Civilized life on Earth will not survive the reckless manufacture and lethal distribution of starlight on the terrestrial surface. Nuclear weapons, small synthetic stars produced by humans to kill other humans over internecine arguments, have the capacity to end civilization. They have not been subject to robust debate by the U.S. public since the end of the Cold War.

Over the past few months, I’ve delved into the many subtopics of nuclear weapons: how they work, how we designed and tested them, how we build them, deploy them, pay for them, how we morally justify them, how they affect diplomacy, and how humanities’ militaries intend to use them. At each turn I’ve found something surprising, something shocking, something that undermines our assumptions . Those assumptions are what allow us to feel safe and live our lives as though there weren’t a guillotine of our own making hanging over our heads.

I want to you to know what I now do. The story of nuclear weapons is mind bending and reads like hard science fiction while retaining the distinguished virtue of being true. The high technology of the 1960’s is just as attention grabbing and reality warping today as it was then. The same people that argue breathlessly over the impact of artificial intelligence would be arguing fervently over nukes if they were transported back in time. In the time since that era, we’ve merely made the technology more reliable, smaller, more efficient, and more accurate. The essential principles still stand. Nonetheless, while the weapons and nuclear science are impressive and sophisticated, the most difficult things to understand aren’t inherently technical in nature. Instead, the most difficult thing is to challenge the assumptions that dwell within your mind that you did not even know were there.

Today, the United States is the hegemon of a unipolar world. We currently have no external enemies that constitute an imminent existential threat. Our glib assumptions and wealth allow some of us to elide a raging conflict over the destiny of civilization. No longer. We must now turn the critical lens upon ourselves. We decorate life with many rules to make it more enjoyable, but at its core is just one: “Survive.” We exist only on this planet, and setting fire to Earth’s surface would violate that inviolable rule.

A piece of Trinitite, the slightly green slightly radioactive glass produced by the 1945 Trinity Test that inaugurated the atomic age. Photo adapted from Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo brightness and contrast modified from original.

Nuclear policy should be this easy. It’s not, and that’s a tragedy that may incur yet further tragedies. With some rules, it’s fine to tiptoe right up to the line without crossing it, but the nuclear taboo is not one of those rules. We must get this one right at all costs because nothing else matters if we don’t.

Unfortunately, the lurch toward nuclear disaster is accelerating. The story of how and why this is true is steeped in history, but a December 2016 quotation by then President-elect Donald Trump makes the seriousness of this claim clear: “Let it be an arms race. We will outmatch them at every pass and outlast them all.” (video) This was offered by way of clarifying an ambiguous tweet. It’s not difficult to imagine this quote uttered by the Joker.

Now in office eight months later, in the midst of rising tensions with North Korea, the President made the following statement: “As I said, they [North Korea] will be met with fire and fury and frankly, power, the likes of which this world has never seen before.” A month after that, on the dais in front of the United Nations General Assembly, he threatened, in stark violation the UN charter, to “totally destroy North Korea”, a nation of twenty five million people.

“All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.” — Charter of the United Nations, Article 2, Paragraph 4

While it would be a lie to say the nukes are back (they never left), the current level of danger is reaching extreme levels. To quote the President, following an meeting with his top military commanders on October 6, 2017, “You guys know what this represents? Maybe it’s the calm before the storm.” A reporter asked, “What storm, Mr. President?” to which he responded, “You’ll find out.” In the background, the generals, their spouses, and the First Lady feigned smiles.