For the Lightning

"Go on and be good peasants, safe peasants, superstitious peasants--or have worlds to conquer again. To control the lightning again."

That speech is from the climax of Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. In the novel, a comet hits the earth and society crumbles. However, a nuclear power plant survives intact. The heroes have a chance to take control of the plant, but first they must fight the combined forces of a band of cannibalistic army men, an inner-city gang, and a maniacal preacher (really).

The heroes are about to back down before one man, an astronaut, stands up and inspires them to rise up "for the lightning." I read Lucifer's Hammer when I was fourteen, picking it out from the bookshelf in the room where Dad kept his tools. The astronaut's passionate, fictional speech struck me, then, and stuck. It comes into the back of my mind every time I'm astounded at technology, and it comes to mind when I think about nuclear power.

And what I think (about nuclear power) is that it's important. It's cheap and efficient. It'll be there once oil runs low and it doesn't produce carbon dioxide. My dad likes to say that the only things that cost anything are people and energy, so a good way of providing energy opens the doors to... everything.

That's why I'm considering going to grad school to become a nuclear engineer, once I graduate. It would be amazing to make lightning.