Oppenheimer: The Future of Man
Note on the text: I used American Prometheus: The triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin as published in 2006 by Vintage Books
What an interesting person "The father of the atomic bomb" J Robert Oppenheimer was. He was multifaceted individual who was uniquely qualified- as a scientist and a man- to lead the world into the atomic age. One of the many lessons that I learned from his life is just how important it is for us to create a nurturing environment where we can live in peace and harmony if we want to bring the best out of ourselves as humans in the atomic age.
We see the seeds of this philosophy being planted in the very beginning of Robert's life. His parents, Julius and Ella, loved him and his younger brother Frank, a renowned physicist in his own right, as well as each other, a lot and they created a loving and nurturing home where Robert and Frank could grow and develop into the exceptional young men that they eventually became. A letter which Ella wrote to Julius just before they got married says it all: "I do so want you to be able to enjoy life in its best and fullest sense, and will you help me to take care of you? To take care of someone whom one really loves has an indescribable sweetness" (11). To her and Julius it was important that their boys lived full lives in the best sense of the world and they did their best to create a loving environment where Robert and Frank would feel encouraged to try things, explore who they were as people, and become the best versions of themselves.
To that end, they had no qualms about supporting their boys and encouraging them to pursue whatever their interests were. They would give their boys "every opportunity to develop along the lines of [their] own inclinations and at [their] own rate of speed" (15). Robert later said that he thought his father was one of the best and most tolerant people he had ever met, and that "his idea of what to do for people was to let them find out what they wanted" from life (15). When Frank became interested in Chaucer, his parents got him a 1721 edition of Chaucer's works, and later when he expressed interest in playing the flute the hired one of America's leading flutist, George Barer, to tutor him. Similarly, when Robert was 12 he started developing an interest in geology and would write to local geologists about the rocks he had found. This lead to a really funny moment which shows just how fiercely his parents loved him and how much they stood by him. Unaware of how old he actually was, the local geology club, which was made of experts in the field, invited the 12 year old to present a reports on some local rock formations which he had been studying. Instead of informing the club of its mistake, Julius
encouraged his son to accept the honor [and] on the designated evening Robert showed up at the club with his parents who proudly introduced him as 'J Robert Oppenheimer'. . . . [Although he felt] shy and awkward [at first], Robert nevertheless read his prepared remarks and was given a hearty round of applause. Julius had no qualms about encouraging his son in this adult pursuit (15).
The result of being raised in such a loving and nurturing environment is that Robert got to explore who he was and become the best version of himself. This allowed him on the one hand to become uniquely great in his field in a way that he couldn't have otherwise, and it also gave him a tougher skin when it came to dealing with the world. People who are confident in themselves tend to care less about what others think of them. It gave him a strength to face the world that he would not have otherwise had. So while on the outside the shy, weird, and slightly sickly looking Robert might have brittle, he actually had a strong inner toughness and a "stoic personality built of stubborn pride and determination, a characteristic that would reappear throughout his life" (21). The only way he could have gotten that type of resilience was by growing up in a nurturing environment where he was allowed to become his best self.
You see similar instincts at play when he started teaching graduate students physics at Berkeley. Because although he could be harsh at times he was much more interested in creating a nurturing environment where his students could become the best versions of themselves. He engendered a spirit of collaboration instead of intense competition where students felt emboldened to go to him, and each other, for help, and where people were encouraged to explore, and develop, their own talents and become the best versions of themselves. Just look at the story that one of his graduate students, Joseph Weinberg, tells about how he was able to uniquely nurture the students around him to become their best selves. One day, while in Oppenheimer's office Joseph was
rummaging through papers stacked on the trestle table in the center of the room. Picking out one paper, he began reading the first paragraph, oblivious to Oppie's irritated look. 'This is an excellent proposal' Weinberg exclaimed, 'I'd sure as hell like to work on it.' To his surprise Oppenheimer replied curtly 'Put that down where you found it.' When Weinberg asked what he had done wrong, Oppenheimer said 'That was not for you to find'. A few weeks later, Weinberg heard that another student who was struggling to find a thesis topic had begun work on the proposal that he had read that day. 'The student was a kind and decent man', Weinberg recalled. 'But unlike a few of us who enjoyed the kind of challenge that Oppenheimer threw out like sparks, he was often baffled, and nonplused, and not at all at ease. Nobody had the courage to tell him 'Look, you're out of your depth here.' Weinberg now realized that Oppie had planted this thesis problem for this very student. It was a distinctly easy problem. 'But it was perfect for him', Weinberg said, 'and it got him his PhD'. . . . Weinberg insisted years later [that] Oppie had nurtured this student as a father would have treated a baby learning to walk. 'He waited for him to discover the proposal accidentally on his own terms, to pick it up, [] to express his own interest in it, to find his way to it. . . . He needed special treatment and, by God, Oppie was going to give it to him. It showed a great deal of love, sympathy, and understanding.' The student in question, Weinberg reported, went on to do great work as an applied physicist (170-171).
