What an honor to interview such a legendary author and historian, and to hear first hand the stories from one of the most destructive and awesome times in human history. Please share if you enjoyed!
The United States is extraordinarily proud. So forget that the Soviet Union was 2.5x bigger than the USA Of course the Soviet Union had uranium somewhere. Blockade the Soviet Union from world uranium Supply 😂
Clear, concise and an absolute wealth of knowledge. Mr Rhodes is wonderful to listen to. A simple question gives a multifaceted and eloquent answer. Riveting.
One of the most extraordinary interviews I've ever heard. I've read a good deal about the history of creation of the atomic bomb but none of the literature paints the picture so vividly and connects the events so holistically as Richard Rhodes.
"What fools we've all been" is a common refrain once an advance has been made. "I am an idiot" is another common refrain. "How could this have been otherwise?” We forget that paradigm shifts are always unpredictable.
51:42 @@DwarkeshPatelYou are seriously asking this stupid question . why the Soviet Union had so many good scientists.The Soviet Union was the first country to guarantee free education up to college PhD .In 1990 60% of the population graduated from college. Compared to 30% in the United States, and Soviet Union had a larger population than the United States.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Dude wake up... This happened in the 1940's and went on into the Cold War. The Russians stole the plans for the Fat Man from spies in America. Then German scientists and engineers that they captured at the end of the war designed the equipment and processes they used to do things like extract uranium and plutonium... All the early work, all the materials engineering, was done by captured Germans. Zippe-type centrifuge for instance.
I had both books and loaned them to someone, and I can't recall who it was. I have been beating myself up over this for a few years. Now I take a picture of them holding the book. I will let them borrow.
@@joelpiva1541I would say he has an anti-violence narrative. And, that he believes there are no essential or basic differences that make any race or nationality superior to any other. It's more or less his basic premise that tribalism and nationalism and racism and intolerance cause people to do evil. It might be that is how you define socialism. The belief that competition easily gets out of hand and causes irrational behaviors and decisions.
Dwarkesh, i've watched a few of your interviews now and, I must say, you are the best interviewer I've come across. No hyperbole. Every interview has educated well constructed questions. You challenge assertions without getting contentious. Keep it up man.
Incredible pleasure. His book on the making of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki weapon is permanently housed in my bathroom for the last 15 years, for constant ruminations. Congratulations to Patel for bringing into discussion the AI bit. Absolutely wonderful stretch.
Gentlemen thank you both for this outstanding interview. Richard I can't tell you how much I love to listen to you talk about the history of the making of the atomic bomb. I have read both of your excellent books about the fission and fusion weapons developments.
When I listened to your interview with Ilya Sutskever, I immediately subscribed and turned on all possible notifications. Well they just worked and I just watched. Wow, I have witnessed concise and intelligent before, I prize it, and with this interview you've joined my top 10 (he said modestly). And I know, I know; some people would say that interviewing Richard Rhodes would make anybody look good. But no, I've seen two, otherwise intelligent people, screw it up. You did the opposite. The chemistry of your interaction, just like with Sutskever, added enjoyment to knowledge. I think the quality of your questions and your obvious sincerity in wanting to know the answers brought out the best in both of them. And considering the level these two are capable of, I found these interviews nothing short of thrilling. Kudos, dude; my notifications remain on.
2 and half hour interview and I loved all of it. Mr. Rhodes is always amazing. Thank you for letting him speak and share is thoughts on this very important topic. Great work.
Unless they speak a mile a minute and can’t spit out a proper question like here! Thank God the guest speaks most of the time…annoying as shit with this dwar guy
Yes! An interviewer's ability to ask just the right question so that the interviewee is hooked in by their own interest and then given the space to lose themselves in their passion on the topic. It makes for such engaging listening. It's always nice, too, when somebody is able to pull answers out of somebody from questions that they'd never before thought to ask or ponder on themselves. There's nothing worse than being late to interviewing somebody and being unable to get any fresh or unique information out of your time with them.
One of the best books I have ever read...read several times, in fact. It's the best of the purely non-technical based accounts of developing atomic weapons.
Best book I have ever read on this topic - he recounts almost all of the steps and contributions of the various scientists from around the time they proved that the atom and atomic nucleus are composed of multiple pieces that could potentially be broken up and release tremendous amounts of energy. Highly recommend!
