NO THEY'RE NOT GOLEMS SHUT UP

Ah, it’s a photo of a mercury arc rectifier (which is more electrical engineering, maybe?), not, Cherenkov radiation.

Nah it’s a glass something that has to do with electricity but I forgot what

Just plain old blue electrical arcs.

On the other hand, Cherenkov radiatiation is only indirectly related to criticality. It comes from any particle moving through a medium, generally water, faster than light travels through that medium. A luminous sonic boom of sorts! It's associated with criticality because those are the contexts where it happens often enough to actually be visible.

Mercury-based diodes both look way cooler and are way less spooky than garden variety semicondictor diodes.

I understand smartphones. They are relatively simple devices.

Apart from GPS and 5G communications which are pure black magic.

And magnets: magic