What is the Machine referenced by the title? Is it the nuclear bomb itself, with the atomic chemistry and the blast? Or is it perhaps the bureaucratic process that led to the development and use of the nuclear bomb? Then again, perhaps it is the shape of geopolitical conflicts that have led to the historical standoff known as the Cold War. In any case, whether the Machine is technical, political, or social, there is no denying that the bomb and the threat of war have their roots in human history.
In some ways, nuclear warfare has always been available to the earth. Plutonium has existed for a long time, before humans ever discovered it or its properties. The mathematical truths of Einstein's discoveries have always been true, even before they were understood by human scientists. The threat of war has been alive and well for as long as animals have competed for domain and power. So what the book really shows is not a new development in the potential of the earth, but rather, the book shows nuclear warfare as the bloom of human potential.
To see absolute carnage as an outflowing of human nature is a challenging task, akin perhaps to accepting the humanity of Nazi prison guards. By accepting that Nazis were humans, a person has to admit that perhaps in their own psychology, there is some potential for hatred and malice to that degree. To accept responsibility for the nuclear bomb is that problem multiplied by infinite dimensions. If nuclear warfare destroys the world or makes it unlivable, that will be the effect of human invention and the thirst for power.
