Alex Wellerstein
@wellerstein.bsky.social
Nuclear historian. Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. Visiting researcher at Nuclear Knowledges program, Sciences Po (Paris). Author of THE MOST AWFUL RESPONSIBILITY (2025). Creator of NUKEMAP. Blogging at https://doomsdaymachines.net.
Pinned
‘The Most Awful Responsibility’ Review: Truman and the Nuclear Option
Harry Truman knew little about the plans to use atomic weapons when he took office. By that time there was little he could do but decide where to drop the first bomb.
www.wsj.com
"Wellerstein presents his story in clear, direct prose, ... 'The Most Awful Responsibility' is a well-written opus unpacking Truman’s—and America’s—complicated relationship with nuclear weapons." www.wsj.com/arts-culture...
ah, but you see, I am not trying to avoid conspiracy theorists when I shitpost about bad AI images of Truman
to everything, as they say, there is a season
to everything, as they say, there is a season
February 14, 2026 at 1:17 AM
ah, but you see, I am not trying to avoid conspiracy theorists when I shitpost about bad AI images of Truman
to everything, as they say, there is a season
to everything, as they say, there is a season
Doesn't have to be a negative — could be a positive! But yeah, an original print goes a long way. They can degrade with time, however. Kuran does a lot of restorative work — he is an old-school SFX guy and knows what he is doing. The colors of his for example are heavily and carefully restored.
February 14, 2026 at 12:54 AM
Doesn't have to be a negative — could be a positive! But yeah, an original print goes a long way. They can degrade with time, however. Kuran does a lot of restorative work — he is an old-school SFX guy and knows what he is doing. The colors of his for example are heavily and carefully restored.
Peter Kuran (AtomCental on YouTube) definitely had access to better footage. Here's the clip from his HD version of Trinity and Beyond — still pretty low-res but you can make out the text, tell Ramsey is at far left, even make out Robert Serber at far right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXV2...
February 14, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Peter Kuran (AtomCental on YouTube) definitely had access to better footage. Here's the clip from his HD version of Trinity and Beyond — still pretty low-res but you can make out the text, tell Ramsey is at far left, even make out Robert Serber at far right. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXV2...
Resharpening/remastering doesn't work if you don't have information to go off of. That's the issue with the "AI" tools — they are inventing information wholesale. The more they have to invent, the more the outcome is going to diverge from reality.
February 14, 2026 at 12:49 AM
Resharpening/remastering doesn't work if you don't have information to go off of. That's the issue with the "AI" tools — they are inventing information wholesale. The more they have to invent, the more the outcome is going to diverge from reality.
With this kind of thing you just need to have better source materials. These look like digitizations of VHS versions of original 16mm footage. Just inherently lacking.
The labs have been re-scanning a lot of old shot footage. No clue if they have versions of this to rescan, but perhaps....
The labs have been re-scanning a lot of old shot footage. No clue if they have versions of this to rescan, but perhaps....
February 14, 2026 at 12:49 AM
With this kind of thing you just need to have better source materials. These look like digitizations of VHS versions of original 16mm footage. Just inherently lacking.
The labs have been re-scanning a lot of old shot footage. No clue if they have versions of this to rescan, but perhaps....
The labs have been re-scanning a lot of old shot footage. No clue if they have versions of this to rescan, but perhaps....
somewhere in the nebulous space between Goldeneye for the N64 and the strange faces in Fallout 3
February 14, 2026 at 12:32 AM
somewhere in the nebulous space between Goldeneye for the N64 and the strange faces in Fallout 3
is joke, you see
February 14, 2026 at 12:30 AM
is joke, you see
Here's the original — it's blurry and low-res, but yeah, you can't just hallucinate the missing information and be historically (or visually) accurate!
February 14, 2026 at 12:27 AM
Here's the original — it's blurry and low-res, but yeah, you can't just hallucinate the missing information and be historically (or visually) accurate!
Exactly. The Little Boy photos all were "off" — faces were wrong, the case was too smooth, text all slightly garbled. If you don't know what you are looking at, maybe you think it looks aesthetically "better," but it's introducing incorrect information. That's supposed to be Norman Ramsey at left!
February 14, 2026 at 12:23 AM
Exactly. The Little Boy photos all were "off" — faces were wrong, the case was too smooth, text all slightly garbled. If you don't know what you are looking at, maybe you think it looks aesthetically "better," but it's introducing incorrect information. That's supposed to be Norman Ramsey at left!
