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From: orb@whuxl.UUCP (SEVENER)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Nuclear power "experts" are just trying to erase the Sputnik era
Message-ID: <345@whuxl.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 14-Nov-84 09:26:06 EST
Article-I.D.: whuxl.345
Posted: Wed Nov 14 09:26:06 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 15-Nov-84 02:41:08 EST
References: <1133@drusd.UUCP> <2082@randvax.UUCP>, <328@whuxl.UUCP> <2092@randvax.UUCP> <344@whuxl.UUCP> <270@mhuxm.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs
Lines: 52

> 
> Just one thing.  As a "real" (as opposed to social) scientist, and
> especially as a "hard" (as opposed to life) scientist, I feel that
> in the world today we are witnessing a general power struggle among
> intellectuals over the issue of nuclear power and weapons.
> 
> As an example, take "Physicians for Social Responsibility."  The
> name itself reeks of self-importance, as though Physicians are
> more socially responsible than others (what a crock that is).  This
> group goes around informing the public about the dangers of nuclear
> weapons as though they were supposed to be safe!  In fact, I suspect one
> of their hidden objectives is to present the message, "Remember those
> physicists who almost as g-ds transformed the world into it's modern
> form?  Guess what?  They're evil!  Physicians are the experts who you
> should trust to tell you about the world of science."
> Let's face facts.  For better or worse, the world is divided into
> two classes of people:  those who understand the calculus, and those
> who don't. 
> --J. Abeles
To think that it is *only* the Physicians for Social Responsibility who
are and have been concerned about nuclear weapons is a grave error.
The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists represents many physicists and other
scientists who have been concerned about the arms race since it began.
Several weeks ago the Federation of American Scientists warned that
if Reagan stops observing SALT II that the Soviets are in position to
benefit immediately by removing the 818 ICBM limit they are currently
observing.
Neils Bohr, one of the founders of Quantum Mechanics warned Truman not
to expect an American monopoly on atomic weapons and come to some 
International control of nuclear weapons. He told Truman in 1946 that
the Russians would have a bomb in 3 years.  In 1949 the Russians exploded
their first a-bomb.
Albert Einstein warned that the atomic bomb had changed everything except
our mode of thinking.
Linus Pauling said "We have had only a few years to comtemplate the nature
of life in a world of H-bombs and superbombs.  The facts about these bombs
and the predictions about the nature of nuclear war have ...often been
released in a protecting cloud of reassuring verbiage.  But now the facts
are at hand,and we can see for ourselves that our own future and the future
of the human race depend upon our willingness and ability to cooperate, to
work together in a world-wide attack on the great world problems."
Bertrand Russell, with Whitehead, the author of "Principia Mathematica"
and joint developers of symbolic logic (hardly one who could be accused of
not understanding calculus!) campaigned for nuclear disarmament.
It does not take a keen understanding of mathematics to understand that
if one atomic bomb could devastate a city of several hundred thousand people
that one million six hundred thousand such destructive powere would
devastate the whole world.
Apparently some people still cannot do such elementary arithmetic.
          Peace, before it's too late!
tim sevener whuxl!orb