The Oppenheimer Story:  Implications of Scientific Progress

In Greek mythology, Prometheus is a Titan who stole fire from Zeus at Mount Olympus and gave it back to humankind.  As punishment, Zeus chained Prometheus to a rock where an eagle ripped out pieces of his liver every day.  Prometheus was the creator of mankind yet suffered tremendously as the result of his actions.

One of my favorite stories of all time is so accurately called “American Prometheus.”  It details the life and struggles of J. Robert Oppenheimer, a man many people have never heard of yet had such a profound impact on the world as we know it.

Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb.

A brilliant theoretical physicist, Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard and went on to develop theories around molecular wave functions and teach at UC Berkeley.  In 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized a program to develop the first atomic bomb of which Oppenheimer would become head of the secret weapons laboratory.

For 3 years, Oppenheimer and a team of 130,000 scientists, technicians, and support staff worked around the clock on their project culminating in the world’s first nuclear detonation (the Trinity Test) in July 1945.

Less than one month later, the US dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Oppenheimer and his team developed the technology that would go on to kill well over 150,000 innocent people.

The world has never been the same since those two August mornings in 1945.

Scores of innocent Japanese lost their lives in the months and years following the blasts.  The US and Soviet Union plunged into a 44 year conflict centered largely on nuclear arms.  Tens of trillions of dollars globally have been spent developing and then preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.

When he later reflected back on the morning of the Trinity Test on July 16, 1945, Oppenheimer quoted…  “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”  Oppenheimer passed away in 1967, but he knew already the profound impact of what he had created.

Friends, we’re yet again coming upon a crucial point just like we were during Oppenheimer’s time in the 1940s.  Within a few short years, the lines between man and machine will blur to the point of nonexistence.  We will continue to develop chemical compounds that can wreck havoc on the human body.  We will explore the realms both in and beyond our solar system and may discover never-before-seen forms of life.

For every technological advancement, we wrestle with its implications.

At what point do moral consequences stop scientific progress?

If you were to ask Oppenheimer, he’d probably say never.  He would probably say never even though he spent the final 20 years of his life contemplating the potential danger of scientific discoveries.

Oppenheimer stole fire.  And our world has never been the same since.

What’s next?

See you next Sunday at 8:30pm.  🙂