Logic of Atomic Age

It is illogical from the historical point of view to enter into the atomic age with the belief that the speed of light is a true law, if you wish to be around for long as a living planet. The argument must then hinge on whether because of wartime secrecy; did we enter the atomic age off-balance? Is not the counter-balance to the MAD doctrine, this contrived and deliberately slanted "theoretical relativity" against all that is interstellar?

After-all in the MAD political climate, a way-out to the stars would undermine such a doctrine if one side's leaders could take refuge in the stars while each side fought it out to the end. Also the MAD doctrine required all atomic materials to be dedicated to the production of deterrent, and not reserved for space propulsion experiments. The NASA comment on Dyson's history of Project Orion even acknowledges such uses would now be quite convenient for using up the now no longer required atomic assemblies. Even more I would say, for if reaching the stars were a rampant success, the H assemblies would be dismantled to release the A assemblies as much needed propulsion propellants. Then we could get to the sensible stage in atomics where the very assembly of an H would be an act of war-like aggression. Still wouldn't stop an errant space pilot captain dropping a propulsion pellet on top of an unfriendly city, but mankind would have progressed beyond the very dangerous "all-or-nothing" mentality towards world peace we still are locked into.

Orion of course needs revised. Ground launches are unacceptable and belong to the project period when standard chemical based payload launches were in their infancy. Pusher-plates even if they were not a technical fantasy, are also unacceptable outside of the project period where billion dollar satellite systems were non-existent and hence not a prohibitive cost to absorb in collateral damages. America perhaps needs to have a long look at what happened to the Chinese empire hundreds of years ago when it failed to champion containment of gunpowder. Coca-cola need not really provide technical insight for such project innovations, when 1,100 years of human history have been about containing explosions within a hollow cylinder closed at one end with a pusher-plate. Known by the "non-techs" as the cannon or firing tube! It does not need re-inventing this wheel!

Logic of Atomic Age contnued

If we had had the luck to enter the atomic age in a period of peace with less fear and secrecy, perhaps relativity would have a different more positive slant. If you wish to slant F=MA to advocate interstellar travel, think to make "Acceleration" relative to planetary gravities. That is to say it is not good enough to say there is no light speed barrier (or that the barrier is found at C squared or C to the power of another C). Rather that "relatively" acceleration diminishes as an effect on the human body at C+ speeds when outside the real "pull acceleration" of natural planetary gravities. Our observation that 1 G acceleration in a rocket leaving earth is felt as 2G on the body, should not be automatically assumed to be the same as 2G acceleration in a gravity-less space environment. String theory might help, but basically slanting relativity away from the concerns of MAD is to say artificial accelerations are relative to planetary.