That was thoroughly engaging and insightful, thank you. My existential dread at the state of global society and affairs was momentarily set aside in reverence to the awesome perspective provided here on historical existential crises in a not-so-long-past nacsent version of global society... where things didn't all collapse, though it came close.
I think an interview with Ben Goertzel would be fascinating. His work on Artificial General Intelligence and the development of sophisticated AI systems like Sophia the robot could provide a lot of insight into the current state and future of AI. Ben is one of the most prominent thought leaders in this space so a discussion with him on your podcast would likely be very illuminating for your audience.
34:31 "That's not the heat that's the light..." Correct - there is actually no such thing as "radiant heat". What you have from the bomb is UV, visible light and infrared (plus some microwave and radio). Infrared light is simply visible light that is not visible because our eyes can't react to it. You don't get heat until these components are absorbed by something and the light energy is converted to heat. If you stand outside on a bright sunny summer day, about half of the heat you feel is your body absorbing infrared, and another 45% is it absorbing the visible light, and the rest absorbing UV. The heat is in you, not in the light itself. 42:24 "A nuclear reactor is very quiet; it just sits there with neutrons running around." Well, all except for those high volume pumps used to circulate the coolant. I completely agree with Richard that the land based bombs were not and are not needed. 1:17:34 "We have a system in place..." to detect treaty cheating. Yes we do; it's not within the IAEA, but rather it is part of the Comprehensivee Test Ban Treaty, a UN organization called the CTBTO. (ctbto.org). It has acoustic and seismic listening posts all over the planet with anytime-inspection rights in all signatory countries. Of course, most nation are signed up, except the UDA. The US signed the treaty but it has never ratified it by the Senate as required by the Constittion.
Israel. Which threatens other countries weekly with their nukes, accuses others of having them, yet itself refuses to sign on to the NNPT. Israel… which stole its highly-enriched, weapons grade uranium from the NUMEC plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania. No country built on terrorism, massacres and racial & religious supremacism should be allowed to have nukes and threaten others with them.
1. In EM the weapon detonation produces gamma and x-ray, which in turn, as it interacts w surrounding air, immediately produces more x-ray and across the band other EM, UV, visible light and IR.
Interesting comment about the spherical secondary on an H Bomb. I first learnt about it on a BBC program about the British H Bomb program where it was described by one of the British guys who worked on it. It kind of backed up comments made by Mark Urban in a 1995 program that the British had come up with a design for a very efficient H Bomb, but had a lot of problems engineering it into a practical weapon. Thus part of the US/UK joint nuclear program which was restarted in 1958 saw the US give the UK the designs for operational H Bombs to allow the UK to get an H Bomb into service in large numbers ASAP, while the US perfected the UK design for use by both nations.
Какое удовольствие, слушать умного человека, старшие поколения, всё таки эти люди имели более широкие взгляды на мир. И более глубокие понимание жизни, и политики и тем более культуры.
Such a great interview! My god, the grandpa is brilliant, and nice, I hope to have 10% of his mental abilities if I live to his age! I wish this interview was more popular so we’d get more like this in the future, not only interviews with Yudkowskys and Andreessens etc (which were great too but who are everywhere now). Thank you Dwarkesh, love your interviews, respect from Russia! ✊🏻
I read his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb with intent to learn about the science. I was not expecting to learn about the political and socio-economic forces that sculpted the environment in Europe that put the scientists and engineers where they were to collaborate in the effort. It was a difficult read, but well worth the effort. 20 two hour movies could not cover the book's content.
Thank you so kindly for explaining everything I have known since my family was very integral and the UC LAWRENCE Livermore radiation lab and yes, I live with those families of the paperclips
Lisa Mitner was probably the candidate to the Nobel Prize in Physics to be nominated to be a real cipient fo the prize the highest number of times, but she has been never awarded it.
I read the same story about Beria in a Russian source. A lot of their rocket and nuclear scientists wrote fascinating tell-all articles and books in the '90s. I didn't realize that RDS-2 and RDS-3 were their own Russian designs, but if you look up the stats you see they were twice the yield of RDS-1.
