Radiolab from WNYC: Buttons Not Buttons

December 15, 2014 5:37 AM

Buttons are usually small and unimportant. But not always. Sometimes they are a portal to power, freedom, and destruction. Today we thread together tales of taking charge of the little things in life, of fortunes made and lost, and of the ease with which the world can end.

Story 1: Elevator; Story 2: Button Gwinnett; Story 3: "The Big Red Button"

posted by jazon (3 comments total)

I really liked the idea of a capsule by the heart of a guy trying to be the president's best friend containing the nuclear codes.
posted by garlic at 7:45 AM on December 15, 2014 [2 favorites]

From the Wikipedia page on Button Gwinnett:

In the 2008 role-playing game Fallout 3, a Protectron robot wearing a powdered wig as part of a pre-war animatronic show has been left online in the National Archives and due to a memory malfunction believes itself to be the real Gwinnett, and appears to believe Great Britain is still attempting to invade, as his casual use of the word Redcoats indicates. It will challenge the player to a duel or otherwise resist him if the player attempts to seize the copy of the Declaration of Independence that it is guarding. If the player manages to convince the robot that he or she is Thomas Jefferson, it will submit.

Everything about this guy is CRAZY.
posted by maxsparber at 9:30 AM on December 15, 2014 [1 favorite]

I grew up in North Alabama, a few hours from Atlanta, so I've heard of Gwinnett County, Georgia, all my life. It's kind of amazing to me that a whole county is named after someone who was kind of a failure except for signing his name to one important document.
posted by ocherdraco at 4:21 PM on December 16, 2014