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If you are capable of building the most powerful weapon on earth, you are capable of guessing it will be used on something else than your current designated tar
by sametmax 9y ago
If you are capable of building the most powerful weapon on earth, you are capable of guessing it will be used on something else than your current designated target, later.
But they didn't think about that. They don't mention that they thought that they were working on something that could literally end humanity.
And the thing is, we didn't even use the bomb to win against the Nazi.
That the bomb was a good decision or not is a hard debate that I still think about sometime.
But there was not that much debate reported from the people building it.
- tzakrajs 9y agoSmart people can be really dumb.
- njarboe 9y agoOppenheimer recalling the Trinity test: It brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." I'm sure those scientists thought about it and discussed it among themselves, but they were in a super top secret lab in the middle of nowhere. Not much opportunity to leave an historical record of what they thought (letters highly censored, etc).
- sametmax 9y agoThe Feynman biography cover in length the what happened, but it doesn't mention much debate about this.
- raverbashing 9y ago> If you are capable of building the most powerful weapon on earth, you are capable of guessing it will be used on something else than your current designated target, later. Yes, however the point is moot if your adversary hits you with it before you are finished. Pacifists get shot first.
- sametmax 9y agoYou are creating a false dichotomy, between pacifism and the use of a doomsday weapon. There are other options. And we actually won against the nazi without using the bomb. Now given the cold war event, I can't say for sure if the bomb was a good or a bad thing. But's saying "we had no choice" is a really dangerous way of putting things.