85
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Dude, you missed highlighting Einstein? He was one of us too!

https://monthlyreview.org/2009/05/01/why-socialism/

[-] o_d@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That's true although he's partially responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb. He warned FDR of the possibility.

[-] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 26 points 1 year ago

That’s not really his fault though, physics is physics, and he wasn’t really pushing for its creation as much as he was terrified that Heisenberg and the Nazis were going to get to it first.

[-] o_d@lemmygrad.ml 13 points 1 year ago

That's fair. It really was a no win scenario for him.

[-] cayde6ml@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 1 year ago

I can't fault him for theorizing the atomic bomb. Its a weapon that can be used by anyone, and if it wasn't Einstein, its only a matter of time until someone else does it. Its better to get a jumpstart and protect the information, resources and weapons than to stick your fingers in your ears and do nothing, rather than let the capitalists and nazis get ahold of it first and maintain a monopoly.

[-] Redderthanmisty@lemmygrad.ml 11 points 1 year ago

Perhaps, though that was sent 10 years before he wrote his article on socialism, alot can happen in that time.

Also, regarding that letter, he seems to have written it not to promote building the bomb, but rather to emphasise precaution and 'watchfullness' in its inevitable development and subsequent use.

[-] o_d@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Oh I didn't know that the letter came first. Yeah I get that it was done out of fear of the Nazis developing an atomic weapon. It just sucks that it was the USA who ended up getting there first and then preceded to be the only state to actually use them against a foreign adversary.

[-] ComradeSalad@lemmygrad.ml 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That’s true, though at the time you really do have to remember that the United States (with assistance from Canada, the UK, and Mexico), was truly the only allied nation (and probably any nation at all) at the time which could successfully pool together the resources, manpower, and scientific genius to accomplish the feat of unlocking nuclear fission and nuclear weapons.

Britain was under constant air attack, threatened with invasion, and most of its manpower was drawn to the war effort, and the Soviet Union was all hands on deck for the war effort with the vast majority of the country devastated.

Plus allied physicists can no idea how far along the German or Japanese programs were or what they would do if they reached the bomb first.

Those physicists by extension had no idea how or when their efforts would be used. They simply did their job and accomplished one of the largest breakthroughs in human technology. I doubt very many expected that their efforts would be thrown at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, especially since they anticipated using the bombs on Germany and Japan wasn’t even a second thought.

this post was submitted on 23 Jul 2023
85 points (98.9% liked)

GenZedong

4242 readers
106 users here now

This is a Dengist community in favor of Bashar al-Assad with no information that can lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton, our fellow liberal and queen. This community is not ironic. We are Marxists-Leninists.

This community is for posts about Marxism and geopolitics (including shitposts to some extent). Serious posts can be posted here or in /c/GenZhou. Reactionary or ultra-leftist cringe posts belong in /c/shitreactionariessay or /c/shitultrassay respectively.

We have a Matrix homeserver and a Matrix space. See this thread for more information. If you believe the server may be down, check the status on status.elara.ws.

Rules:

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS