Blog 16: Summary of 2nd Source

This source is a speech from J. Robert Oppenheimer to the association of Los Alamos scientists on November 2, 1945. He opens by saying that he doesn’t have anything profound or encouraging to say. He says what he has to say though is serious an important and he encourages any questions. He goes on to talk about how scientists started the development of atomic theory and compared it to the discovery of reality because it forced scientists to look at the relations between science and common sense. He says the impact was so strong because of the three reasons: “one is the extraordinary speed with which things which were right on the frontier of science were translated into terms where they affected many living people, and potentially all people. Another is the fact, quite accidental in many ways, and connected with the speed, that scientists themselves played such a large part, not merely in providing the foundation for atomic weapons, but in actually making them. In this we are certainly closer to it than any other group. The third is that the thing we made -- partly because of the technical nature of the problem, partly because we worked hard, partly because we had good breaks -- really arrived in the world with such a shattering reality and suddenness that there was no opportunity for the edges to be worn off.” He ends the speech by talking about scientists’ moral obligation to all other humans. He says the deepest bonds are the ones that bind us to our fellow man.