J. Robert Oppenheimer's grandson shares lessons from his grandfather he believes are still relevant today.
But he was right. The politicians and bureaucrats who believed the U.S. could have a monopoly on nuclear weapons were proven wrong in a few short years, to the peril of us all. We have since teetered on the edge of destruction, with a peak of more than 70,000 nuclear weapons in the 1980s and many near misses.
With some of our biggest existential threats including climate change and nuclear weapons, it strikes me that the solution to both could be what the progenitors of the technology suggested in the first place: more scientific cooperation, more energy, and less bombs. Some problems require urgency — and climate change has produced more talk than action. We need action, and we could look atof an urgent effort, with some of the best technologists recruited to lead it, against this existential threat with high levels of funding and commitment. Reaching a commensurate level of urgency and funding against climate change as the Manhattan Project would be a start. That project cost about $34 billion in today's dollars. Today, we spendin the U.S.
If we could revive the level of cooperation that the scientists offered as the solution to dealing with nuclear threats in 1945, we will have a much better and safer future in front of us. As J. Robert Oppenheimer said: “Mankind must unite — or we will perish.” I see as much hope as peril in that statement.
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