Après la guerre nucléaire

Whispers drift in hallowed halls,
Where knowledge meets delight,
The atom’s dance, both cruel and grand,ⁱ
Casts shadows in the night.

To harness such a force so wild,
Mankind’s audacious claim,
With power in such crooked hands,
In nature nothing remains the same.

Beneath the radiant, glowing skies,
A silent threat does loom,
For in the heart of fire’s embrace,
We tread paths like petals bloom.

Yet even in this tempest fierce,
Where futures might unwind,
There lies a hope, a thread so thin,
That binds all of mankind.ⁱⁱ

Tell no one but the wise ones,
For the mobs now certain claim,ⁱⁱⁱ
We do praise the living essence,
That longs for death in flame.^iv

The atom’s kiss, a wondrous tryst,^v
Our world for power’s glow,
Ring echoes of new Faustian bells,
We can reap but what we do sow.

1. Going back 70 years artists like Henry Moore foresaw the tensions we’d be experiencing with respect to nuclear power:
   

   Embedded in the sculpture and patently manifest even in this working model, located at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto as part of their permanent exhibition, is the duality of the promised Nuclear Age ahead. With Jetsons-like capability and Hiroshima-like terror inextricably intertwined, it was a time of can-do optimism and McCarthyistic fear. Nubile yin atop deformed yang. A melted human visage beneath the steeled helmet of progress. A void crying for help – mutely – like a voiceless apparition. Creation and destruction. The newfound ability to reach higher towards the heavens, never forgetting the explosiveness of new power. Like Icarus with a bomb vest. Soaring towards self-detonation. Because he must. Because we must.

   

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2. You might be amazed to learn that Hiroshima completely bounced back in only five (5!) years after being nuked. Yes, yes there are larger nukes in the world now, but Japan is still re-nuclearising at the moment. And that’s after Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Fukushima… so what’s your excuse again? ↩
3. Just ask former Energy Unit Chief at the US Embassy in Ukraine Suriya Jayanti: you said you want green energy a thug, don’t be scurred now!
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4. This stanza is obviously cribbed from Goethe just like Virgil obviously cribbed his company’s logo from Glasgow Airport circa 1966. But you already knew that right?

   

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5. Hell even $MSFT is investing in nuclear power now. I mean, what could be more sustainable and more reliable as a basis for AI-Infinity? The answer: not much!  ↩