On this date in 1945 my brother was born. Also, Robert Oppenheimer, his team of physicists, the American military, and the American government under Harry Truman dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.
I watched the movie Oppenheimer recently and am currently reading the book about Oppenheimer, American Prometheus. Coincidentally, I was 300 pages into the book last night and picked it up again this morning. Coincidentally, 300 pages into the book is where the test was conducted, and the first bomb dropped.
Such a momentous anniversary.
A defining moment of our lives up until now.
The CBS Sunday Morning Non-News did not do a feature on the atomic bomb today. The Almanac segment showed for 10 seconds (without commentary) that this is the anniversary of 70,000 Japanese deaths, then the program went on to talk at length about how hot the weather has been.
In 1945, on this date, there was a celebration that the war would certainly end without the need for a deadly invasion of Japan.
And after the celebrations, some brief period of consternation and trepidation did set in, but all that was soon forgotten here, less so, I imagine, in Japan.
We told ourselves the Bomb would put an end to war. That has not happened.
Our technology is in the driver’s seat, and we ineffective mortals are merely along for the ride.
Effective mortals invent and develop the technologies that we use to various effects. In the market economy, all participants in supply and demand drive the applications of technology for personal benefit. Governments’ criteria for technology are usually about political power.
Putin’s government has some 6000 nuclear bombs, 4500 of which are long-range strategic warheads, each 40 times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb. The US plus NATO has about 800 military targets. It is quite possible for Russia to launch a massive attack that pre-empts any US-NATO response.
Richard, you said, “Governments’ criteria for technology are usually about political power.”
I am reading
American Prometheus
and that same message comes through loud and clear. J. Robert Oppenheimer and many other physicists who forged a path to a brand new tomorrow were hounded and persecuted the US government and the US military because of unfounded suspicions that they might want to share the new technology with the rest of the world.
Richard, you said, “It is quite possible for Russia to launch a massive attack that pre-empts any US-NATO response.”
It is also quite possible that the admittedly crazed Russian dictator will not do that since it would be the end of the world as we know it.