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Alex Wellerstein

@wellerstein.bsky.social

9.7K followers 540 following 2.5K posts

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.

doomsdaymachines.net.

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 13d

Here's a post I've wanted to write up for awhile, tracing the history of the idea of a "Doomsday Machine," from fact to fiction (or maybe it was always, to some degree, fiction): doomsdaymachines.net/p/inventing-...

Inventing the Doomsday Machine

Tracing the idea of a weapon to automatically destroy the world

doomsdaymachines.net

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 1d

My goal is to live long enough for conservatives to start arguing that Trump was actually a liberal Communist...

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 3d

among other things

Reposted by Alex Wellerstein

Jeffrey Lewis @armscontrolwonk.bsky.social · 5d

🥖🍷🇫🇷

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Don Moynihan @donmoyn.bsky.social · 7d

Some schools will be starved of resources. Other schools will be offered bribes. The end goal is the same. To make the universities an extension of the Trump administration. Shame on any of these institutions willing to take the bribes.

Letters on Wednesday were going out to solicit agreement and feedback from Vanderbilt University, Dartmouth College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Southern California, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Texas, the University of Arizona, Brown University and the University of Virginia, according to an administration official.

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 7d

love his calm expression, and the slightly-interested woman behind him, while cities burn

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 7d

It's so bad

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 7d

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 8d

Lots of slides... the Missile Command one is page 459.

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 8d

www.scribd.com/doc/61068592...

ICBM Training Material | PDF

Source: https://www.efoia.af.mil/palMain.aspx Published date: 7/20/2011 10:24:15 AM

www.scribd.com

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 8d

also, "Develop America's Airmen Today... For Tomorrow" is a wild slogan to commit to for every slide

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 8d

Wild illustration choice in this slide from training materials for ICBM launch officers, ca. 2010

Screenshot of a Powerpoint slide. The title is "Strategic Effects." It has three bullet points: 1. The physical employment of nuclear weapons at any level requires explicit orders from the President. 2. Nuclear weapons are unique in their destructive power and psychological impact. 3. The use of nuclear weapons represents a significant escalation from conventional warfare.

There is then an incongruous illustration: a screenshot of the game MISSILE COMMAND for the Atari 5200 (1982).

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 8d

There is a "double flash" in the apparent brightness of a nuclear detonation in the atmosphere, which may be what you are thinking of...

Reposted by Alex Wellerstein

Roxane Gay @roxanegay.bsky.social · 9d

If any other president in all of history said the military should use American cities as a training ground he would be removed from office that same day. The hardest thing to tolerate in all this is how relatively silent elected democrats are. It’s ridiculous.

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Alexandra Petri @petridishes.bsky.social · 9d

I will say if that whole military meeting had been an email it would have been a pretty weird email

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Dave Vanness @djvanness.bsky.social · 9d

A lot of people think that every international student admitted means one fewer spot for domestic students, when the opposite is more likely true - the tuition revenue international students bring allows public universities to provide substantial discounts to domestic students, improving access.

Nick Fleisher @nickfleisher.bsky.social · 10d

30% drop year over year!

Amid visa restrictions, international freshmen enrollment plummets at UW-Madison

This year’s number of international freshmen is the lowest recorded since at least 2015.

www.jsonline.com

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 10d

Thanks, fixed!

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 12d

And the fact that these snippets are somehow connected to child abuse cases just makes it even more strange to look at... like a really unpleasant puzzle game...

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 12d

OK, this is the strangest subreddit I've stumbled across for awhile. I get what it is about, but there's something very cyberpunk and surreal about it... www.reddit.com/r/TraceAnObj...

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 12d

to be fair, we're comparing it to Livermore

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Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 12d

"La machine apocalyptique"... the joke about Laser Mégajoule, the French copy of the National Ignition Facility, it that it is exactly the same as the one in Livermore, except the coffee is better...

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Reposted by Alex Wellerstein

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 13d

Inventing the Doomsday Machine

Tracing the idea of a weapon to automatically destroy the world

doomsdaymachines.net

2 12 39

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 12d

mildly interesting: my long-running VS Code script finished running, but VS code itself broke. I can copy and paste the terminal text (and it is complete when I do that, whereas it is visually corrupted), but I cannot edit or manipulate anything else. how weird.

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 13d

Inventing the Doomsday Machine

Tracing the idea of a weapon to automatically destroy the world

doomsdaymachines.net

2 12 39

Alex Wellerstein @wellerstein.bsky.social · 13d

Not just going to be — are actively being dismantled. Huge funding cuts. Programs closed/consolidated. People leaving or laid off. Empty positions unfilled. Staff leaving or laid off. Everyone being asked to do more with less. Fear and uncertainty. Etc. This is all happening — right now.

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Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · 13d

I'm sorry, I've lost any & all patience for this level of fundamental unseriousness. Vast swathes of our universities are going to be dismantled. Real people are going to lose their jobs. Students won't have the same opportunities anymore. And these people are writing drivel like this. It's gross.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Aug 9

It’s not just FLAS. It’s all the Title VI area studies centers. And dozens of labs & postdocs & research opportunities for undergrads funded by NSF and NIH grants. All gone. But the public won’t be aware of the actual consequences unless our leaders loudly & collectively explain to them the crisis.

Mark Copelovitch @mcopelov.bsky.social · Aug 8

Again, you cannot unplug 1/4-1/5 of an R1 university's budget & expect the same quantity or quality of "things" on campus. The math simply doesn't work. And pretending it does & we can uphold our "core values," & not talking loudly & publicly about how it doesn't, is not a strategy. It's madness.

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