@based_music_guy Deli Ham and Diet Coke are proof of man’s mastery over nature, even more so than the atom bomb. Nuclear fusion occurs in stars everyday. The Ham Obelisk required the hands of man to come into being.
Mass conversion. As the great Albert Einstein once said: E = mc2. There’s an absurd amount of energy in mass. A modern nuclear plant can power an entire city for a year with the energy stored in just one kilogram of Uranium. Yes. That’s it. The entire output of a nuclear reactor for a year comes from a single kilogram of mass.
Andy Weir • Project Hail Mary: A Novel
the initial engineering of consumerism.
The Worldwatch Institute • State of the World 2013: Is Sustainability Still Possible?
Robert B. Leighton • Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher
Humans seek out uncut diamonds and change their shapes to those of gemstones. But they seek out gemstones and preserve their shapes. So in this environment, the shape of a gemstone contributes causally to its own survival.)
David Deutsch • The Fabric of Reality
the four pillars of modern civilization—ammonia, steel, cement, and plastics—which