God Power: From Myth to Manhattan Project and Beyond

In 1945, J. Robert Oppenheimer witnessed the detonation of the first nuclear bomb — a device he had helped oversee and bring into existence. In that moment, in his mind, he recalled a verse from the Bhagavad Gita:

“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”

He did not speak the words aloud at the time, but later described how they came to him as he watched the explosion. It was a moment so extreme, so beyond the realm of ordinary human capability, that it forced a reach for ancient language — for mythic meaning.

It was the moment humanity crossed into something else.
It was the moment we touched God Power.

This discussion explores the idea of God Power across time — from ancient myths to modern megaprojects, from the gods of legend to the machines we are now building.

We’ll ask questions like:

• What were the original benchmarks of God Power?

(Omniscience, creation of life, cataclysmic destruction, immortality, transmutation…)

• Which of those powers are now being approximated by technology — nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, space engineering?
• What’s the difference between tactical power and godlike power — and why do some technologies (like nukes) never lose their sense of dread or awe?
• Can the Kardashev Scale (measuring civilization by energy use) be updated or replaced by a God Power Scale, based on how much a capability violates the boundaries of previous human possibility?

We’ll also touch on visual storytelling and worldbuilding, including how series like Apple TV’s Foundation evoke the aesthetic of God Power through planetary-scale engineering, symbolic design, and mythic architecture.

Whether you come from science, philosophy, engineering, religion, or art — this is a conversation for anyone interested in the deep question:

Are we becoming what we once worshipped?