• Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
    1·
    5 days ago

    It’s unclear if the SAGE system would have actually been effective in detecting incoming bombers, which presumably would have employed radar jammers. Fortunately, we never found out.

    The huge rotating antenna was removed shortly after the site’s decommissioning in 1980, but the building, a prominent local landmark visible from downtown San Jose, has been preserved.

    • Matt Blaze@federate.socialOP
      1·
      5 days ago

      I have mixed feelings about these cold war relics. On the one hand, they’re artifacts of what was perhaps humanity’s most dangerous folly to date, locking the world in a deadly game where the stakes only went up with each round. This doesn’t seem like something to commemorate or celebrate.

      On the other hand, these objects, many now destroyed or decayed, serve as visible evidence of just how close to oblivion we are willing to go. And looked at from the right angle, they have stories to tell.

      • Trapped in the Age of Pisces♓️@epsilon-ix.masto.host
        1·
        5 days ago

        @[email protected] Like many bad things, we need to be reminded of them to prevent them from happening again. I think there is a need to preserve some of these spaces and tell their story, along with the stories of people who suffered in the so-called Cold War. I try to remember that I am only here because it never became even a “limited” Hot War. I’m not sure folks nowadays understand that.