Category: anonradio

Two quotations form the theme of this episode, which starts a little late, because I had to duck out of a Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, I set a timer, but when it went off there was still food on my plate! The meat of the episode is a consideration of the confluence of social and material conditions which define our modern world. Also I muse about aspects of immigration to space settlements, the generic problems of assimilation and diversity, and the great question of escape from the patron–client model of society, which could reasonably be cast as the central social problem of our time. (It all sounds very elevated until I name–check “Professor Steamhead” from Ninja High School.) And at the very end I mention a technological idea I had, which I might explain some more next week.

• Archive Recording
• 2022 ASFO Masterpost
• A Step Farther Out Masterpost
• Previous Week
• Following Week

Supplementary Show

2022–11–29 I begin reading a biography of Count Rumford, that eminent patron of the sciences and useful arts. This came to me in the form of a little pamphlet reprinted from The Contemporary Review, volume XLIV, which appears to date it to 1883, over the name of J Tyndall. This appears to denote John Tyndall FRS, who was at the time Professor of Physics in the Royal Institution, founded by Rumford. Tyndall was very much interested (as Rumford had been) in the subjects of light and heat, and made a lecture tour of America in 1872, which corresponds to a reference at the beginning of the article.

Normally I strive to avoid a–rantin’ and a–ravin’ and a–frothin’ at the mouth. I won’t say I consistently succeed, but this at least isn’t meant to be that kind of a show! So what has me all worked up this time? Just a little booklet sent around by the Statdwerke München, or city utility company, which reads like a brain aneurysm. Also the USA sends a rocket to the Moon (you can see me talking about it thirteen years ago), climate negotiators in Egypt continue to piddle, twiddle, and resolve, and I muse about constructive responses to the present world situation.

• Archive Recording
• 2022 ASFO Masterpost
• A Step Farther Out Masterpost
• Previous Week
• Following Week

Supplementary Show

• 2022–11–22 Addresses to the Twelfth American Assembly (17―20 October 1957) : Nuclear Power in the United Kingdom by Sir John Cockcroft FRS ; and (almost all of) Europe and Atoms for Power by Max Kohnstamm.
• 2022–11–25 Completion of the Kohnstamm piece, and the Final Report of the Twelfth American Assembly on Atoms for Power : United States Policy in Atomic Energy Development.