July 5, 2026
Microwaves, megawatts, and a bait-and-switch
Megawatts by Microwave
Readers came for sci-fi power beams and got a surprisingly juicy dam-and-phone-lines saga
TLDR: The article explains how giant dam projects helped shape America’s power system and why old microwave links mattered to electric companies. Commenters mostly fixated on the title, joking that it sounded like sci-fi wireless electricity but delivered an unexpectedly niche infrastructure history lesson instead.
The latest post from Computers Are Bad dives into a very old-school American obsession: huge dams, federal turf wars, and the dream of turning wild rivers into farms, jobs, and mountains of electricity. On paper, it’s a history lesson about the Columbia River, Franklin D. Roosevelt’s dam-building era, and how government agencies battled over who got to shape the West. But in the comments, the real mini-drama was much simpler: people showed up expecting death rays and got utility company backstory instead.
That mismatch became the thread’s funniest running joke. One reader flatly summed it up as a "history lesson about power transmission lines in the us," which feels equal parts appreciation and playful drag. Another admitted the title "Megawatts by Microwave" had them picturing SimCity-style wireless power zaps through the sky, only to discover it was really about microwave communication links used by power companies. That sparked the strongest mood in the room: not outrage, exactly, but a very online blend of mild betrayal, nerdy nitpicking, and amused disappointment.
And honestly? That’s the charm. The article serves serious historical context about how America built its energy system, but the community turned it into a classic expectation-vs-reality bit. The hottest take wasn’t that the history was bad — it was that the title accidentally promised a retro-futurist sci-fi blockbuster and delivered a fascinating, deeply specific infrastructure rabbit hole instead. For comment readers, that whiplash was the entertainment.
Key Points
- •Early federal planning for the Columbia River emphasized irrigation, industrial electricity, navigation improvements, and national defense uses such as fertilizer and nitrates.
- •The article explains that the U.S. Army’s role in dam construction grew out of its long-standing responsibility for surveying and improving rivers.
- •A rivalry developed between the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over control of major western water projects.
- •The Columbia River Project was driven by flood control, irrigation potential, electricity generation, and the economic pressures of the Great Depression.
- •Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration formed a Regional Planning Commission in 1934 that proposed major Columbia dams including Grand Coulee and Bonneville, along with a new agency to distribute surplus power.