Why is it that whenever China is concerned, their most non-violent aspirations are always framed as evil? Manhattan project for anything outside a literal nuke is pretty wild for a headline.

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mattmaroon 14 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It’s really not. It just is short hand for a government deciding that something really important is worth throwing a lot of resources at. I’ve heard it used to describe plenty of things western governments do too.

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stupidhooper 13 hours ago | parent | next [-]

You think the headline isn’t a violent superlative?

	▲	jandrewrogers 13 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		No, it isn’t. The media uses that term to describe any big strategic R&D project. Anyone that reads English language media would know this.
	▲	mattmaroon 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		That’s not how it’s used, no. It’s also not a superlative, it’s a metaphor. Superlative would be something like “biggest” or “best”.

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xwindowsorg 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Why not Moonshot projects? like Google X.

	▲	mattmaroon 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Also good.

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stackedinserter an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Because they will become violent to us once they can afford to be violent to us.

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jandrewrogers 13 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

“Manhattan Project” is an ubiquitous metaphor that has nothing to do with nukes or weapons. The media describes everything from climate research to AI this way. Companies often refer to their own strategic internal projects as a “Manhattan Project”.