On Oppenheimer, Bhagwat Gita and the Faustian bargain

AtomicIdeas from American Prometheus, the book behind the movie

"The thing had to be done, Circumstances are heavy with misgiving." (Oppenheimer in a letter to his friend, after the Hiroshima bombing)

Oppenheimer is among the most anticipated movie of the year and here is a small background to it: Christopher Nolan read the book ‘American Prometheus’ (first published in 2005/Pulitzer prize winner) in 2021 and immediately decided to work on the movie.

American Prometheus is a rich evocation of America at midcentury, a new and compelling portrait of a brilliant, ambitious, complex and flawed man profoundly connected to its major events–the Depression, World War II and the Cold War. It is at once biography and history, and essential to our understanding of our recent past–and of our choices for the future - notes from the author.

I have been reading the book - primarily from a place of curiosity as to the dilemma Oppenheimer must have gone through on mixing science with politics, on seeing the devastation carried out during Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and re-evaluating his life choices (yet to see the movie, hopefully early next week).

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Sharing AtomicIdeas from the book American Prometheus, but first a quick history (will help when you are watching the movie)

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a complex and controversial figure. He was a brilliant scientist who made significant contributions to the development of nuclear weapons. He was also a man of conscience who wrestled with the moral implications of his work. Oppenheimer's legacy is still debated today, but there is no doubt that he was one of the most important scientists of the 20th century

The Faustian Bargain

The Faustian bargain is a metaphor for a deal with the devil in which someone trades their soul for something they desire. The development of nuclear weapons can be seen as a Faustian bargain because it gave humanity the power to destroy itself.

Oppenheimer was aware of the risks involved in developing nuclear weapons, but he believed that the benefits outweighed the risks.

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The Dual Nature of Knowledge