Edward Teller - Reasons for working on the hydrogen bomb while others wouldn't (101/147)

[@TheConnor12500]

Now that the Cold War has been and gone with no fire, I think it’s fair to say he was right. The nuclear balance of power between the Soviets and the Americans was necessary to prevent either side actually using them. Eventually the Americans would’ve unquestionably developed the hydrogen bomb, but the fact that it was ultimately in lockstep with the Soviets was a good thing, since it prevented use.

[@richinoable]

Definitely provided a foundation for the following 80-90 years of relative stability and social progress in the united states. I bet he'd recoginze the rise of the MAGA party as an eerie parallel with his experience in Berlin when hittler climbed the ranks. H bombs are a little too much to hold that idiocy back...we have to investigate other avenues

[@2param]

I don't know why but his speech feels like an asmr

[@NoahSpurrier]

He’s got a point. At least four nations independently developed hydrogen bomb technology after the U.S.

[@meofamily4]

By his own account, in the previous two segments, Ernest O. Lawrence was thoroughly convinced about the urgent necessity of a hydrogen bomb. Lawrence was, to be clear, even more influential than Teller among scientific and political circles -- he was a Nobel Prize winner, and the first in physics the U.S. had ever had. Pathbreaking advances in nuclear physics were coming out of Lawrence's Berkeley lab in these days on a regular basis. Teller was indubitably the most influential proponent of the development of hydrogen weaponry, but he was not the only one.

[@Native_love]

He's the man! Plain and simple. If he didn't speak up, we'd all be speaking Russian now.

[@richinoable]

LIke don and don jr

[@groumeliotis1]

It's easy for some to say that he was evil for working on the hydrogen bomb. But imagine if the Soviet Union had gotten ahead in the race to develop a hydrogen bomb. It likely would have been game over for anything resembling democracy. "I had to work on it, and I'm glad I did."

[@TheMexlalo]

The DEMOCRACY / FREEDOM JUSTIFICATION. Invading country's because of White supremacy and American Empire PROPAGANDA. U.S Democracy should be called U.S hypocrisy !!! 1.)INVASION and EXPLOITATION OF RESOURCES from all over the world Just so Capitalism could survive. 2.)Rape, Slavery , theft and torture Of BLACK AFRICAN'S. 3.) Genocide, Child kidnapping , indoctrination, broken treaties causing theft of a massive continent. Indigenous northern Americans are almost impossible to be found. 4.) INVASION of the middle East Over and over again. I bet Little Tim Jr Will be fighting one day in the name of DEMOCRACY LOL. Tell the next generation to practice HIDE IN SEAK. Because those Weapons of Mass Destruction just can't be found. The Irony is that the modern Day terrorist with W.M.D 💣💥 are the so called Freedom fighters. There is more bombings done by THE U.S THAN ALL Suicide bombings put together in history.

[@alvin8391]

The USA no longer comes close to being a democracy. Its brief assimilation to one ended once the military-industrial complex began. Before that term was coined by Eisenhower, Truman recognized the grave mistake that was made in allowing the CIA to have an operational division in addition to its intelligence gathering function. Truman, no political genius, could see that the CIA was beyond constitutional control.

[@richinoable]

Listening to this man talk about his opinions of communism was a revelation for me. He is too expansive a human being to be understood by anything but an approximation, a simplification. His explanations for his opinions and actions are concise and succinct. Hard to argue against anything he says, but he'd be the first to change his mind if needed...

[@alvin8391]

Teller concludes that Heisenberg never "seriously tried to work on" the development of an atomic (fission) bomb, because Heisenberg made the same mistake that he (Teller) had made previously. So may we not conclude that Teller, who seriously worked later on the hydrogen bomb (thermo-nuclear) was not serious in his own work on the fission bomb? That is hard to believe. The key to understanding such matters is that when scientists become involved with government, nothing they say can be relied upon as true. Scientists who involve themselves in political matters most often regret it. The exception might have been Fritz Haber, but I don't think he ever expressed his regret. Einstein, who knew Haber, might have learned from Haber not to involve himself in politics, but he did not. He wrote the letter to FDR that started the Manhattan Project. The scientists who delivered the letter later tried to oppose the bomb's use on Japan, but they were igorned by a bureaucrat, the US Sec'y of State.

[@fathare2085]

Such is an obvious flaw in the logic that a hydrogen bomb (orders of magnitude more powerful than the atomic bomb) is an advantage over the atomic bomb. The US and the USSR each already have enough atomic bombs to destroy the world several times over. A more powerful bomb would not give either nation advantage over the other that didn't have it. It's hysteria over logic. Teller had always advocated for the "super " even before the creation of the atomic bomb. He was always a hawk and an unabashed promoter of nuclear weapons/power, even advocating use of nuclear explosives for mining industry! Although he was a tireless advocate of the "super", it was the mathematician Stanislaw Ulam who provided the difficult technical breakthrough; for the Soviets, the scientist (and later dissident) Andrei Sakharov thought up the breakthrough.

