In our own image

creating the computer

Michael S. Mahoney

pp. 9-27

in: Teun Koetsier, Ida H. Stamhuis, Cornelis De Pater, Albert Van Helden (eds), The changing image of the sciences, Berlin, Springer, 2002

Abstract

In the years following World War II, the world appeared to be entering a new age, the Atomic Age, portrayed as an era of prosperity fueled by energy "too cheap to meter". Automobiles, trains, planes, homes, industry would all draw their power from nuclear reactors of various sizes and formats, and society would assume new forms around the possibilities of ubiquitous, unlimited energy. Some of those visions became reality, some turned into nightmares. Fifty years later we draw on atomic power, but the phrase "atomic age" is more likely than not to evoke images of a nuclear winter of desolation.