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Oppenheimer's "Destroyer of Worlds" speech

Mister Apoc

Demigod of Troll Threads
is so chilling , watching this again you can see how dark and empty his eyes, one of the most intense things i have ever listened to you youtube
 
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Darias

Member
Thank you for posting this. I've known the ending, but never actually listened to the whole thing. Truly sobering.

Reminds me of Nic Cage saying "It's one of those things mankind wishes it could uninvent" from The Rock.
 

Arkhan

Grand Vizier of Khemri
Staff Member
I have read that famous quote he uses - and is often attributed to him - from the Bhagavad Gita actually references time, not death in its translation. Useless information maybe, but interesting none the less.
 
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Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I remember Linkin Park sampled this for their A Thousand Suns album.

According to Wikipedia, he was only 62 when he passed away.
 

Ahiru77

Member
I'd been more disturbed had he not looked empty and dark. He created the atomic bomb for goodness sake.

Linkin Park made good use of this with their material. It fits and they made it work well in their Madison Square garden show.
 

grumpyGamer

Member
Nobody can even imagine what he felt at the time, you can see in his eyes that it destroyed him on the inside, I truly believe he himself could not have imagined the outcome
 
If you can, I'd recommend reading 'The Physicists' which is a brilliant play by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The brilliant scientist, Möbius, discovers the so-called world formula and goes into hiding in a sanatorium for the mentally ill so that his research results do not get into wrong hands. Two secret agents infiltrate the sanatorium in order to win Möbius over. Each agent representing a world power during the time the play was written. On the one side you have American agent, called 'Newton', representing capitalism and the free market and on the other side the Russian agent, 'Einstein', who is working for the communist party.

The Book/play goes into great detail about how the pursuit of knowledge is often corrupted by ideology and political power-play. In a way, it is not knowledge that is dangerous, but how society deals with technological progress and to what extent scientists are responsible for the outcomes of their research.

The pursuit of knowledge is far from an easy task but despite its upsets, we should strive ever forward. If ever we want to find our true nature as human beings, we should not shy away from these obstacles. Whether we'll be able to deal with the consequences of our ever growing knowledge in a responsible manner or not, will ultimately decide if we as human beings are worthy or not.
 

android

Theoretical Magician
I would be too...he created a weapon that has killed 129,000 people and has the potential to end life on our planet. I mean someone else would have eventually but I couldn't live with that.
 

John Day

Member
I would not want to be responsible for giving humanity the ability to destroy itself. Fuck, man.

His face, man. His dead eyes. I just think about it, put myself in his shoes... weather I think it was necesary at current times, or not, god, it’s such a heavy burden to bear.
 

Arkhan

Grand Vizier of Khemri
Staff Member
Serious question from a non native English speaker: why "I am become Death" and not "I have become Death"?

It is a poor translation from an ancient Sanskrit text. It supposedly reads:

Time I am, destroyer of worlds, and I have come to engage all people

Which I find much more interesting than its more commonly read translation. Time - regardless of your faith and beliefs - is indeed the destroyer of worlds. Those of faith would not see death as such in my personal experience.
 

Darias

Member
Whether or not the translation is correct, it's just a fancy way of saying the same thing.

Not having ever read into the history of the quote itself, I always found the choice of words to be very interesting.

Insane Metal - your question is fair - technically it should be "I have become..." however, I always felt that "I am become..." was intentional, and suggested a certain sensation of acceptance on behalf of the speaker.

For instance: rather than "I recognize that I have turned into..., " instead "I purely am... " I always felt like that was the scariest part of the quote.
 
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Mutually assured destruction is the only security measure world powers seem to see as viable defense, which potentially leaves us in a standoff that could end the world.
The military industrial complex we were warned about in 61 is as powerful and well funded as ever.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Well, if he did not make nuclear weapons someone else would of.
Also even without nukes if there was another WW, it may be just as bad with chemical and bio weapons.
 
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