What can tech policy folks learn from the nuclear age about the role of science in policy?

My read of the summer is Benjamin Wilson's new book "Strange Stability" about the backstage arrangements of nuclear physicists during the cold war.

The book checked off a bingo card of issues that could have easily been in the news today:

- warnings of existential risk from well funded insiders
- scientists who keep secret their industry ties
- definitions of science that uphold the politics of profit and war
- claims that only insiders can truly understand the scientific issues
- a popular movement against harmful tech valorizing its creators
- whistleblowers who profit from business interests they mildly critique in public

https://natematias.com/portfolio/2026-08-23-strange-stability/