You see, I’ve turned the moon into what I like to call a Death Star.ĮD: So he wanted $100 billion or it’s doomsday. When the moon reaches its appropriate lunar alignment, it will destroy Washington DC. People have to imagine the air quotes.ĭOCTOR EVIL: This is the phase in which we put a giant “laser” on the moon. And every time he says laser he has to air quotes, as if he had invented the laser.ĮD: Yeah, exactly. And in that, Mike Myers portrays the imaginatively named Doctor Evil, who has the idea of the laser. And it’s all humans who have done this to themselves.īRIAN: Ed, I’d be curious if you have a favorite doomsday device from these days?ĮD: Well, I’m afraid I’m a more contemporary sort of guy. PETER: So here we have the ultimate end of the world scenario, mediated by machines and devices. If one side threatens the other, this bank of computers whirs into action and sets it off.ĭOCTOR STRANGELOVE: A specific and clearly defined set of circumstances, under which the bombs are to be exploded, is programmed into a tape memory bank. PETER: All you have to do is threaten it. Imagine the ultimate machine, a machine with a mind of its own, or no mind of its own.ĭOCTOR STRANGELOVE: That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. PETER: What it is, is a machine that is going to be set off without any pushing of buttons. Peter Sellers, one push of button, in fact, no push of the button.īRIAN: Computers would set it off. But by the 1960s, machines are beginning to combine with atomic bombs, to create the ultimate apocalyptic vision.Īnd, of course, the classic caricature of that kind of machine was in Doctor Strangelove.

And that looks like perhaps bombers coming over and dropping nuclear bombs, or maybe someone’s going to bring a suitcase with an atomic device. The first one that we all remember is nuclear Armageddon. And in the course of 20 years we moved through several apocalyptic visions. So, guys, what I love about the 20th century is the pace of change. I’m Brian Balogh, and I’m here with Ed Ayers.īRIAN: Well today, in honor of what might be the end of the world on December 21st, we’re looking at past visions of doomsday in America.

Dont push the red button