I was just having fun and pointing out that some dangerous technologies (or at least their applications) were pretty cool, at least if one ignores the danger. Radium dial watches and clocks were also pretty cool, but also remain radioactive long after they stop emitting light. Uranium glassware is attractive and fluoresces beautifully under UV light (and somewhat under daylight) but is mildly radioactive and can also potentially result in ingesting uranium.
GP might have been thinking of things like the inventions of the illustrious Thomas Midgley Jr. and his vigorous promotion of tetraethyl lead, etc.
GP might have been thinking of things like the inventions of the illustrious Thomas Midgley Jr. and his vigorous promotion of tetraethyl lead, etc.
Yep, that would be a much better example. Defending Midgley is a task for superintelligent AI if there ever was one.
Still, the underlying technology is not "leaded gasoline" but "internal combustion engines." The human condition would certainly be better if you could erase Midgley from history, along with the people who invented shoe-store fluoroscopes and radium paint, but it would be worse if you erased Roentgen, Otto and Diesel. Horses weren't the global-max of mobility and human brains aren't the apotheosis of reason.
