Template:Are You Sure/February 8

Beginning in the late 1930s, John Von Neumann developed an expertise in explosions — phenomena that are difficult to model mathematically. During this period, von Neumann was the leading authority of the mathematics of shaped charges. This led him to a large number of military consultancies, primarily for the Navy, which in turn led to his involvement in the Manhattan Project. (Photo: Von Neumann's wartime Los Alamos ID badge.)

• ... that polymath John von Neumann was concerned that the Soviet Union would achieve nuclear superiority over the United States, and that von Neumann designed and promoted the policy of Mutually Assured Destruction with the intention of limiting the arms race?

• ... that electrical engineer and physicist Dennis Gabor's 1963 book Inventing the Future discusses the three major threats Gabor saw to modern society: war, overpopulation, and the Age of Leisure, and that the book contains the now well-known expression that "the future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented"?

• ... that printer and publisher Christian Egenolff was sued in 1533 by publisher Johann Schott for infringement of copyright on Herbarium Vivae Icones, and that Egenolff argued in his defense that nature could not be copyrighted and that plants stood as communal models for any artist?

• ... that the so-called "carnivorous dirigible" (Dirigible horribilis) is a species of grazing ruminant airship, neither carnivorous nor horrible, and that it evolved from early experiments in artificial intelligence?

• ... that historical theories for why the Didacus automaton was constructed include: Philip II wished to share the miracle of his son's recovery with his people; or, the clockwork friar provided a portable model of "how to pray" which could be displayed around the kingdom?