Moral Risk and Nuclear Weapons
See the Cat? See the Cradle?
"'See the cat?' asked Newt. 'See the cradle?'" (Vonnegut- 183).
The day the atomic bomb dropped, August 6, 1945, was the day in which Newt Hoenikker's father tried to play a game with him. Felix, one of the scientists who had helped create the weapon, wanted to play cat's cradle. It is a game played with string looped over the fingers. After a series of movements, one is supposed to be able to see what appears to be a cradle shape. To most, it simply looks like a tangled string. Newt’s constant reference to the game of Cat’s Cradle is Vonnegut's way of symbolizing the search for meaning that people get caught up in all the time. In the scientific community, they have made a career out of this game.
Michael Polyani was known for being a physical chemist, economist, and philosopher. In the second chapter of Richard Rhodes' The Making of the Atomic Bomb, he discusses Polyani's concept of the "republic of science". It is used to explain accepted governing principles in the scientific community which have not been made clear to those outside of it. As said by American theoretical physicist Richard Feynman, "If we know the rules, we consider that we 'understand' the world" (Rhodes- 32). This paper will discuss two of the three principles, the apprenticeship concept and the undesirablilty of strong, central leadrship, and how these concepts evolved in both pre and post World War II physics.
Polyani had always acknowledged the role played by inherited practices. The fact that we know more than we can clearly express contributes to the conclusion that much knowledge is passed on by other means, such as apprenticeship. When one is in an apprenticeship, one has "close...
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...ecurity on defense, or should the money be used for something else? The second new principle should be moral leadership. The simple fact that so many scientists dropped everything to work on the Manhattan Project had a great deal to do with America's moral leadership at this time in history. When these scientists took a look at Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, they saw those countries as pure evil. Morals helped rally the world's brightest citizens to its cause. If it worked in 1945, it could certainly work today.
"Science is sometimes blamed for the nuclear dilemna. Such blame confuses the messenger with the message. Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman did not invent nuclear fission; they discovered it. It was there all along waiting for us, the turn of the screw" (Rhodes- 784).
Citing: The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes and Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
In The Manhattan project, Jeff Hughes claims that the development of atomic weapons in World War II did not create “Big Science,” but simply accelerated trends in scientific research and development that had already taken place. Hughes was able to support his argument by introducing the Big science and the atomic bomb which was a main factor of World War II. Hughes introduce “Big Science” saying, during the twentieth century, almost every aspect of science changed. He went on to explain that geographically, science spread from few countries to many. Institutionally, it spread from universities and specialist organizations to find new homes in government, public and private industry and the military. Intellectually, its contours changed with the development of entirely new disciplines and the blurring of boundaries between old ones. Hughes introduce the atomic bomb in his argument saying it was the mission by British and American scientists to develop nuclear weapons. This was known as the Manhattan project. Ways in which the construction of the atomic bomb reflect a “Big Science” approach to research and development was by making scientist share their work with each other, including universities as their laboratories for
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut is an anti-war historical fiction novel about the bombings of Dresden, Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II. Slaughterhouse-Five succeeds as a historical fiction novel because it is fictional and imaginative but also set in the past, rooted in factual information about that time period and the events that took place in Dresden. Much of the historical information in Slaughterhouse-Five is considered eye-witness information because the novel is semi-autobiographical because Kurt Vonnegut was a prisoner of war in Dresden and he also survived the fire bombings. Vonnegut’s historical fiction novel is unique in its genre because the focus is on the effect of surviving the bombing of Dresden rather than explaining
In the present day, society depends on Science greatly; it supplies jobs, provides technology capable of saving lives, and furthers our society in many positive ways. However, society often misses the negative aspects of Science. Vonnegut identifies many problems with the general perspective on Science in Cat's Cradle, issues that are still relevant today. In this novel, John, the protagonist, sets out to write a book called “the Day the World Ended” about the important people involved in the first Atomic Bomb. He goes on to study the character Felix Hoenikker, who is based on the real Father of the atomic bomb, Robert Oppenheimer. Soon John becomes involved with the chaotic Hoenikker family and all of their personal issues. After a minimal amount of research, John realizes that Felix Hoenikker’s dominating trait was his profound naivety. According to the youngest child in the Hoenikker family, Newt, his father saw himself as an “eight year old on a spring morning on his way to school” (Vonnegut 11). Felix often boasts about this characteristic, but while it can be an advantage to have the curiosity of a child, it does not mean it is appropriate to have the same level of maturity of one. After his wife dies, Felix forces his daughter Angela to drop out of school so he has someone to take care of him. As well, he...