It was this same attitude that made him an effective leader of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico. He was an expert at creating a nourishing environment where everyone, from the leading scientist down to the lowest custodian, could do their best work and actualize their potential. He proved to be not only a great scientist, but a great motivator and leader. A lot of the problems that he dealt with on the Project were more personal than they were scientific. So whether it was at home, at school, or at the Manhattan Project, Oppenheimer understood the importance of creating a safe, loving, nurturing environment where people could become their best selves.
Now before going into how this same philosophy showed up in Oppenheimer's life after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it is important to take a moment to look at what Oppenheimer's idea of community was and how it developed over time.
When he was in his early twenties, he read a line from Marcel Proust that stuck with him for the rest of his life: "Indifference to the pain one causes is the [most] terrible and permanent form of cruelty" (585). He was always aware of the obligation he had to make the world a better place, in whatever way he could.
His social conscious was something that was fostered in him as a young man. He went to school at the Ethical Cultural Fieldstone School from the ages of 7 till he graduated high school in 1921 at the age of 17. At the Ethical Cultural school he was surrounded by
men and women who thought of themselves as catalysts for a better world. In the years between the turn of the century and World War I, Ethical Cultural members served as agents of change on such politically charged issues of race relations, labor rights, civil liberties, and environmentalism. . . . Members [of the school community] were pragmatic radicals committed to playing an active role to bringing about social change. They believed that a better world required hard work, persistence, and political organization. In 1921, the year Robert graduated from the Ethical Culture high school, [its founder Felix] Adler extorted his students to develop their 'ethical imagination' to 'see things not as they are but as they might be'" (19).
In the early part of the 20th century members of the school community went on to do things like found the NAACP and the National Civil Liberties Union (the forerunner to the ACLU) and conduct labor strikes. So Robert grew up around people that were very socially conscious. These values only really started to show themselves in the 1930s when he became more politically active. He was never interested in politics per say, but in the ways in which he could help improve people's lives:
Beginning in 1936. . . my interests began to change. . . . I had a continuing, smoldering fury about the treatment of Jews in Germany. . . . I saw what the Depression was doing to my students. Often they could get no jobs or jobs which were wholly inadequate and through them I began to understand how deeply political and economic events could affect other people's lives. I began to feel the need to participate in the life of the community (114).
It was at this point became "devoted to working for social and economic justice in America" and abroad (152). It is at this point that we see his desire to create a nurturing environment where people can thrive reach the worldwide stage.
Fast forward to 1945. The bomb has exploded. In the early morning of July 16th, Oppenheimer becomes "death, destroyer of world" and with that he has to take on the responsibility of how to properly introduce the world to the power of the atomic bomb (309). It was his responsibility to help build a society of human beings that could not only survive but thrive in the atomic world.
Although he was aware of how powerful the atomic bomb could be, seeing the devastation that his creation caused for the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki really inspired him to take action. His feelings towards the bomb were initially very complex. He was never fully behind the idea of developing an atomic bomb, but he believed that it was his duty to do so before Hitler did. He thought that giving a genocidal maniac like Hitler such a powerful weapon would be the worst of all possible outcomes. But after Hiroshima he wasn't sure anymore: "We have made a thing, a most terrible weapon. . . a thin that by all standards of the world we grew up in is an evil thing" (323). More than that, he saw the explosions at Hiroshima and Nagasaki as mankind's final warning: that we must come together in a spirit of brotherhood and give up all our petty differences and hatreds or else we will die: "The people of this world must unite or they will perish. This war that has ravaged so much of the earth has written these words. The atomic bombs has spelled them out for all men to understand" (329). If humans are to reach their potential, then they have to create the loving and nurturing environment that they need now for such a change to take place.
Just like he did with his students, and like his parents did with him before, he believed he needed to help create a loving environment where humanity as a whole could evolve and become the best version of itself. HIs particular idea was to establish what he called "The Atomic Development Commission" which would be an international coalition dedicated to making sure that no nation would ever use atomic energy to build another bomb. It would ensure that atomic power would only be used to positive things that could be used in peacetimes. The key here, obviously, is that every nation involved in the Commission had to collaborate with each other. There could be no secrets, no underhanded dealings, everyone had to deal with each other in open and honest ways. He would spend the rest of his life trying to convince the world that this was the only way to actually move forward.
And so we find ourselves back to the place we started. It started with Ella and Julius creating a safe space where their kids could grow and flourish, continued into Robert's professional life where he attempted to create a nourishing environment where his students and co workers could become their best selves, and ended here- with Robert trying to create a safe and loving world where mankind could evolve into its best self. Love, in short is the answer. We need learn how to love each other and live with each other or else we are doomed. We'll see what happens next.