Between this episode and the one with Sarah Paine, this podcast is easily as good as the best episodes done by Lex Fridman. Please keep up thr excellent work.
I really enjoy Mr Rhodes books, especially Dark Sun (if "enjoy" is the right word to use). I would've loved an addendum about the Castle test series as that history is also fascinating. Great interview. Thanks for sharing.
I think the question of if we would have built a nuclear bomb if there wasn’t WWII needs an additional condition in order for it to be a meaningful question. If no War and if no Adolf, then would there be nuclear bombs? While the war was the accelerate to getting one built in 1945, Adolf was another push. Maybe it wouldn’t have been 1945 and it would have been 1950 or 1963, but with Adolf around many countries would have been pushing to get it first
The technology was there. Even without a war going on it would have eventually been used to make a bomb. Most likely later and at a larger scale though. I'm glad it happened when it did. Any nuclear weapons advancements during peacetime would have either led to more nuclear explosives used in a war or time for warning and diplomacy. It just depends on whether the financier is developing a weapon for war or for research purposes
@@caseymurray7722 I agree. Nuclear bombs being developed in peacetime would have made it so much more likely that the first strike in the next war would have been a nuclear strike. Peacetime would have all but guaranteed that more than one country would have had access to the weapons upon the start of whatever war that would have been. It could have made for instant nuclear war, especially considering the fact that nobody would have actually yet seen the extent of the damage and human suffering they can cause. We may very well have gone sleepwalking into Armageddon without fully understanding the scope of what we were doing.
There's also added to our country's middle-class who produced these weapons not only the weapons but delivery systems electrical hardware communication devices the whole kit and caboodle and that's why we had such a great country for so long
To be fair about Vietnam, that’s as much of a loss as the Afghan pullout was poorly done. Like yes. Trump screwed the Afghan government and facilitated a near instantaneous Taliban takeover. Absolutely. And we moved over 100,000 people over 3,000 miles in 1 week. Depending on when exactly you want to say America made the decision to pull out, North Vietnam ranged from being a country without borders to a bunch of tiny plots.
Just found this channel today and this was an amazing interview. Argued the point of using the bombs and he said the Japanese would have surrendered since the soviets were coming. I argued without them millions of Japanese and Americans would have died before the surrender just going off the casualties we suffered taking small islands without urban centers.
I heard once, quite awhile ago...there was not a word in Japanese equivalent 2 a translation of 'surrender', therefore when face-2-face w/da enemy...they refuse or rather do an honorable eating their sword
If you've ever been at an airshow where they do the fake bombing and they blast up fireballs like a thousand ft away, the fireball blast itself is far off in the distance but the feeling of heat hitting your skin so harshly and intensely from 1,000 ft away is just a tiny fraction of an example of what it would be like with the heat radiated from a nuclear bomb going off in the distance
6:30 / 2:37:36 The one thing that regrettably gets overlooked is the importance of the Frisch Peierls memorandum. Because neither the Germans or the Americans had actually managed to perform the calculation for the critical mass with pure U-235, as did Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch did and so the assumption that was prevalent in the United States and in Germany was the critical mass was to be so large as to be undeliverable by an aircraft... ua-cam.com/video/LduH7613QXw/v-deo.htmlsi=4PR0RgoBhXfDPtXS If there was no Frisch Peierls memorandum, and the subsequent MAUD Report, they would have been no nuclear weapon. As for the Germans and Heisenberg, despite all the anxiety of the allies, it just simply wasn't the high priority for them, and Heisenberg, as he did not believe that a atomic bomb was practical... ua-cam.com/video/6zIJTwQ2blU/v-deo.htmlsi=a0u9OL4-cBwdTRU2
The Year Without Summer (1816) occurred as a result from the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year. The ash cloud spread globally, resulting in a global temperature drop of 0.4-0.7 °C (0.7-1 °F). The changes to global weather patterns caused crop failures, worldwide, resulting in widespread famine.
The huge difference between firebombing (say) Tokyo, which was done, and using an A bomb instead, was the radioactive fallout. This is a qualitative change in consequence of weapon choice, in both time of effect and area over which it's spread by wind.
There's arguably a huge difference in the number of aircraft, personnel and logistics needed to conduct large scale carpet bombing vs a single nuclear bomb. There's at least a little extra emotional effect that fallout affects areas outside of the target and there's the fear surrounding cancer and mutations and possible effects on future generations that causes an exaggeration of the perceived harm of fallout.