In Vonnegut’s science fiction and dystopian novel Cat’s Cradle, the main character, John, demonstrates his personal growth and from that, his enlightened attitude towards the unnecessary horrors that war creates. In the beginning of the novel, John sets out to discover and gather information on what people’s lives were like the day that the atomic bomb dropped. Along his path of discovery, he meets the Hoenikker family, of which Felix was the patriarch and the creator of the elusive, dangerous material ice-nine. John then gets sidetracked of his initial quest and becomes infatuated on his pursuit for more knowledge about ice-nine. From there, he stumbles across more of the Hoenikker children as well as the Bokonon people and their peculiar faith. Once John is on the island he learns of the disastrous potential that ice-nine has, and by the end of the novel, witnesses it’s power as it kills virtually the entire human race. At the very end of the novel, John recognizes what his quest for ultimate truth led him to (destruction of humanity) and furthermore sees the cruel, blind and horrible nature of war (ice-nine/weapons of mass destruction). Vonnegut’s next book, Slaughterhouse-Five, another science-fiction novel that was written just a few years after details the life of Billy Pilgrim, a goofy, awkward, and incompetent guy whose life never seems to turn out the way he anticipates. When Billy was a young man, against his wish, he was drafted to fight against the Germans in World War II. As most men do in war, Billy experiences horrific sights on and off the battlefield. As a result he greatly traumatized for the rest of his life because of it. Then, in h...
It all started with the “Hungarian conspiracy” it had everyone convinced that the creation of a nuclear bomb possible, but that the German government was already doing research in this field of study and on such a weapon. To the rest of the world, the thought of Adolf Hitler might be the first to gain control of a weapon this destructiveness would be terrifying to the United States. Right, then they decided that the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt must be warned about the dangers and that the United States must begin its research department.As the planned gave way, Einstein was to write a letter to President Franklin D. Roosevelt about the possibilities and dangers of the atomic weapons, and later was taken to the president.Einsteins appointment was easy to get in te late summer of 1939. Hitler had just invaded Poland .and the war had just begun in Europe.After speaking with the President, he gathered his cabinet. and wanted to speak with his chief aide, after talking with him a small committee was set up called ...
Cat’s Cradle consists of mishaps that contain an outcome of an increase in popularization of a religion or creating something quite deadly. In Vonnegut’s novel he relates science and religion more than is seen just at the surface. Dr. Felix Hoenikker invented the atomic bomb, an invention meant to destroy, but his process of inventing is one to wonder about. This novel displays the inventions as a mishap. Ice- nine was deadly, but an accident because Hoenikker was toying around with different chemicals. He did the same with games in his office while constructing the atomic bomb (e.g., cat’s cradle). Dr. Hoenikker played around with toys and wouldn’t build the atomic bomb. Newt says in his letter, “Father got so interested in turtles that he stopped working on the atom bomb…So one night they [People from the Manhattan Project] went into his laboratory and stole the turtles and the aquarium” (16). His distraction was taken away and made him focus on the only thing that was left, the atomic bomb. The destructive bomb was created by and magic is used to describe the science behind it and any other invention by Dr. Hoenikker. Magic is a word most scientists would not use because it implies illusion. Illusion may be the word Vonnegut is describing is science; “They looked upon him as a sort of magician who could make America invincible with a wave of
Early Soviet nuclear physics in the 1920s and 1930s enjoyed success in many fields. David Holloway states, “In spite of the difficulties it faced, Soviet nuclear physics reached a high standard in the 1930s.” 1 Physicists such as Abram Ioffe, who studied under Röntgen, Igor Kurchatov, Kirill Sinel’nikov, and others were prominent and capable scientists who advocated and build many of the institutions in the new Soviet Union to support scientific research. Ioffe’s Physicotechnical Institute was one of these institutes. The Soviets did not actually lack from talented and intelligent physicists in the early years of scientific research...
Kurt Vonnegut was born November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis Indiana. His parents were Kurt Vonnegut Sr. and Edith Leiber. He graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis where he was editor of the school newspaper. After graduation in 1940, he moved on to Cornell University in Ithaca, New York where he took classes for biochemistry. In 1942, he enlisted in the army as an Infantry Battalion Scout. Later he was trained by Carnegie Institute and University of Tennessee to become a mechanical engineer. In 1944, Kurt’s mother committed suicide on May 14. He returns home briefly, then was captured in the Battle of the Bulge. While working in a factory in Dresden, Germany, Vonnegut picked up his materials for Slaughterhouse Five. After this he married Jane Mary Cox on September 1, 1945. Working as a police reporter, he studied Anthropology at the University of Chicago, but his thesis was rejected. In 1947, his son Mark was born, later, in 1949 his daughter Edith. He then became a publicist for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, but in 1950 he quit GE, and moved to Cape Cod to write. He published Player Piano in 1952. His third child, Nanette was born in 1954. Between 1954 and 1956 he taught English at Hopefield school, worked for an ad agency, and opened the very first Saab dealership in the great United States. Next, Kurt was rocked with a number of close deaths. His father passed away in 1957 on October 1, his sister and his brother-in-law die in 1958. He then adopted his three oldest nieces and nephews. Kurt still found time to write and Cat’s Cradle was published in 1962. From 1965 to 1967, he took up a residency at University of Iowa Writer’s Workshop and published Pearls Before Swine. Vonnegut wanted a closer look in Dresden before he wrote the novel Slaughterhouse Five, to he went back to Dresden on a Guggenheim Fellowship. He finished the novel in 1969. His education was furthered after he taught creative writing at Harvard and received his master’s degree from University of Chicago for Cat’s Cradle.
Everyone has heard the expression "curiosity killed the cat." That is to say, the search for new wisdom can often have unpleasant consequences; a child curious about the kitchen stove is bound to get burned. This is exactly what Kurt Vonnegut demonstrates in Cat's Cradle with the example of ice-nine, which is developed by the fictional creator of the atom bomb, Felix Hoenikker. It is symbolic of the atom bomb in that it has the power to end human life. Hoenikker is obviously an exceedingly smart man; however, it can be inferred from his inventions that he does not always consider the negative consequences of his new discoveries. He is merely on a quest for further knowledge, not a quest to better our society. The game of cat's cradle, which Hoenikker was playing on the day of Hiroshima, can be understood to represent both the naîve, infantile nature of Hoenikker as well as the great destruction caused by his invention. Vonnegut counters the scientific aspects of the novel with the bizarre religion of Bokononism. Overall, Cat's Cradle is used by Vonnegut to point out the flaws in modern society. Through the analogous ice-nine, Vonnegut shows that humankind's search for knowledge is prone to end up in destruction.
The development of the atomic bomb and chemical warfare forever changed the way people saw the world. It was a landmark in time for which there was no turning back. The constant balancing of the nuclear super powers kept the whole of humankind on the brink of atomic Armageddon. Fear of nuclear winter and the uncertainty of radiation created its own form of a cultural epidemic in the United States. During these tense times in human history officials made controversial decisions such as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Dangerous biological experiments and bombs tests were carried out in the name of the greater good and national defense. Some historians and scientists argue that the decisions and acts carried out by the U.S. during World War II and the Cold War were unethical because of the direct damage they did. The United States' decisions were moral because it can be proven their actions were aimed at achieving a greater good and those that were put in potential danger volunteered and were informed of the risk.
