Russ Ted Fugal
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russ-fugal.smart-knowledge-systems.com
Russ Ted Fugal
@russ-fugal.smart-knowledge-systems.com
www.smart-knowledge-systems.com
Founding Editor of SARA’s Books LLC
Award Winning Children’s Book Author
@social.sara.ai
#kidlit indie publisher
I don’t think the ending of Oppenheimer hit audiences hard enough; as far as I could tell, I was the only one trying not to stumble as I walked out of the theater. A House of Dynamite helps to drive this gut punch home—three times—which, again, is being lost on audiences looking for entertainment.
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
A House of Dynamite is a film like Oppenheimer, which also ended with missiles in the air and showed no destruction of cities on screen.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuHE...
Why Oppenheimer’s Ending Felt So Devastating
YouTube video by Like Stories of Old
www.youtube.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Imagine the end of the story where the president did wait (the DNSA pushed for it), and it’s a dud or a dummy/sick joke. The movie ends. The world lives on another day… in a house of dynamite. You're going to quote Oppenheim but not Bigelow? I mean, come on…
thebulletin.org/2025/10/a-co....
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Leaving the ending unresolved, while dissatisfying those looking for entertainment, is exactly what this movie needed. And it goes to option/flaw number three — the President could wait.
Which brings us to huge gaping flaw number three:

❌Why was everybody telling the president that he had to decide how to respond before Chicago was hit and before they had attributed the launch?!

America's nuclear forces are not all in Chicago. In fact none of them are. The President could wait...
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Bigelow and Oppenheim don’t need the caricature of madness in Dr. Strangelove because the madness pre-exists in the structures that have already been put into place. Both the madness and the insanity are on film, regardless of how straightjacketed and unentertaining it comes across as.
a black and white photo of a man wearing sunglasses and a suit
ALT: a black and white photo of a man wearing sunglasses and a suit
media.tenor.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Bigelow and Oppenheim challenge the notion that there are rational reasons.
I listened to this podcast, and the guy said, “It’s like we all built a house filled with dynamite — making all these bombs
and all these plans, and the walls are just ready to blow — but we kept on living in it.”
a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire
ALT: a cartoon dog is sitting at a table in front of a fire
media.tenor.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
“I always thought having you follow me around with that book of plans for weapons like that... Just being ready is the point, right? Keeps people in check. Keeps the world straight. If they see how prepared we are, no one starts a nuclear war, right?”
Like you said before, it's insanity.
And all of these people hold two ideas in their head simultaneously:

✅ Nuclear weapons are completely insane.

✅ There are rational reasons they must do the mission they're doing.

These ideas are diametrically opposed in many ways. And its that opposition that makes nukes SO interesting to me.
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
First, the setup is the least of my worries, but the “flaw” you’re able to hit the hardest. It’s actually addressed in the movie, with characters discussing why a single missile would be launched. It doesn’t matter; it’s not central to the subject matter. The Zoom call of doom happens either way.
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
Read both threads, your article, and listened to the Weekend Edition. Overall, I’ve been disappointed with the initial takes online; the movie hit me hard and was well done. Yours is one of the better takes, but I still have some issues.
two men in suits are talking and the words we need to go deeper are on the screen
ALT: two men in suits are talking and the words we need to go deeper are on the screen
media.tenor.com
October 26, 2025 at 5:27 AM
I feel like I’m the only one making this connection, yet it seems so obvious. Kennedy isn’t trying to save lives.

rfugal.medium.com/when-environ...
When Environmental Idealism Meets Eugenic Thinking
A Climate Activist’s Warning About RFK Jr.
rfugal.medium.com
September 7, 2025 at 7:13 PM
I’m a Star Wars fan (full disclosure), but I am so impressed by Andor. I believe it stands on its own, like it would be worth watching even if the rest of the Star Wars universe didn’t exist. It doesn’t need it, yet it enriches it.
May 10, 2025 at 6:17 PM
I’ve been writing in my notes that AI doesn’t communicate through language, it navigates through it, like a GPS, following the paths and grades that we’ve constructed with social labor.
May 10, 2025 at 6:04 PM
... but more broadly, my model is mostly a response to and extension of David Share's Combinatorial Model.
May 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
I can send you more details about it if you're interested, and we can compare notes if you are looking at writing on the topic. Here are the key papers I've been looking at for the visual percepts angle... www.researchrabbitapp.com/collection/p...
May 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
My model of reading fluency (and language generally) situates it as an extension of perception. I've been developing a framework that positions languaging as perceiving and navigating a higher-dimensional sociocognitively constructed space through embodied cognition and perceptual simulations.
May 10, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Thanks for putting these papers side by side, I’m learning a lot from both.
May 6, 2025 at 10:40 AM
Sorry, an interdisciplinary interloper/interlocutor here, so I’m not as fluent in the discourse. I’m looking for the nuance in what your distinction is between qualia and perceptual integration? I’m working on a model of reading fluency that leans into perception and embodied cognition.
May 6, 2025 at 10:39 AM