Did Robert Oppenheimer foresee the end of humanity from his invention?

As rogue nations rush to obtain nuclear weapons and the possibility of nuclear war seems nearly inevitable... Is it possible that the 'father of the atom bomb' could have foreseen what his creation would ultimately bring to mankind?

By July 1945, Los Alamos was ready to test its bomb. Oppenheimer sent a cryptic telegram to scientists back at Berkeley: "Any time after the 15th would be a good time for our fishing trip...As we do not have enough sleeping bags to go around, we ask you please do not bring anyone with you." The test, code-named "Trinity," took place on July 16. It exploded with a force equivalent of 18,000 tons of TNT. Recalling the scene, Oppenheimer said: "A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. There floated through my mind a line from the "Bhagavad-Gita" in which Krishna is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty: "I am become death: the destroyer of worlds."

www.pbs.org...

He knew the destructive potential, he knew later that they would drop an atom bomb on Japan without warning anyone..... Did he know that one day rogue nations would obtain nuclear weapons?

It is worth noting that Oppenheimer following the war went on to push for for international control of atomic energy and was appointed Chairman of the General Advisory Committee to the Atomic Energy Commission. Later he voiced strong opposition to the development of the H-bomb which of course was developed, tested and made anyway.

So here we are, potential nuclear conflict between Iran, Israel and the U.S.A., rising tensions between Russia and the United States over a European missile defense system, not to mention that both Pakistan and India have threatened each other with nukes... China also now has a massive nuclear arsenal.... and so on.

Perhaps he was in essence a "destroyer of worlds"?

I suppose like most predictions and prophecies only time will tell.





[edit on 9-7-2008 by The_Alarmist2012]

Some other interesting quotes from Robert Oppenheimer

"In some sort of crude sense, which no vulgarity, no humor, no overstatement can quite extinguish, the physicists have known sin and this is a knowledge which they cannot lose."

"The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country."

"We knew the world would not be the same..."

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Is it possible that the 'father of the atom bomb' could have foreseen what his creation would ultimately bring to mankind?

Perhaps - he was brilliant, after all.

But he also had a penchant for the dramatic, which could have been the driving force behind his "I am become Death" quote. :p

He was quoting!

It doesn't take a genius to see the destructive potential of the atomic bomb.

Perhaps the writers of Superman IV were also prophets who foretold nuclear destruction.

Can't you tell the difference between logical reasoning and magical divination?

There have been people throughout mankinds history who have been choosen, task, manipulated or inspired to play the role of catalyst in moving mankind in a specific direction.

I've studied Oppenheimer for some time once I became aware that he was one such person, but one with a dark hand upon his shoulder.

He is identifiable for his knowledge and access to what Isaac Newton termed "prisca sapientia" or pristine knowledge. Newton was also tormented by this source, and he tried hard to deny it through his unpublished works to John Locke where he disputed the existence of the Trinity.

If you don't believe in coincidences, it is interesting to note that

The joint work of the scientists at Los Alamos resulted in the first artificial nuclear explosion near Alamogordo on July 16, 1945, the site of which Oppenheimer named "Trinity". Oppenheimer later said this name was from one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets

There is no doubt Oppie, as his students called him, was tormented, not only by the realization of what he helped unleash upon the world, but by how he came by his knowledge. When a close friend of his in Paris, Francis Ferguson, engaged in a complicated dialog on experimental physics, listening to Oppie's frustrations and idea's, the story told was that Oppenheimer just jumped up and tried to strangle him. It was more likely that Francis simply asked him how he was getting these insights and knowledge without reams of calculations.

Oppenheimer was never comfortable with his ability to tap into the well of pristine knowledge, so when forced to confront that question, he appeared as "deeply troubled" to his peers.

In the end, Oppenheimer could no longer deny that his use of this knowledge, this source of energy if you will, was not of him, or from him, and spent the rest of his life trying to become a cooling force for the genie he let out of the bottle.



[edit on 19-6-2009 by GriffinRD]

[edit on 19-6-2009 by GriffinRD]