Let’s face it. Pocket Calculator is one of Kraftwerk’s weakest tracks.

Other critics may have differing opinions, but I don’t think the transition from slide rules to pocket calculators really had any larger allegorical or metaphorical significance. The tune has all the charm of one of those lean-formalized proofs dropped by OpenAI the other day.

You might be thinking that this post is headed toward the “haters gonna hate” bin, but that’s not my intent! In stark contrast to Pocket Calculator, Kraftwerk’s Radioactivity, originally released in 1975 has stood the test of time, and keeps getting better with successive remixes.

Pocket calculators were a big deal for at most a few years in the late seventies, but radioactivity will endure. When a star like Proxima Centauri has finished with fusion, and after its core has crystallized and radiated away the associated latent heat, radioactive decay will pick up the slack. For the next 10^20 years, a succession of isotopes will provide the heat. Rick Ross will likely be pleased to know that on trillion-year timescales, all that Platinum 190 will be putting out 2.5 Gigawatts to help keep the rims spinnin’.