3 ms·

Unfortunately, I think you mean it was "recent enough" we were able to see how awful it was. Which means that if we give it a couple more generations to fade ou

Unfortunately, I think you mean it was "recent enough" we were able to see how awful it was. Which means that if we give it a couple more generations to fade out of (some) living memory, we open up ourselves to another conflict, this time with the ability to eradicate ourselves. Which then raises the question, had WWII not happened, would we have gotten nuclear weapons when we did? And would the next "awful" conflict have been apocalyptically so. WWII ultimately jumpstarted so much of the scientific advancements we have made in the last 70 years that it is impossible to say that we would have been able to eradicate ourselves without a modern total war. IDK. I'm not disagreeing, just thinking aloud. You make an interesting point. And certainly one that is fun to hypothesize about.

nostrademons 10y ago
We likely would not have gotten nuclear weapons when we did, but they would probably have happened by the 50s and 60s, as would rocketry. There was already research on nuclear fission happening in the 1930s (in Germany, of all places), and people had already speculated on its use as a weapon. The German nuclear weapons program had already begun when Germany invaded Poland. WW2 massively accelerated this research and let researchers get away with things they wouldn't otherwise have been able to do (like building a nuclear reactor under the bleachers of Stagg Field in Chicago). Given the scientific progress made in the 30s, though, it's likely that it would've happened anyway by the late 1950s. Interestingly, if WW2 had not happened, it's very likely Germany would've been the first country with nuclear weapons, and hence the world superpower now. Most of the original researchers on nuclear fission were German, and many of the key scientists on the Manhattan project emigrated from Germany or Nazi-controlled countries. The key uranium mines of the 1930s were in the Belgian Congo, and the ore that was eventually used for the Manhattan Project was sitting on the docks in Belgium when the Nazis invaded.

nostrademons 10y ago

We likely would not have gotten nuclear weapons when we did, but they would probably have happened by the 50s and 60s, as would rocketry. There was already research on nuclear fission happening in the 1930s (in Germany, of all places), and people had already speculated on its use as a weapon. The German nuclear weapons program had already begun when Germany invaded Poland. WW2 massively accelerated this research and let researchers get away with things they wouldn't otherwise have been able to do (like building a nuclear reactor under the bleachers of Stagg Field in Chicago). Given the scientific progress made in the 30s, though, it's likely that it would've happened anyway by the late 1950s. Interestingly, if WW2 had not happened, it's very likely Germany would've been the first country with nuclear weapons, and hence the world superpower now. Most of the original researchers on nuclear fission were German, and many of the key scientists on the Manhattan project emigrated from Germany or Nazi-controlled countries. The key uranium mines of the 1930s were in the Belgian Congo, and the ore that was eventually used for the Manhattan Project was sitting on the docks in Belgium when the Nazis invaded.