“Early in 1939, The worlds scientific community discovered that German physicists had learned the secrets of splitting the uranium atom and word spread quickly and several countries began to duplicate the experiment.” Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt that Germany may have already built an atomic bomb. Roosevelt did not see an urgency for such a project, but agreed to proceed slowly. In 1941, British scientists pushed America to develop an atomic weapon. America’s effort was slow until 1942 when Colonel Leslie Groves took over. He quickly chose personnel, production sites and set schedules to invent the atomic
Contemporary Writers No Longer Feel Duty Bound To Follow Major Historical And Social Changes The world after 1930’s has witnessed a number of changes and upheavals. World’s rich history gives plethora of details on such changes due to a number of factors including World War, scientific break-through, invention of scads of unbelievable sophisticated machines, mass genocide through nuclear bombings and all that. In fact, the sky is the limit. Despite such innumerable changes that took place after 1930’s, a number of literary masterpieces and best-selling written material seem as if they have no concern with the changes occurred in such periods. The famous authors and writers who are behind such writings seem to be quite callous with the prevailing miseries all over the world. In fact, they are just confined into shells of their own ego. As our thesis statement, “Contemporary writers no longer feel duty bound to follow major historical and social changes”, this paper reviews Cat’s Cradle written by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s Cat's Cradle demonstrates the particular effectiveness of the genre as an instrument of social criticism. A close study of Kurt Vonnegut's fiction reveals his interest in the epistemological question of mankind's ability to distinguish between reality and illusion. In Cat's Cradle, Vonnegut's attempt to resolve this question is basically pragmatic and pluralistic. Vonnegut's novel, Cat's Cradle, is his most detailed treatment of the epistemological problem, and in it he once again appears to be presenting a pragmatic approach to a pluralistic universe. Its very title suggests the difficulty in distinguishing between reality and illusion. Since Cat's Cradle is narrated by John, Kurt Vonnegutist, deal...
The Allied firebombing of Dresden has been called the worst and most unnecessary air raid in military history. The German city was home to no military bases or stations, but on February 13, 1945, death rained down from the air on nearly 135,000 people, most of them civilians, compared to the 74,000 deaths caused by the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Novels 270). Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. was a Allied prisoner of war during this raid, hidden underground in an abandoned slaughterhouse. After surviving the war, Vonnegut came home to the United States to become an author. Though he had published several books before Slaughterhouse Five, this book became his most famous and best-selling book. Slaughterhouse Five was Vonnegut's breakthrough work because he finally addressed the most distressing and pivotal point in his life, the Dresden firebombing (Novels 270).
Ever wonder how the world would be today only if our great researchers implemented a different attitude towards their experiments? It is possible that the results would remain same. However, some argue that the consequences may be altered. Nonetheless, this does not make the earlier learned knowledge valued less or false, just supplementary. Abraham Maslow’s theory challenges nearly all ways of knowing, suggesting that if we limit our thinking, the outcomes remain homogenous, therefore, limiting the amount of knowledge we acquire. Dilemmas are mentioned in order to repudiate from the opinions that are profoundly accepted in the society. If Newton had eaten that apple, instead of using it as a tool to apply the theory of attraction, he may not have exposed gravity. Because he had more tools than a mere hammer and he was sagacious enough to expand his philosophy beyond hunger, he made such an innovation. It is widely claimed that inventions are accidental. In fact, all the chemical elements in the famous periodic table are a result of different tactics towards scientist’s research. As ToK teaches us that there is no possible end to a situation for it is influenced by the perceptive skills of the arguers. There is never a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or the ‘ultimate answer’ in the conflict, but the eminence of rationalization is what poises the deliberation. This suggestion explains that there is always that one more way to approach the conclusion. Thus, pursuit of knowledge habitually requires dissimilar ways of knowing for it lengthens the verdict.
As the introduction prepared us for this, we can discern three different phases in the history of institutional development of science. If we put them in an order according to chronological interest that each phase has, we could say that the first one is the pre-science phase, the second is the science for gentlemen and the third is the phase of professional science. (Dr. Nedeva Maria, Lecture “The story of science”, 2006)