Comments by "Robert Morgan" (@RobertMorgan) on "The 3 a.m. call and the 1979 NORAD Alert" video.

  1. In absence of the Cold War, if the resources could have been diverted, we'd probably be a few centuries further along as a nation due to the embrace of nuclear power and it's national adoption. With the energy density afforded by nuclear power, we could have had many of our national problems already mitigated or solved. We could today be driving electric cars nationwide, have neigh limitless drinking water from mass-scale desalination we can't afford to power today, and we'd have cleaner air and more intact landscapes having never burned decades of coal and natural gas. Instead of trying to devolve back to 1800s technology like windmills and sunlight power, we could be living in the future of power from atoms, and who knows, we might have already progressed to fusion by now and truly leaped ahead as a species. We could create nuclear fusion in bombs 50 years ago.
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  2. There is also another theory of the power of nuclear deterrence: The elites are not insulated either. In the past major industries and magnates could profit off of both sides of war, it's been seen throughout human history, but with the rise of nuclear weapons suddenly these Shadowy Wealthy People Who Secretly Run The World run the risk that THEIR shit gets blown up in some conflict too, not just something on a different continent. Notice we went from major global conflicts to smaller, regional 'brushfire' wars after WW2. No one with the influence to foment such major wars wanted to anymore because the risk was too great to their assets. Again, this is just a theory, it depends on your working infoset to lend it credence.
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