Past Present Future Where Are We Going? Nuclear War Part 1
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Feb 15, 2026 S. M. Amadae, director of the Centre for Existential Risk and scholar of nuclear weapons and political theory, reflects on how 1945 changed human self-understanding. Short conversations probe scale, sudden loss of control, coercive presence, hair-trigger risks, contested narratives, and how science, elites and game theory reshaped danger and public awareness.
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1945 As A Human Watershed
- 1945 marked a new human capacity to create technologies that could annihilate civilization rather than just harm it.
- The shift combined deliberate human design with visible, unprecedented destruction that reshaped our self-understanding.
Sudden Momentum And Loss Of Control
- The rapid transition from theoretical impossibility to deployed weapon gave a sense of something unleashed beyond our control.
- That momentum and loss of control distinguishes nuclear technology from past catastrophes.
Presence As A Persistent Form Of Use
- Nuclear weapons have been continuously used as instruments of coercion even when not detonated.
- Their presence, readiness, and threats shape international politics as much as actual use.