With due respect to Mr. Rhodes opinion, of course the US was worried about the India-Pakistan nuclear escalation. But India and Pakistan held back due to their own volition and restraint. At best, it was a minor conflict where less than 5% of the defence resources of both countries were engaged.
Talking about a 1000 megaton explosion with a 10 mile diameter fireball, and larger than the depth of the atmosphere, so that the it would extend it to space... Could something like that be used to carve out chunks of atmosphere from Venus as part of a terraforming project?
Everything I've read on the subject contradicts Mr Rhodes' statement about nuclear powered submarines. Nuclear reactors are not just about nuclear particles running around. There are pumps. And they are nosier than submariners and admirals would would like. Among the quietist submarines are are the diesel electric type. They can be extremely quiet. But of course they have obvious limitations.
Please put your clips on a separate channel, with a link from the clip to the full conversation. I had to search to find this video. Mixing old clips with new podcasts makes it harder for viewers to find what they're looking for. Your podcasts are fantastic, but I feel like this puts up a small barrier to enjoying your content.
Rhodes book is the best source of this topic. I loved it
The Making of the Atomic Bomb was the best piece of history I ever read. I was in a cold sweat at the description of the first test.
Try "The Prize" by Daniel Yergen about the history of the oil industry.You'll love it
Dark Sun was good too
Best history book I ever read. The Most Secret War - R.V Jones, close second.
@@PhilipWalsh-w2u also a great science book.
What an honor to interview such a legendary author and historian, and to hear first hand the stories from one of the most destructive and awesome times in human history.
Please share if you enjoyed!
The United States is extraordinarily proud. So forget that the Soviet Union was 2.5x bigger than the USA Of course the Soviet Union had uranium somewhere. Blockade the Soviet Union from world uranium Supply 😂
Yes indeed.
Will share to hundreds, awesome interview, keep them coming
@@LiamFoley-b8x thought you were referring to me in the notification 😆 got here an was thinking what? 😆 maybe time change my username lol
Clear, concise and an absolute wealth of knowledge. Mr Rhodes is wonderful to listen to. A simple question gives a multifaceted and eloquent answer. Riveting.
One of the most extraordinary interviews I've ever heard. I've read a good deal about the history of creation of the atomic bomb but none of the literature paints the picture so vividly and connects the events so holistically as Richard Rhodes.
"What fools we've all been" is a common refrain once an advance has been made. "I am an idiot" is another common refrain. "How could this have been otherwise?” We forget that paradigm shifts are always unpredictable.
One of the best podcasts I’ve listened to in a long time. Great job Dwarkesh! Will definitely read his book.
The Making of the Atomic bomb on audio book is absolutely amazing you'll love it
Thank you 🙏
51:42 @@DwarkeshPatelYou are seriously asking this stupid question . why the Soviet Union had so many good scientists.The Soviet Union was the first country to guarantee free education up to college PhD .In 1990 60% of the population graduated from college. Compared to 30% in the United States, and Soviet Union had a larger population than the United States.
@@carkawalakhatulistiwaif the soviets were so smart, why did their country collapse? go drink vodka and hide from being conscripted 😂
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Dude wake up... This happened in the 1940's and went on into the Cold War. The Russians stole the plans for the Fat Man from spies in America. Then German scientists and engineers that they captured at the end of the war designed the equipment and processes they used to do things like extract uranium and plutonium... All the early work, all the materials engineering, was done by captured Germans. Zippe-type centrifuge for instance.
Richard Rhodes is a treasure, I could listen to him talk 24/7. God Bless you Sir!!
This dude is a socialist and sees the world through thick bias glasses. He's an apologist for everything communist.
Which god?
@@GlobalDrifter1000 Pick one. Who gives a fuck?
Best moment when the host says AI people love Rhodes book. Rhodes retort let's discuss unintended consequences. 😊
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I purchased and read Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb AND Dark Sun. What excellent writing!! What excellent books!!
“Dark Sun”… the segment where Rhodes describes what happens during the Ivy Mike test, pretty much millisecond by millisecond… solid gold writing.