[@norberthiz9318]

with your logic it doesn't even matter that he made the hydrogen bomb. The hate Teller gets is so insanely unjustified its crazy. People belived he made something that can destroy the world, but the soviets did independantly make a h-bomb, so the us would have had to build a h-bomb even if Teller doesn't push for it. You say it doesn't make a difference because atomic bombs can already destroy the world. But with that logic Teller's bomb doesn't make any difference and actually it was Oppenheimer(and all the other scientist including Teller) the one who "doomed" the world and he should get the hate not Teller.

[@fathare2085]

@@norberthiz9318 You lost me. The logic is: why design and build a conceptually new bomb that is orders of magnitude more powerful when what you have is already much much more than adequate. It's a ridiculous pissing contest. The hatred for Teller comes from more than his being in the camp of the nuclear military industrial complex. He willingly served as the (the only one) peer scientist to express doubt on Oppenheimer's character and thus doom Oppenheimer. This single act of Teller is considered an unforgivable sin and led to his ostracisation by the scientific community. Like the other sins/betrayals in the 1950's McCarthyist red scare the ill feelings continue for decades. I worked once with a consultant who was born in the 1950s and who instigated a screaming match with Teller. ☹

[@norberthiz9318]

@@fathare2085 if it is totally useless, why did so many countries make it independantly? And why did the arms race countinue until the ussr's collapse? Why did nobody tell the 2 superpowers that what they are doing for decades is useless, because a random youtube commenter said so? It is pretty funny that you tell me he is only hated for the oppenheimer trial, when 2 comments below yours someone says he has blood on his hands because he created the h-bomb. He is most defenietly hated for the hydrogen bomb as well, which is ridicoulos. And the outrage about his testimony is greatly exagareted, you really think that a single scientist saying he doesn't agree and understand oppenheimers decisions doomed him? It is most defeneitly not an "unforgivable sin". Oppenheimers communist past and the concious decision to protect a spy, who btw served an evil empire that enslaved and oppresed Teller's nation, was much more important then Teller's testimony. I'm not saying what he did was justified and it is defenietly a betrayal to oppenheimer. But yall make it out like he said oppenheimer is a soviet spy, and stalins bestest buddy and the satan himself. Also it is hard to be so critical of McCartysm when the most secret american project was immideatly leaked to the ussr, and all throughout the cold war soviet inteligence was in pretty much everywhere in america. It was at least understandable. And not all of the scientific community condemned, none of his fellow hungarian scientists abandoned him.

[@doyouwanttogivemelekiss3097]

@@fathare2085 "much more than adequate" in what sense? Based on what strategy? Counterforce or countervalue? What if the a-bomb is only "adequate" for one strategy, but the h-bomb is "adequate" for the other? How will your block do if it can only do one strategy, but the opposing block can do both? What if size constraints change because delivery methods change as well? What if size constraints change yet again because of missile defenses? Etc. Etc. It's ok to not like Teller for smearing Oppenheimer. But when it comes to serious strategic assessments, our thoughts (and that includes nobel laureates etc.) should be deeper than "bombs are bad". Yes, they are bad - but that statement doesn't make them go away...

[@TheMexlalo]

Deep inside he knows he sold his Soul. Now with almost no more life left in him A depleated man lies to himself justifying his Sins. Came to this world as a innocent soul And left it with blood on his hands. If he was born in Nazi Germany under some circumstances the probability of him justifying murder and saying that he only attested jews but didn't Gas them to Death Would of been probable. This man is a example of what is the difference between Smart vs Wise!! "" It's better to stay back and observe don't fall to the illusion of Human superiority. Because falling to the illusion of this Life can easily lead you to become Master of justified Stupidity.""

[@johnjay6370]

5 months old post, But I will comment..... This man is a legend and can I am sure rest in peace... Nothing he worked on was very hard to figure out, he even said that.... He was just the first to figure it out, if it was not him, it would have been someone else... You cannot put the genie back in the bottle. We have to learn to live with our ability to create even if it can destroy us, if we can't learn that lesson we do not deserve to survive as a species...In fact we are made in God's image and that is a prime example of being made in his image! Also, by the time the H-Bomb was made we already had fission bombs that were 25x stronger than what was used in ww2.

[@Graun]

You're an idiot! Russia developed independently the HBomb. If he did not push the HBomb development Russia would certainly get the edge in the nuclear arms race!

[@gabrielkrivian8453]

Then why did we need to make the H bomb? When we already had enough nukes to destroy the entire world. Such a stupid mentality that if we didn’t make one the soviets would use one against us. WE STARTED THE ARMS RACE.

[@POVShotgun]

Who’s blood tho lmao no one ever used the bomb in combat

[@OptimusPrime-vg2ti]

I find the public demonization of this man deliciously ironic...which has now become even more amplified by Nolan's recent movie. How ironic that the same people who revere Oppenheimer cannot control their hate for Mr. Teller, when the justifications for the two bombs were precisely the same...deterrence and not allowing your enemies to achieve the bomb before you, in the fission bomb's case it was the Nazis, and in the fusion case the Soviets. History has proved Teller right, that mutually assured destruction (MAD) was the only way to achieve peace, and his critics have been revealed as weak-minded virtue-signaling charlatans who failed to understand the game-theoretic implications of the BOMB. But perhaps most ironic of all, notwithstanding everything above, is the claim that Mr. Teller has blood on his hands, when the only bombs that have been dropped on actual human beings are the ones that Oppenheimer was most directly responsible for. Twice.