on Watchmen ep. 1, clean technology and a crackpot theory

Published October 23, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

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Watchmen, as well as being placed on an alternate history version of our world, falls into the “Cassette Futurism / Cassette Punk” trope, so its natural that a lot of current day technologies that came after the comic was published never made it into their present day world.

and… yeah, this is one of those annoying “ummm achcually”-ies. On the Watchmen Episode 1 Review, in about min 34:00 Rog muses that the technology they have may have come from an aftermath of the cold war ending or Dr. Manhattan’s research (which was on tachyonic particles).

On the graphic novel, there are a lot of references that Adrian Veidt developed this clean, renewable energy system (the “Energy Hydrants” or “Spark hydrants”) which were key in building the fortune of Veidt Enterprises. This leads me to a little side note, where I think it gets interesting! *adjusts tinfoil hat* – from the wiki:

This technological advancement was made possible through the synthesizing of lithium through the super powers of Dr. Jon Osterman (A.K.A. Dr. Manhattan) to change molecules to different molecules. These hydrants are seen throughout the world and have a signature lightning bolt within a circle on them.

Remember what the dudes from the 7th Cavalry were picking off from old watches? the “old kind” synthetic lithium watch batteries, which made people sick.. I wonder what will these guys are trying to replicate!

Keep up the awesome work!
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– René Jiménez

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