I had both books and loaned them to someone, and I can't recall who it was. I have been beating myself up over this for a few years. Now I take a picture of them holding the book. I will let them borrow.
UPDATE, I located the individual who had them.
This man is 86 years old.
National treasure.
And he doesn't look much older than he did in the old documentaries, he's awesome always love listening to him.
totally
He has a narrative.
@@drachenmarke A leftist narrative. He's very biased.
@@joelpiva1541I would say he has an anti-violence narrative. And, that he believes there are no essential or basic differences that make any race or nationality superior to any other.
It's more or less his basic premise that tribalism and nationalism and racism and intolerance cause people to do evil. It might be that is how you define socialism. The belief that competition easily gets out of hand and causes irrational behaviors and decisions.
Dwarkesh, i've watched a few of your interviews now and, I must say, you are the best interviewer I've come across. No hyperbole. Every interview has educated well constructed questions. You challenge assertions without getting contentious. Keep it up man.
Such an amzing man. Love listening to him. A direct link to modern history, so intelligent, so informed, so articulate. Richard Rhodes, love you man.
Incredible pleasure. His book on the making of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki weapon is permanently housed in my bathroom for the last 15 years, for constant ruminations. Congratulations to Patel for bringing into discussion the AI bit. Absolutely wonderful stretch.
Gentlemen thank you both for this outstanding interview. Richard I can't tell you how much I love to listen to you talk about the history of the making of the atomic bomb. I have read both of your excellent books about the fission and fusion weapons developments.
Great interview. Rhodes' bomb books are the best history on that period, I re-read them every couple of years they are that good.
Dwarkesh, yay!! Another episode!!! :)
When I listened to your interview with Ilya Sutskever, I immediately subscribed and turned on all possible notifications. Well they just worked and I just watched. Wow, I have witnessed concise and intelligent before, I prize it, and with this interview you've joined my top 10 (he said modestly). And I know, I know; some people would say that interviewing Richard Rhodes would make anybody look good. But no, I've seen two, otherwise intelligent people, screw it up. You did the opposite. The chemistry of your interaction, just like with Sutskever, added enjoyment to knowledge. I think the quality of your questions and your obvious sincerity in wanting to know the answers brought out the best in both of them. And considering the level these two are capable of, I found these interviews nothing short of thrilling. Kudos, dude; my notifications remain on.
2 and half hour interview and I loved all of it. Mr. Rhodes is always amazing. Thank you for letting him speak and share is thoughts on this very important topic. Great work.
Outstanding job Dwar, I judge an interview by how little an interviewer says, and how much they allow their guest to speak... Wonderful!
Unless they speak a mile a minute and can’t spit out a proper question like here! Thank God the guest speaks most of the time…annoying as shit with this dwar guy
Yes! An interviewer's ability to ask just the right question so that the interviewee is hooked in by their own interest and then given the space to lose themselves in their passion on the topic. It makes for such engaging listening. It's always nice, too, when somebody is able to pull answers out of somebody from questions that they'd never before thought to ask or ponder on themselves. There's nothing worse than being late to interviewing somebody and being unable to get any fresh or unique information out of your time with them.
Hey, I just want to say that I absolutely love these history podcasts. Best podcasts I have seen in a long time!!!
One of the best books I have ever read...read several times, in fact. It's the best of the purely non-technical based accounts of developing atomic weapons.
Dwarkesh, I admire your interview skills. You control just enough to guide the interview and just enough context to help us. Terrific work.
I was all about it! The interview was great, definitely gonna dive into that book ASAP.
This interview is an awesome find. So relevant to, of course, the movie, but also AI.
Great episode. Big fan of yours Dwarkesh. Keep it up!
Wow. What an interview. Amazing guest.
Glad I stumbled upon this video.
Just finished the 4 part audio book. Loved it. Thank You...
This is truly a great interview. Very well done.
Best book I have ever read on this topic - he recounts almost all of the steps and contributions of the various scientists from around the time they proved that the atom and atomic nucleus are composed of multiple pieces that could potentially be broken up and release tremendous amounts of energy. Highly recommend!
Thank you for an alternative slant on things. Much needed.
I have read the book 3 times over the years.
It is the definitive masterwork.
