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After the war, Switzerland had a bit of a reputation problem. Did not last though. Within a few years, the economy was booming so hard that everyone forgot the awkward questions about wartime neutrality. The Swiss started telling themselves a new story: we are special. Different. Better. They called it the Sonderfall Schweiz. The Swiss special case.

This chapter covers how that identity was built, tested, and cracked.

The economic miracle

Swiss factories were untouched by war. Their workforce was educated and ready. When Europe needed goods for rebuilding, Switzerland delivered. Production tripled between 1960 and 1974. GDP growth hit 12 percent in some years. By 1970, this tiny country with 0.15 percent of the world’s population handled 2 percent of global trade.

Book: Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything Author: Dr. Michio Kaku Published: 2023, Doubleday ISBN: 978-0385548366

Edison vs Ford: A Bet Nobody Expected

Kaku opens Chapter 9 with a story I didn’t know. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were actually close friends. They used to vacation together and make bets about which energy source would power the future. Edison backed the electric battery. Ford backed gasoline.

Retelling of Chapter 7 from A Concise History of Switzerland by Clive H. Church and Randolph C. Head (Cambridge University Press, 2013, ISBN 978-0-521-14382-0).

In 1914, Switzerland felt pretty good about itself. Democratic, prosperous, neutral. Then two world wars and a depression happened. Everything got tested. Not everything passed the test.

World War I: Neutrality is Hard Work

When WWI broke out, Switzerland mobilized 220,000 men in days. Parliament gave the government full powers and elected a General for the duration. They picked Ulrich Wille, a 66-year-old with Prussian connections. French-speakers were not happy about that choice.

Book: Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything Author: Dr. Michio Kaku Published: 2023, Doubleday ISBN: 978-0385548366

The Man Who Saved Half of Humanity

Chapter 8 opens with a bold claim. Half of the people alive today exist because of one man. Fritz Haber, a German chemist, figured out how to make artificial fertilizer from thin air. Literally. Most people have never heard of him.

Before Haber, the world was on a collision course with Malthus’s prediction from 1798. Population grows exponentially, food supply does not. Eventually you run out of food, and then comes famine, riots, and war. Simple math, ugly consequences.

Book: Quantum Supremacy: How the Quantum Computer Revolution Will Change Everything Author: Michio Kaku ISBN: 978-0385548366

Chapter 7 is about something we all take for granted. Plants. Green stuff everywhere. You walk through a forest, everything is alive and growing, and you don’t think much about it. Kaku makes you stop and consider what is actually happening at the molecular level though. Scientists still don’t fully understand how photosynthesis works. After 3 billion years of it happening on Earth, we still can’t explain the first step properly.