The Atomic Show #093 – Time shifted conversation with the Podfather (Adam Curry)
Adam Curry, host of The Daily Source Code (DSC), has talked about fission during his last three shows (753, 754, 755). This is an “answer show” for some of his questions.
During my 27 years of association with atomic technology, I have engaged in a number of conversations with people on the topic of “why don’t people like us?” There is little doubt that choosing to be a nuke is NOT the way to gain immense popularity; there are few technologies that have inspired so much visceral dislike despite having some very useful properties.
Within the nuclear field and number of theories have been offered, some not well thought through. Here are some of the more common completions to sentences in water cooler conversations that start with “People do not like nuclear power because”:
- the media has misinformed them.
- the bomb scares them.
- Ralph Nader and the environmentalists have scared them.
- they do not want to take the time to learn the necessary math and science to allow them to understand.
I think all of the above are weak answers that need to be overcome, but it will take some concerted effort. One of the ways that I have been working on the list is to engage in conversations with influencers in the media, with a lot of focus on “the new media” of podcasts, blogs and other on-line publications.
For more than 2 years, I have had a running, intermittent conversation going with Adam Curry, the host of one of the most popular podcasts on the web. In the past week, the conversation has expanded with responses by a number of other listeners who have comments and questions about the technology. One of Adam’s thoughts is that nuclear power or atomic fission needs a new “brand”.
Since Adam has a big show to run that covers a lot of topics, there simply is not enough time available on his show for me to properly respond to all of the commentary, so I figured I would put together an old fashioned “answer show”. That way, any audience members that we share who want to focus a little more on the specifics of the fission discussion can get my thoughts and perhaps even get motivated to submit some of their own comments to Adam.
As a dedicated nuke who believes deep down that the world needs more fission and needs it now, I cannot allow a comment like “the media does not like us” without working to change the equation.
Link to previous episodes of The Daily Source Code. Warning – Adam’s show is aimed at adults and his demographic base tends to be educated males between the ages of 24 and 50. If you get embarrassed by “four letter words” or casual discussions with adult themes, you might not want to listen.
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A new term for nuclear power eh? Perhaps some varient of the terms ‘prototype’ or ‘archetype’, to reflect the fact that nuclear is the basic energy source of the universe, and most the forms we are familiar with (fossil fuels, wind, solar, hydro, geothermal) ultimately derive from it… but it needs to be snappier. Archic? Archeonic? Perhaps even Ur-power (from the German prefix ur, which means the same as “original’, ‘primeval’). Unfortunately my language skills aren’t sufficient to give an authoritative answer, but perhaps someone else can run with this.
If we were to go down the ‘archeonic’ (or something similar) path, the root ‘arch’ also has the feature that it is associated with words which have an aura of supremacy, rulership, and pre-eminance, such as ‘archon’, ‘monarch’, ‘heirarchy’, and so forth, as well as being associated with origins and prime causes, like ‘architect’, ‘architype’, ‘archeology’, and whathaveyou.
Come to think of it, why not ‘prime power’, or ‘primal power’?
Of course, when discussing words, it’s probably good form to make sure that the spelling is in order. Hence:
Hierarchy, eminence, archetype.
If you haven’t brought it up already, you might want to give Adam the facts about the natural Oklo reactors. He sounds logical enough to realize that if Mother Nature can store her “atomic waste” for a billion years and it doesn’t move more than a couple of feet, we humans could probably also come up with an acceptable solution to last a few thousand years (which is all that is needed).
– Pete
Rod,
I’ve been lurking for many years. As you can perhaps tell from my chosen moniker, I do Chinese Kung-Fu. There is two types of Kung-Fu; internal where the methods are more hidden and not so visible; and external where you can see that well hell yeah, I hit someone hard like that they’re not going to get up. I think that nuclear energy is more of the internal type insofar as you really don’t see any combustion and there is no ubiquitous waste filling the air.
I think that nuclear energy is a class of yin-ergy. An subtle yet powerful force of nature.
But, then again, I am just a Lion Dancer.
I don’t understand what happened to my previous post.
Lion Dancer:
I have to approve any comments on the Atomic Show before they appear for public consumption. Unfortunately, there are a LOT of spammers out there who want to use blog comments as a way to post thousands of links to some very nasty sites.
Thank you for coming out of the shadows, however, and sharing your “yin-energy” idea. I hope you continue to listen, think and comment. We need people who understand subtle ways of changing people’s behavior.
Actually I think rebranding would be at best useless.
Consider the succession of words for people of less than normal intelligence, or more aptly the succession of words for people with dark skin in the US. Each word becomes derogatory because there are people who consider the quality of having dark skin to be bad.
The only way to make progress is to openly say “I’m an X or I’m for X, & anyone who thinks that’s bad is full of crap”, & maybe to go on to some of the reason why they are full of crap.