I know this isn't the comparison being made, but I love the idea of jumping straight from swords to nukes. Writing prompt: a 16th century blacksmith suddenly realizes, "If I surround an unstable rock with a neutron reflecting earth metal, I can trigger a runaway chain reaction that'll get that stump outta me yard."
What always blows my mind to think about is how the materials for our advanced technology were here the whole time. We could have had computers and nuclear energy and spacecraft 20,000 years ago if we'd just had the knowledge.
I'd rather have a copper spear than a steel sword. Swords are small and weak. Spears are long and powerful.
I wonder if there's research out there into the hottest temperature humanity can reach throughout history? So many things that advance technology depend on getting even hotter. With a simple wood fire, you can cook food to make it safer to eat and get more nutrients out of it. With a better design and fuel to get hotter, you can work copper, or glass, or steel. Hotter still and you can fuse atoms.
::black mirror episodes becoming reality enter the chat::
