EXTROPIA’S MAD-TECH: “FALLOUT SHELTER”
The image seen in this instalment of ‘mad tech’ is something of a departure from previous episodes. Those have tended to be illustrations of conceptual technologies, funny because they were so obviously flawed in some way.
But the image above does not show any funny technology. Instead, it seems to show a family posing for a photo in a nicely-stocked larder. Actually, this is not a larder but a fallout shelter.
During the Cold War, there was a constant fear that things could flare up into a hot war fought with nuclear weapons. Perhaps remembering how their previous generation survived the war in air raid shelters, some families built shelters this with the plan of staying put until it was safe to come out.
But what with radiation poisoning the very air and contaminating all food, and the destructive power of thermonuclear weapons vaporising whole cities, how long would a family like this have to spend cooped up in such a small space, and what kind of world would they have returned to when they could finally emerge?
Thankfully, these shelters have so far not had anyone running to them in order to try and escape a nuclear attack. Let’s hope that remains the case.
REFERENCES “Follies Of Science” by Eric and Jonathan Dregni