[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Thing

  • From: "John McCreery" <john.mccreery@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 11:00:55 +0900

I wouldn't be surprised if it could be traced to the fertile imagination of
a science fiction writer. I recall, though I don't remember the source,
similar suggestions concerning the possibility of terraforming other
planets. There was, I seem to recall, quite a lot of this stuff about in the
1950s and 1960s, when the possibility of nuclear war was very real, and the
search for "peaceful uses of the atom" spawned all sorts of suggestions. In
this context, a proposal to use nuclear bombs to excavate new harbors was an
almost literal reading of the biblical injunction to beat swords into
ploughshares, i.e., do something useful and peaceful with weapons.
Cheers,

John



On Mon, Mar 3, 2008 at 10:40 AM, Phil Enns <phil.enns@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> David Ritchie wrote:
>
> "Project Ploughshare was a proposal to blast harbors in Alaska's
> coastline, using thermonuclear bombs.  People from a place called
> Point Hope opposed the project.  I kid you not."
>
> I wonder where the name of this 'project' came from?  For another
> perspective, see Project Ploughshares
>
> http://www.ploughshares.ca/
>
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Phil Enns
> Yogyakarta, Indonesia
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-- 
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/

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