Physical Chemistry: The Continuing Gifts of Prometheus

This report “Physical Chemistry: The Continuing Gifts of Prometheus” serves two purposes.

The first, is to impart a living, joyous sense of the difference between mere money and true value. The qualitative nature of real human advancement is best seen in broad terms by looking at the changing use of fire, from which Prometheus says man “shall learn many arts.” From wood to coal to nuclear power, the platforms for activity provided by these power sources mark successive stages of human economic development. In this report, we will use the development of physical chemistry, whose origins stretch to the beginning of human prehistory, with the uses of fire to change materials, from the birth of metallurgy to today’s semiconductors and nuclear science, to give an image of true physical value.

The second purpose, is to sketch out the foundation for a human future based upon this concept of Promethean value. Value, which lies in what will be brought about in the future, can always be expressed in specific, wide-ranging goals. The specific goals that will measure the depth of our powers to develop will be covered briefly: the development of controlled nuclear fusion and the implementation of continental water management. Reference is made to our previous Special Report: “Nuclear NAWAPA XXI: Gateway to the Fusion Economy.”

Prometheus was a true non-mythical historical personality, who endured the wrath of the god Zeus for daring to bring “fire” from heaven to man (along with poetry, astronomy, and science in general). Though chained by Zeus to a rock to have the torture of an eagle devouring his liver every day, Prometheus was unawed by Zeus’s power to punish him, and held him in utter contempt. The story of the Olympian god Zeus and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer is not fictional, not a piece of idle drama. Here we find the most pure expression of the fight that has dominated large-scale political and economic conflict throughout mankind’s existence. We find the essence of the confrontation between an oligarchical outlook, in which some few rulers maintain capricious power over (preferably stupefied) masses, and the humanist outlook—in which the true identity of every human being as a potential genius is embraced and in which providing the opportunity (physical, moral, and emotional) for every individual to lead a functionally immortal life is the ultimate goal.

“Every art possessed by man comes from Prometheus.”

Our exploration of the successful applications of this Promethean power will take us through four main fields, which can all be grouped under the general concept of physical chemistry. These fields are: metallurgy, the birth of modern chemistry, the world of electromagnetism, and the science of the nucleus. After our voyage, we’ll be able to reach new conclusions. . . .

“Though they had eyes to see, they saw to no avail.”

What really matters? What matters to us of people from three millenia ago? Those who developed bronze or made their lives possible contributed something of unquestionably durable importance to human civilization, an evolution of the species: not a genetic evolution, but a super-genetic one. What do the lives of those who wasted their potential in dissipating pleasures mean to us today? What opportunity for long-lasting contributions are afforded to those subject to grinding poverty, unable, by their conditions of life, to develop their mental faculties? Truly, creating the conditions for the elevation of all members of the human race, to being meaningfully human, is the greatest of political goals, and the most noble aspiration for the life of any individual. This is the Promethean outlook, and it can no longer coexist with the oligarchical.

— Jason Ross