Atlas Shrugged: A Postscript
He fully realized—and so did we—how many enemies he’d have to overcome
∙ PAID
I’m a retired physicist.
I was there in the hall that night, along with a few hundred heavy hitters in the financial and tech sectors. I saw him run his experiment. He stood there on the stage and through the big window we all saw the lights of the city go dark. Then with his little device, he turned them on again. Of course, it could have been a ruse. But then a few weeks later, in a large house in the mountains, a few of us watched him shut down all the electricity in the house and then use the unattached device to turn it back on. There were other experiments. There was no doubt he was tapping into the existing power grid and supplying it with electricity. A dozen of us—skeptics all—were convinced his little machine could infuse any power system on the planet, large or small.
He explained he wasn’t planning to deploy it. Yet. There were business details to be worked out. He wasn’t going to give his invention away. He was going to charge money for electricity. He was going to set the price. He assured us it wouldn’t be onerous. But it would make him the richest man in the world.
He fully realized—and so did we—how many enemies he’d have to overcome. A single source of energy for the whole planet. Controlled by him. Making all other types of energy unnecessary. Obsolete.
He spoke about war economies. Wars for energy. He said there was no point in building Empire Economies of conquest, if energy was abundant. No point in millions of people working for companies whose sole purpose was assisting war. He emphasized that if his invention fell into the hands of governments, they would suppress it or use it for war. Therefore, when he brought it out and when he sold the energy it produced, his “business structure” would have to be unique. Protected in some way. Impossible to penetrate and subvert. He gave us no details.