I discovered this because someone was putting "AI upscaled" images of Little Boy onto Wikipedia, taken from some awful YouTube channel, and this is the kind of slop it was drawing on. Just amazing that anyone would look at this and think, "yeah, that looks better than the original"
February 14, 2026 at 12:15 AM
I discovered this because someone was putting "AI upscaled" images of Little Boy onto Wikipedia, taken from some awful YouTube channel, and this is the kind of slop it was drawing on. Just amazing that anyone would look at this and think, "yeah, that looks better than the original"
you: AI-upscaled and colorized Truman isn't real, he can't hurt you
me:
me:
February 14, 2026 at 12:00 AM
you: AI-upscaled and colorized Truman isn't real, he can't hurt you
me:
me:
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
I’ve been wanting to write about William Gibson’s “Jackpot” books, and the concept of "slow disasters" in general, for a while… and now I have, for DOOMSDAY MACHINES: doomsdaymachines.net/p/hitting-th...
Hitting the jackpot
William Gibson's disturbingly plausible 21st-century slow disaster
doomsdaymachines.net
February 13, 2026 at 4:01 PM
I’ve been wanting to write about William Gibson’s “Jackpot” books, and the concept of "slow disasters" in general, for a while… and now I have, for DOOMSDAY MACHINES: doomsdaymachines.net/p/hitting-th...
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
I agree — The Peripheral really felt like a return to form, but perfectly calibrated for the 2010s. (The Blue Ant books really did not do it for me.) "Agency" is not quite as good — a high bar — but I'm very interested in the third one.
February 13, 2026 at 5:12 PM
I agree — The Peripheral really felt like a return to form, but perfectly calibrated for the 2010s. (The Blue Ant books really did not do it for me.) "Agency" is not quite as good — a high bar — but I'm very interested in the third one.
I’ve been wanting to write about William Gibson’s “Jackpot” books, and the concept of "slow disasters" in general, for a while… and now I have, for DOOMSDAY MACHINES: doomsdaymachines.net/p/hitting-th...
Hitting the jackpot
William Gibson's disturbingly plausible 21st-century slow disaster
doomsdaymachines.net
February 13, 2026 at 4:01 PM
I’ve been wanting to write about William Gibson’s “Jackpot” books, and the concept of "slow disasters" in general, for a while… and now I have, for DOOMSDAY MACHINES: doomsdaymachines.net/p/hitting-th...
"Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?" — Stanisław Jerzy Lec
February 13, 2026 at 12:24 PM
"Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?" — Stanisław Jerzy Lec
Reposted by Alex Wellerstein
having your city noticed by the president is now a natural disaster on par with a hurricane or major flood
February 11, 2026 at 2:12 PM
having your city noticed by the president is now a natural disaster on par with a hurricane or major flood
Alperovitz's book does a great job of talking about what led to the Stimson article, and its crafting, if that is useful.
February 11, 2026 at 4:33 PM
Alperovitz's book does a great job of talking about what led to the Stimson article, and its crafting, if that is useful.
A related issue (and part of why these articles were written) is the USSBS vol on the end of the war, July 1946, which very strongly downplayed the role of the bomb. But it is one of the few sources I know of tried to get into details about Japanese surrender. www.history.navy.mil/research/lib...
www.history.navy.mil
February 11, 2026 at 4:32 PM
A related issue (and part of why these articles were written) is the USSBS vol on the end of the war, July 1946, which very strongly downplayed the role of the bomb. But it is one of the few sources I know of tried to get into details about Japanese surrender. www.history.navy.mil/research/lib...
There was another article that was making a similar kind of defense of the bomb that was being put forward at nearly the same time by the same people — Karl T. Compton, “If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Used,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 178, No. 6 (December 1946). It is part of the same counterattack.
February 11, 2026 at 4:29 PM
There was another article that was making a similar kind of defense of the bomb that was being put forward at nearly the same time by the same people — Karl T. Compton, “If the Atomic Bomb Had Not Been Used,” Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 178, No. 6 (December 1946). It is part of the same counterattack.
(They had keenly noted that it was not present in the Target Committee's list of targets and someone asked, and I got say: wait and see, wait and see...!)
February 11, 2026 at 11:50 AM
(They had keenly noted that it was not present in the Target Committee's list of targets and someone asked, and I got say: wait and see, wait and see...!)
Taught about the "decision to use the atomic bomb" a bit today, and the thing the students were audibly the most surprised by was Nagasaki being written in, by hand, on the penultimate draft of the strike order, after Kyoto had been definitely removed from the list for the final time.
February 11, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Taught about the "decision to use the atomic bomb" a bit today, and the thing the students were audibly the most surprised by was Nagasaki being written in, by hand, on the penultimate draft of the strike order, after Kyoto had been definitely removed from the list for the final time.
I do love the diagram genre of classified concepts explained with bad Word clipart. This is illustrating (vaguely) how they change the codes on US nuclear weapons without any one person having the knowledges necessary to set them off while doing so.
February 10, 2026 at 11:50 PM
I do love the diagram genre of classified concepts explained with bad Word clipart. This is illustrating (vaguely) how they change the codes on US nuclear weapons without any one person having the knowledges necessary to set them off while doing so.