That was thoroughly engaging and insightful, thank you. My existential dread at the state of global society and affairs was momentarily set aside in reverence to the awesome perspective provided here on historical existential crises in a not-so-long-past nacsent version of global society... where things didn't all collapse, though it came close.
I think an interview with Ben Goertzel would be fascinating. His work on Artificial General Intelligence and the development of sophisticated AI systems like Sophia the robot could provide a lot of insight into the current state and future of AI. Ben is one of the most prominent thought leaders in this space so a discussion with him on your podcast would likely be very illuminating for your audience.
I think he is a charlatan. I may be wrong though.
I’m clearly more intelligent than any AI so who cares
34:31 "That's not the heat that's the light..." Correct - there is actually no such thing as "radiant heat". What you have from the bomb is UV, visible light and infrared (plus some microwave and radio). Infrared light is simply visible light that is not visible because our eyes can't react to it. You don't get heat until these components are absorbed by something and the light energy is converted to heat. If you stand outside on a bright sunny summer day, about half of the heat you feel is your body absorbing infrared, and another 45% is it absorbing the visible light, and the rest absorbing UV. The heat is in you, not in the light itself.
42:24 "A nuclear reactor is very quiet; it just sits there with neutrons running around." Well, all except for those high volume pumps used to circulate the coolant. I completely agree with Richard that the land based bombs were not and are not needed.
1:17:34 "We have a system in place..." to detect treaty cheating. Yes we do; it's not within the IAEA, but rather it is part of the Comprehensivee Test Ban Treaty, a UN organization called the CTBTO. (ctbto.org). It has acoustic and seismic listening posts all over the planet with anytime-inspection rights in all signatory countries. Of course, most nation are signed up, except the UDA. The US signed the treaty but it has never ratified it by the Senate as required by the Constittion.
Israel. Which threatens other countries weekly with their nukes, accuses others of having them, yet itself refuses to sign on to the NNPT.
Israel… which stole its highly-enriched, weapons grade uranium from the NUMEC plant in Apollo, Pennsylvania.
No country built on terrorism, massacres and racial & religious supremacism should be allowed to have nukes and threaten others with them.
1. In EM the weapon detonation produces gamma and x-ray, which in turn, as it interacts w surrounding air, immediately produces more x-ray and across the band other EM, UV, visible light and IR.
This is such an incredible interview. Thank you.
Interesting comment about the spherical secondary on an H Bomb. I first learnt about it on a BBC program about the British H Bomb program where it was described by one of the British guys who worked on it. It kind of backed up comments made by Mark Urban in a 1995 program that the British had come up with a design for a very efficient H Bomb, but had a lot of problems engineering it into a practical weapon. Thus part of the US/UK joint nuclear program which was restarted in 1958 saw the US give the UK the designs for operational H Bombs to allow the UK to get an H Bomb into service in large numbers ASAP, while the US perfected the UK design for use by both nations.
I think the W88 warhead has this design
To think we once threw your tea in the harbor and now share nuclear weapons. 😅
Wonderful, amazing interview! I loved it and have been recommending it to so many people ever since I first heard it 💚 🥃
So glad!
Thanks, great interview of a man that has had a unique perspective on the world of nuclear weapons.
Какое удовольствие, слушать умного человека, старшие поколения, всё таки эти люди имели более широкие взгляды на мир. И более глубокие понимание жизни, и политики и тем более культуры.
Such a great interview! My god, the grandpa is brilliant, and nice, I hope to have 10% of his mental abilities if I live to his age! I wish this interview was more popular so we’d get more like this in the future, not only interviews with Yudkowskys and Andreessens etc (which were great too but who are everywhere now). Thank you Dwarkesh, love your interviews, respect from Russia! ✊🏻
Thank you man 🙏
Marvelous episode and podcast. Thanks Dwarkesh!
I read his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb with intent to learn about the science. I was not expecting to learn about the political and socio-economic forces that sculpted the environment in Europe that put the scientists and engineers where they were to collaborate in the effort.
It was a difficult read, but well worth the effort.
20 two hour movies could not cover the book's content.
Thank you so kindly for explaining everything I have known since my family was very integral and the UC LAWRENCE Livermore radiation lab and yes, I live with those families of the paperclips
Great interview! Just ordered the book.
