Did Oppenheimer Know Bombs Kill People?

What did he expect?
Please comment if you know more about this meme's origins.

Become a member to get access to perks:

Music:
Pandemic (2021 Remix) by CHRISRGMFB
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Executive Producers at Patreon:
Dank Lollies
Larka
NorthstarUK
Phoenix Om3ga

#news #memes #oppenheimer

[ScrimmyBingus]

I find it interesting people clown on Oppenheimer for trying to take responsibility for his actions, and not president Truman for saying "it'll come out in the wash" when Oppenheimer talks about the blood of innocent people on his hands.

[chunky]

Oppenheimer: "This bomb is horrifying and we are at fault for this, we cant live with ourselves"
Truman: " *NUH-UH* "

[dandrive]

I think the reason why Oppenheimer was so distraught over the bomb is because he got to see the scale of it. It’s easy for many to downplay something like the nuclear bomb but seeing it in action must of been awe inspiring and horrifying.
The Art of Deduction has a fantastic video on it.

[joonasrikkonen]

"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" is what this speech is remembered for, but I think "A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent" is the most chilling part of it. Poor man. I hope he found peace.

[squigglybusiness]

this reminds me of the creator of the Gatling gun, who invented the Gatling gun so that people would realise how destructive war is.

[ratking]

Another thing to note is that the projections for the strength of the atomic bomb were way off, Oppenheimer expected it to be much weaker than the bomb ended up being.

[DMAN]

The nuance of the situation wasn’t that he was unaware of what he was creating but the sheer scale of death of what it would unleash. He was prepared for a bomb, for some death, it was war time and viewed as a necessity but upon seeing the results of his creation, he realised what he had unleashed. To dumb it down, it’d be like pranking someone with an allergy, thinking it would give them hives or something but you end up killing them, only after the deed is done do you finally understand.

[oVerdrive-ptuk]

This ain't even Oppenheimer's craziest prank yet 💀

[sourdrop]

For anyone interested in learning more about Oppenheimer or the creation of atom bombs, I'd definitely recommend reading Bomb: The Race to Build - And Steal- The World's Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin. It goes into detail about Oppenheimer's past and how he was recruited for the Manhattan Project and covers a lot of the behind the scenes politics of the whole ordeal. It also tells the story of how one time Oppenheimer unintentionally ditched his date because he started thinking about physics too hard and ended up walking home and going to bed. Truly a goober moment

[gianttacogod]

As Mark Twain put it “humor is tragedy plus time”

[SilvermanZero]

As much as "I have become death" became the go-to quote regarding the atom bomb, I still prefer Bainbridge's quote: "Now we are all sons of bitches."

[FizzyPopVevo]

I feel as if the Man was dead set on perfecting the project to actually consider the possible repercussions, like, he was so focused on finishing the bomb to actually think of what the bomb was going to be used for, literally a “Yes, I did it, oh shit, I did it” moment.

[Brother_K]

As a chemist, I understand Oppenheimer’s reaction. We tend to ask “can we”, not “should we.”

[TopicalEssay]

0:06 why is his Adam's apple so large? Jesus Christ

[Etx-z.]

"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' I suppose we all thought that, one way or another."

- J. Robert Oppenheimer

[Mandy]

Thanks! I saw the opera Dr Atomic and have really been affected by this since them.

[ogom-iorb]

It’s the same logic as to how we would never understand how large Jupiter is unless we seen it ourselves, or understand it’s storm as large as our planet. Our imagination wasn’t made to explore the gravity of such things as our body doesn’t know how much the world has changed over the last millennia.

[uberfeel]

**Bomb blows up**

Oppenheimer: What have I done? I thought I was building a rice cooker

Truman: Well, you're technically right

[theelementalstation]

Honestly speaks to the sheer destructive potential of nukes that they knew they were making a weapon of mass destruction and yet after seen it in action went “Holy sh¡t that is WAY stronger than we expected”.

[AnonEMus-cpmn]

President Truman was also a WWI artillery man. Its safe to say he knew what it felt like to have blood on his hands.