NUCLEAR (CON)FUSION

In the 1960s, it looked like (not for the first time?) that Britain was declining as a result of conservative and backward-looking management. The British Prime Minister at the time, Harold Wilson, condemned such practices and had a vision of a great future based on science:

'In all our plans for the future, we are re-defining and we are re-stating our Socialism in terms of the scientific revolution. But that revolution cannot become a reality unless we are prepared to make far-reaching changes in economic and social attitudes which permeate our whole system of society. The Britain that is going to be forged in the white heat of this revolution will be no place for restrictive practices or for outdated methods on either side of industry'.

This speech was often paraphrased as Wilson referring to the 'White Heat of Technology' as a basis for a brilliant future, and so 'Technology' became the basis of a new management magic solution. I have a book from that time, nearly sixty years ago, which took up the White Heat theme; it is called Careers in Technology. It was written to encourage young people to join in that future-looking dream by presenting a picture of what it would include. One of its chapters is called 'A Glance at the Next Decade' (i.e. the 1970s). It includes a predictive graph showing what the major sources of electrical energy will be. The one that dominated all of them was Nuclear Fusion.

Well, you've guest it. Many of the predictions in this book are either wildly over-optimistic or just nonsense. So do I sneer at this book with the benefit of hindsight? No I don't; because the same chapter in the book is especially prescient in its predictions about the importance of DNA research. What the book does illustrate, however, is the danger of Management Magic in terms of formulae (spells?) based on the TIME TYRRANY, PLANS and assertive POSTURES.

Meanwhile, as I write this 60 years later, Nuclear Fusion has yet to produce any electricity for the National Grid; let alone to be its major source.

More symptoms . . .