to?
And under the guise of preventing a war from being unduly prolonged, would choose to unleash nuclear death on a scale never before imagined because of sheer curiosity about what would happen, how effective their fearful device would prove to be?
Those immense deadly concussions that left shadows where multitudes of people had been, hushed the world in a frenzy of fear.
But that also marked the beginning of the end for one-state possession of the ultimate weapon as other countries frenziedly set about acquiring the latest status-symbol weapon of mass destruction. Where to go from there?
Why space, of course, the upper atmosphere. From attacking one another from ground-based positions, more effectively wide-spaced destruction could be achieved by launching attacks from the upper atmosphere.
Think of nature and what she can accomplish, in hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, earthquakes, erupting volcanoes, ice storms, tsunamis, thunder, lightning, the world gone weather-mad.
We seek to emulate nature, and then to outdo her. When China amazed the world by destroying an old weather satellite long past its prime, there was equal parts wonder at her technical proficiency and her presumptuousness.
And of course condemnation was swift and uncompromising; in her scientific-technical arrogance, China was threatening world stability; who knew where she would go from there?
A year later the United States found an acceptable reason for repeating China's move, only because it was the U.S. it was all right. This was not a test of the capability of her anti-ballistic missile defence - Star Wars.
The U.S. has joined that very special club that China pioneered, oh good on them. Is this what's being termed the space arms race?
Labels: Political Realities, Science, Technology, World News
posted by Pieface @ Friday, February 22, 2008
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