Very enjoyable interview and guest. Thank you.
Lisa Mitner was probably the candidate to the Nobel Prize in Physics to be nominated to be a real cipient fo the prize the highest number of times, but she has been never awarded it.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner?wprov=sfti1#.
It's been alluded to in movies and documentaries about being behind on trigger design and thenn suddenly a breakthrough resulting in TRINITY!
One of the best interviews I have had the opportunity to listen to/watch. Thank you
I read the same story about Beria in a Russian source. A lot of their rocket and nuclear scientists wrote fascinating tell-all articles and books in the '90s. I didn't realize that RDS-2 and RDS-3 were their own Russian designs, but if you look up the stats you see they were twice the yield of RDS-1.
Between this episode and the one with Sarah Paine, this podcast is easily as good as the best episodes done by Lex Fridman. Please keep up thr excellent work.
What an interesting life he has had - makes most people life seam tedious - amazing guy love the stories
His two books on the development of the atomic bomb and the hydrogen bomb are terrific reads.
Love your books Richard!
Ive been watching quite a few of your interviews and they are fantastic! Subbed.
I really enjoy Mr Rhodes books, especially Dark Sun (if "enjoy" is the right word to use). I would've loved an addendum about the Castle test series as that history is also fascinating. Great interview. Thanks for sharing.
Great questions!
Rhodes is like the number 1 nuke historian. Unbiased. I've been watching this guy's contributions to the field for two decades now.
I think the question of if we would have built a nuclear bomb if there wasn’t WWII needs an additional condition in order for it to be a meaningful question. If no War and if no Adolf, then would there be nuclear bombs? While the war was the accelerate to getting one built in 1945, Adolf was another push. Maybe it wouldn’t have been 1945 and it would have been 1950 or 1963, but with Adolf around many countries would have been pushing to get it first
The technology was there. Even without a war going on it would have eventually been used to make a bomb. Most likely later and at a larger scale though. I'm glad it happened when it did. Any nuclear weapons advancements during peacetime would have either led to more nuclear explosives used in a war or time for warning and diplomacy. It just depends on whether the financier is developing a weapon for war or for research purposes
@@caseymurray7722 I agree. Nuclear bombs being developed in peacetime would have made it so much more likely that the first strike in the next war would have been a nuclear strike. Peacetime would have all but guaranteed that more than one country would have had access to the weapons upon the start of whatever war that would have been. It could have made for instant nuclear war, especially considering the fact that nobody would have actually yet seen the extent of the damage and human suffering they can cause. We may very well have gone sleepwalking into Armageddon without fully understanding the scope of what we were doing.
I think a book on scientific or technical advancement an unintended consequences would be great.
Excellent
There's also added to our country's middle-class who produced these weapons not only the weapons but delivery systems electrical hardware communication devices the whole kit and caboodle and that's why we had such a great country for so long
Dear Mr Patel,
You interviewed,
You spoke less than the prevalence of U235,
Very, very well done indeed.
Knocked it out of the park Dwarkesh!
To be fair about Vietnam, that’s as much of a loss as the Afghan pullout was poorly done.
Like yes. Trump screwed the Afghan government and facilitated a near instantaneous Taliban takeover. Absolutely. And we moved over 100,000 people over 3,000 miles in 1 week.
Depending on when exactly you want to say America made the decision to pull out, North Vietnam ranged from being a country without borders to a bunch of tiny plots.
Finally YT shorts has brought me to some good content
Great episode!!
Reading his book now on the H-Bomb, "Dark Sun."
1:12:00 - 1:13:50 that’s one of the worst plans I’ve heard in my life. Otherwise, very interesting until now
Just found this channel today and this was an amazing interview. Argued the point of using the bombs and he said the Japanese would have surrendered since the soviets were coming. I argued without them millions of Japanese and Americans would have died before the surrender just going off the casualties we suffered taking small islands without urban centers.
I heard once, quite awhile ago...there was not a word in Japanese equivalent 2 a translation of 'surrender', therefore when face-2-face w/da enemy...they refuse or rather do an honorable eating their sword
Thanks!
Absolutely Brilliant!!!
Outstanding !
Amazing interview.
