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One of the biggest mistakes of mankind. Especially in hindsight. "Starfish Prime serve as a warning of what might happen if Earth’s magnetic field gets blasted

One of the biggest mistakes of mankind. Especially in hindsight. "Starfish Prime serve as a warning of what might happen if Earth’s magnetic field gets blasted again with high doses of radiation" Bad things will happen. Don't need to be a scientist to understand that. I fail to see any value of this information.

ransom1538 5y ago
My favorite story was from the Manhattan project. A small handful of physicists were not convinced a nuclear reaction at this scale would stop. According to their calculations - the reaction could consume a larger portion of the planet. Oh well. Let's roll the dice.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  > A small handful of physicists were not convinced Somebody came up with the idea, and was immediately dismissed by the most pessimist estimates. After somebody spent 10 minutes doing the math, there was no doubt anymore.
  - ithkuil 5y ago
    From Wikipedia: > Edward Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei.[note 2] Bethe calculated that it could not happen,[34] and a report co-authored by Teller showed that "no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions is likely to be started."[35] In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of this scenario to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest".
pstanger 5y ago
The results were surprisingly bad, but the article concludes with a number of learnings, a detection system, and a radiation mitigation system that all came from the fallout of this test. It was a reckless experiment, but not without its silver linings
- dncornholio 5y ago
  Yes good things came out of it, but those things weren't actually foresighted. You can't make me believe we have to blow bombs in space to measure weather, detect radiation or mitigate it. They never ever actually had to proper equipment to even measure any results.. It was by luck we got to notice the changes in earths magnetic field.
wolverine876 5y ago
> Bad things will happen. Don't need to be a scientist to understand that. I think it's a mistake to look at past errors this way, as if it was obvious and easy. The reality is that, in foresight, the risk is uncertain, it's hard to get other people to face with unseen risks, and that all applies to yourself too. And all that makes it very hard to get yourself to stand up to social pressure and assert a risk that is uncertain and unseen to you. If you are wrong - or even if you are right, but it's a 50-50 chance of disaster (or 25-75 or 10-90, all much too dangerous) and the dice roll is fortunate - you look like a fool. If you are right, you rarely get credit in a situation like that - you've just made everyone else look bad. The way to look at something like Starfish Prime is to ask: given the human dynamics described above, how do we set up systems to prevent such outcomes? How could I handle it effectively, even in the absence of such systems?
- dncornholio 5y ago
  It actually is obvious and easy. Plenty of people were against these tests back in the day as well. You should not roll dice with humanity.

ransom1538 5y ago

My favorite story was from the Manhattan project. A small handful of physicists were not convinced a nuclear reaction at this scale would stop. According to their calculations - the reaction could consume a larger portion of the planet. Oh well. Let's roll the dice.

marcosdumay 5y ago
> A small handful of physicists were not convinced Somebody came up with the idea, and was immediately dismissed by the most pessimist estimates. After somebody spent 10 minutes doing the math, there was no doubt anymore.
- ithkuil 5y ago
  From Wikipedia: > Edward Teller also raised the speculative possibility that an atomic bomb might "ignite" the atmosphere because of a hypothetical fusion reaction of nitrogen nuclei.[note 2] Bethe calculated that it could not happen,[34] and a report co-authored by Teller showed that "no self-propagating chain of nuclear reactions is likely to be started."[35] In Serber's account, Oppenheimer mentioned the possibility of this scenario to Arthur Compton, who "didn't have enough sense to shut up about it. It somehow got into a document that went to Washington" and was "never laid to rest".

pstanger 5y ago

The results were surprisingly bad, but the article concludes with a number of learnings, a detection system, and a radiation mitigation system that all came from the fallout of this test. It was a reckless experiment, but not without its silver linings

dncornholio 5y ago
Yes good things came out of it, but those things weren't actually foresighted. You can't make me believe we have to blow bombs in space to measure weather, detect radiation or mitigate it. They never ever actually had to proper equipment to even measure any results.. It was by luck we got to notice the changes in earths magnetic field.

wolverine876 5y ago

> Bad things will happen. Don't need to be a scientist to understand that. I think it's a mistake to look at past errors this way, as if it was obvious and easy. The reality is that, in foresight, the risk is uncertain, it's hard to get other people to face with unseen risks, and that all applies to yourself too. And all that makes it very hard to get yourself to stand up to social pressure and assert a risk that is uncertain and unseen to you. If you are wrong - or even if you are right, but it's a 50-50 chance of disaster (or 25-75 or 10-90, all much too dangerous) and the dice roll is fortunate - you look like a fool. If you are right, you rarely get credit in a situation like that - you've just made everyone else look bad. The way to look at something like Starfish Prime is to ask: given the human dynamics described above, how do we set up systems to prevent such outcomes? How could I handle it effectively, even in the absence of such systems?

dncornholio 5y ago
It actually is obvious and easy. Plenty of people were against these tests back in the day as well. You should not roll dice with humanity.