4 ms·

an unnamed colleague citing his hobby of cracking safes at Los Alamos as evidence he was a “master of deception and enemy of America.” There is speculati

an unnamed colleague citing his hobby of cracking safes at Los Alamos as evidence he was a “master of deception and enemy of America.” There is speculation that it was his ex-wife, Louise Bell: http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/07/11/smeared-richard-feynman/ http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2014/07/11/smeared-richard-fe...

saycheese 10y ago
Feynman's willingness to think more objectively than most about the world and share his thoughts likely resulted in a long list of enemies, people that desired to control him, etc. Most obvious person to report it was the head of security at Los Alamos; Feynman told them about his exploits and actively tested the security.
- a3n 10y ago
  "Never pen test without permission."
  - CalChris 10y ago
    Been there. Done that. Suffered the consequences.
    - sasas 10y ago
      Don't leave us hanging! What happened ?
  - trendia 10y ago
    ... unless you have a Nobel and a diagram named after you.
    - sfifs 10y ago
      I believe those came well after his Los Alamos days. When he was cracking safes, he was essentially going out on a limb. The leaders of the establishment knew of his oddities and usefulness, so he was tolerated.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- rebuilder 10y ago
  Someone willing to change their mind, on any subject, should their own reasoning give them cause to, would clearly be a worry from a national security point of view. Such a person might, after all, at any time conclude that the government that demands their loyalty isn't actually who they should be serving!
  - croon 10y ago
    Never have I been so sad to agree with someone. It's only logical that it is this way, but it's also very sad that learning more and adapting your world view to your growth is orthogonally opposite requirements for intelligence work. It also shifts an incredible amount of weight on who leads all the blindly trusting agents of state.
at-fates-hands 10y ago
>> There is speculation that it was his ex-wife, Louise Bell She made him sound like a James Bond evil genius type: In matters of intrigue Richard Feynman is, I believe immensely clever—indeed a genius—and he is, I further believe, completely ruthless, unhampered by morals, ethics, or religion—and will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his ends.
- hthh 10y ago
  Making the atomic bomb scores pretty high on the evil-genius scale.
  - yoloswagins 10y ago
    Fun fact, Feynman didn't work directly on the bomb. His role was managing high school students who performed computations, fixing adding machines, and did some safety work at the uranium isotope plant in Tennessee. [1] https://robertlovespi.net/2014/09/07/how-richard-feynman-saved-eastern-tennessee-from-getting-nuked/ https://robertlovespi.net/2014/09/07/how-richard-feynman-sav...
    - bkanber 10y ago
      More fun facts: almost nobody worked directly on the bomb. Thousands of people worked on manufacturing equipment and components and had no idea what they were supposed to be building. They split the project up into very granular pieces so that nobody really had full insight into what was going on except for the core group of scientists. (Source for this I believe is Feynman himself in Surely You're Joking)
      - at-fates-hands 10y ago
        They have several examples of this on the Wikipedia page, but this one struck me when I saw it some years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project#/media/File:Y12_Calutron_Operators.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project#/media/File:... Gladys Owens, the woman seated in the foreground, did not know what she had been involved with until seeing this photo in a public tour of the facility fifty years later.
nl 10y ago
It isn't surprising at all the FBI interviewed him. For example, page 352 of his file talks about his association with <redacted> who I would suspect was Klaus Fuchs[1] who gave the soviets information that let them build their own atomic bomb[2]. Feynman was also in frequent communication with the Soviet Embassy and was planning a trip to the Soviet Union. The FBI can be over the top, but I imagine that's probably worth having a conversation about. Edit: the letter (from Bell?) starts on page 110 of the file... It's pretty extreme! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs#Value_of_Fuchs.27s_data_to_the_Soviet_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs#Value_of_Fuchs.27s...

saycheese 10y ago

Feynman's willingness to think more objectively than most about the world and share his thoughts likely resulted in a long list of enemies, people that desired to control him, etc. Most obvious person to report it was the head of security at Los Alamos; Feynman told them about his exploits and actively tested the security.

a3n 10y ago
"Never pen test without permission."
- CalChris 10y ago
  Been there. Done that. Suffered the consequences.
  - sasas 10y ago
    Don't leave us hanging! What happened ?
- trendia 10y ago
  ... unless you have a Nobel and a diagram named after you.
  - sfifs 10y ago
    I believe those came well after his Los Alamos days. When he was cracking safes, he was essentially going out on a limb. The leaders of the establishment knew of his oddities and usefulness, so he was tolerated.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
rebuilder 10y ago
Someone willing to change their mind, on any subject, should their own reasoning give them cause to, would clearly be a worry from a national security point of view. Such a person might, after all, at any time conclude that the government that demands their loyalty isn't actually who they should be serving!
- croon 10y ago
  Never have I been so sad to agree with someone. It's only logical that it is this way, but it's also very sad that learning more and adapting your world view to your growth is orthogonally opposite requirements for intelligence work. It also shifts an incredible amount of weight on who leads all the blindly trusting agents of state.

at-fates-hands 10y ago

>> There is speculation that it was his ex-wife, Louise Bell She made him sound like a James Bond evil genius type: In matters of intrigue Richard Feynman is, I believe immensely clever—indeed a genius—and he is, I further believe, completely ruthless, unhampered by morals, ethics, or religion—and will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his ends.

hthh 10y ago
Making the atomic bomb scores pretty high on the evil-genius scale.
- yoloswagins 10y ago
  Fun fact, Feynman didn't work directly on the bomb. His role was managing high school students who performed computations, fixing adding machines, and did some safety work at the uranium isotope plant in Tennessee. [1] https://robertlovespi.net/2014/09/07/how-richard-feynman-saved-eastern-tennessee-from-getting-nuked/ https://robertlovespi.net/2014/09/07/how-richard-feynman-sav...
  - bkanber 10y ago
    More fun facts: almost nobody worked directly on the bomb. Thousands of people worked on manufacturing equipment and components and had no idea what they were supposed to be building. They split the project up into very granular pieces so that nobody really had full insight into what was going on except for the core group of scientists. (Source for this I believe is Feynman himself in Surely You're Joking)
    - at-fates-hands 10y ago
      They have several examples of this on the Wikipedia page, but this one struck me when I saw it some years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project#/media/File:Y12_Calutron_Operators.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan_Project#/media/File:... Gladys Owens, the woman seated in the foreground, did not know what she had been involved with until seeing this photo in a public tour of the facility fifty years later.

nl 10y ago

It isn't surprising at all the FBI interviewed him. For example, page 352 of his file talks about his association with <redacted> who I would suspect was Klaus Fuchs[1] who gave the soviets information that let them build their own atomic bomb[2]. Feynman was also in frequent communication with the Soviet Embassy and was planning a trip to the Soviet Union. The FBI can be over the top, but I imagine that's probably worth having a conversation about. Edit: the letter (from Bell?) starts on page 110 of the file... It's pretty extreme! [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs#Value_of_Fuchs.27s_data_to_the_Soviet_project https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Fuchs#Value_of_Fuchs.27s...