If you've ever been at an airshow where they do the fake bombing and they blast up fireballs like a thousand ft away, the fireball blast itself is far off in the distance but the feeling of heat hitting your skin so harshly and intensely from 1,000 ft away is just a tiny fraction of an example of what it would be like with the heat radiated from a nuclear bomb going off in the distance
Really enjoyed this. Thanks
LOVE EACH PAGE OF YOUR BOOK. Luis. Manizales, Colombia
He sounds just like Kenneth Baker, President of Armstech from Metal Gear Solid. They even talk about the same kind of stuff.
Great interview… extremely informative
Fantastic.
6:30 / 2:37:36 The one thing that regrettably gets overlooked is the importance of the Frisch Peierls memorandum. Because neither the Germans or the Americans had actually managed to perform the calculation for the critical mass with pure U-235, as did Rudolf Peierls and Otto Frisch did and so the assumption that was prevalent in the United States and in Germany was the critical mass was to be so large as to be undeliverable by an aircraft...
ua-cam.com/video/LduH7613QXw/v-deo.htmlsi=4PR0RgoBhXfDPtXS
If there was no Frisch Peierls memorandum, and the subsequent MAUD Report, they would have been no nuclear weapon.
As for the Germans and Heisenberg, despite all the anxiety of the allies, it just simply wasn't the high priority for them, and Heisenberg, as he did not believe that a atomic bomb was practical...
ua-cam.com/video/6zIJTwQ2blU/v-deo.htmlsi=a0u9OL4-cBwdTRU2
I’ve read all of his books
Wow. Awesome
What did Richard think of the 1980s BBC series of Oppenheimer? I quite enjoyed it, so curious on how accurate he thinks it is.
The Year Without Summer (1816) occurred as a result from the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia the previous year. The ash cloud spread globally, resulting in a global temperature drop of 0.4-0.7 °C (0.7-1 °F). The changes to global weather patterns caused crop failures, worldwide, resulting in widespread famine.
The huge difference between firebombing (say) Tokyo, which was done, and using an A bomb instead, was the radioactive fallout. This is a qualitative change in consequence of weapon choice, in both time of effect and area over which it's spread by wind.
There's arguably a huge difference in the number of aircraft, personnel and logistics needed to conduct large scale carpet bombing vs a single nuclear bomb.
There's at least a little extra emotional effect that fallout affects areas outside of the target and there's the fear surrounding cancer and mutations and possible effects on future generations that causes an exaggeration of the perceived harm of fallout.
Insightful discussion 👏
Terrific book, as is the followup Dark Sun.
One of my two favorite authors, thanks for this interview !
Rip 4yy eertaa
Your research on all your subjects are nothing short of a good Gujarati ! I am a south african living in Mumbai ! Keep up the great intellectual work!
Anyone have a source for the comment "there were only roughly 1000 physicists in the world in 1900"?
The number is in the right ballpark. Royal Catalogue lists 850 academic physicists in all major countries in 1900.
With due respect to Mr. Rhodes opinion, of course the US was worried about the India-Pakistan nuclear escalation. But India and Pakistan held back due to their own volition and restraint. At best, it was a minor conflict where less than 5% of the defence resources of both countries were engaged.
Talking about a 1000 megaton explosion with a 10 mile diameter fireball, and larger than the depth of the atmosphere, so that the it would extend it to space...
Could something like that be used to carve out chunks of atmosphere from Venus as part of a terraforming project?
Redirect comets to add water, and coordinate the large blasts to reduce density and dissipate heat
Everything I've read on the subject contradicts Mr Rhodes' statement about nuclear powered submarines. Nuclear reactors are not just about nuclear particles running around. There are pumps. And they are nosier than submariners and admirals would would like. Among the quietist submarines are are the diesel electric type. They can be extremely quiet. But of course they have obvious limitations.
Nerd
Oh wow good job bro
"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
Seriously great video
Ending wars would be cool.
Please put your clips on a separate channel, with a link from the clip to the full conversation.
I had to search to find this video. Mixing old clips with new podcasts makes it harder for viewers to find what they're looking for.
Your podcasts are fantastic, but I feel like this puts up a small barrier to enjoying your content.
I intend to buy his book. But you need to adjust his mic volume for his voice. It's too low.
The Making Of The Hydrogen Bomb is a great book if anyone is interested!