The Philosophical Shock of the Bomb – and the Digital Worlds it Helped Build

In an extract from his discussion at the 2025 Borris Festival of Writing and Ideas, Bruno Maçães considers how and why Europe ‘missed the internet revolution’

Nuclear weapons changed our relationship with the world. Suddenly, the world felt far less solid. It seemed to lose its very existence. We are faced with the possibility that everything could be annihilated overnight.

But, just as profoundly, nuclear weapons also introduced the idea that the world can be created – and recreated.

This duality is central to our geopolitical age.

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