BY LETTER
Atomic Age
 Image from Inkoalawetrust |
The period in Terragen Old Earth history initiated by the discovery of radiation and atomic structure, and later, by nuclear weapons and energy as a military, political, and industrial factor. It is more or less equivalent to the early and middle 1st century BT to early 1st century AT (20th century of Old Earth dating). The Atomic Age is sometimes considered a part of the Industrial Age and sometimes considered as a separate age.
The two defining events of the Atomic Age were a low intensity proxy conflict between the two great powers of the era (then called the Cold War) - the United States and Soviet Union (Russia) - which lasted until the beginning of the Information Age. This "Cold War" was marked by a major period of paranoia about a large scale nuclear war and its potential consequences and a "space race" between those two rival powers, which constituted baseline humanity's first brief foray into the cosmos, followed with a brief pause which was fully reverted a few decades into the Information Age. The 'space race' was concluded with the United States being the first Earth nation to put humans on Luna in 0 AT; this event being the basis of the Tranquility Calendar, named after the location of the first human landing.
The Atomic Age was replaced by the Information Age in 30AT, but nuclear weapons continued to remain a threat for many centuries to follow.
Isolated colonies which have regressed to low technology status sometimes enter an independent atomic age, deriving power from fissile elements in the planet's crust. On a few occasions the use of fissile elements has led to atomic warfare.
Articles
- Chandrasekhar, Subrahmanyan - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Old Earth Indian-American astrophysicist, 59 BT - 26 AT (1910 -1995 c.e.), who studied stellar physics, evolution, and black holes. He realized that the fate of dying stars depended upon their mass, and above a certain point (1.4 times Sol mass, known as the "Chandrasekhar limit"), a star will undergo extreme collapse and not simply becomes a white dwarf. There are a number of asteroids, habitats, ships, one black hole, and several black hole observatories named in his honor. - Einstein, Albert - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Old Earth late Industrial Age German/American physicist, 90-14 BT (1879-1955 c.e.) and popular su genome template. Formulated the Theories of Special and General Relativity. Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 48 BT (1921 c.e.) for explaining the photoelectric effect. - Gagarin, Yuri - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Lived 35 BT to 1 BT (1934-1968 c.e./AD). Soviet cosmonaut and the first man to orbit the Earth. He piloted the Vostok 1 mission which launched April 12, 1961 and orbited the Earth. The flight lasted 108 minutes. Gagarin died years later in a plane crash. - Turing, Alan - Text by M. Alan Kazlev
Late Industrial/early Atomic Age British mathematician and computer theorist, 57 to 15 BT(1912 - 1954 c.e.); one of the fathers of artificial intelligence and computing.
Development Notes
Text by Inkoalawetrust
Revised 1 October 2025 from an original by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 04 October 2001.
Image by Inkoalawetrust added September 29, 2025
Revised 1 October 2025 from an original by M. Alan Kazlev
Initially published on 04 October 2001.
Image by Inkoalawetrust added September 29, 2025
