

The Jasons: The Secret History Of Science's Postwar Elite (2006) - JabavuAdams
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/16/books/review/16horgan.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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gumby
I find this fascinating: `Yet the disturbing implication is that, under
different circumstances, nuclear attacks might make sense. Finkbeiner accuses
Dyson and his co-authors of "supping with the devil."'

I can't tell if that's the review author or the book author speaking. It's the
point of such a group to think of such things? Isn't there indeed an
unambiguous case in which "nuclear attacks made sense": Hiroshima?

I find it hard to think of cases where a nuclear attack would not be worse
than not doing so, but not impossible.

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Scramblejams
I had a similar question. While we're playing with hypotheticals, say the
Allies had gained atomic weapons in 1941. It's pretty easy to imagine that
using them then would have been preferable to what followed. That the author
apparently didn't consider such a thing makes me think this piece is
excessively colored by his idealistic mindset. Too bad, sounded interesting
until I saw how judgmental he is.

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wavefunction
Atomic weapons were not feasible for use until we destroyed the Imperial Navy
and the expert aircraft pilots that made up their offensive and defensive air-
service, from what I know, which admittedly is not expert-level.

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brownbat
You're right, the parallel for Europe occurred in early to mid 1944. Might
have shortened the war six months? It's not clear though. It could be argued
the turning point was really boots supplementing the ongoing strategic
bombing. Or maybe the key event was Hitler exiting and handing things to
Dönitz, who immediately suspended operations and began winding down all the
madness.*

Interesting tour of how air control fluctuated in WWII here:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_supremacy#World_War_II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_supremacy#World_War_II)

*Maybe because the writing was on the wall, but I think a case could be made that Hitler was a little crazy and other leaders might have been more pragmatic, seeking earlier options for peace. Who knows though.

~~~
Scramblejams
Yes, delivery systems must be considered. Wonder what the Allies would have
built to deliver a 10,000 lb bomb in contested airspace if one had been ready
well before the B-29.

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batbomb
Surprised not to read anything about Roy Schwitters in this, although he had
just taken over as chief of JASON shortly before this article.

One amusing note, many of the JASONs (I believe it supposed to be capitalized)
often have thinly veiled experiments/projects, I.e. UT Maya muon tomography
research, which was to discover techniques to calculate tomography of a Mayan
pyramid, was obviously taken up with actual hopes of muon tomography for
vehicle inspection (in fact, most of the experiment's research was exactly
concurrent with Roy Schwitters reign of JASON.)

More notably, you also have the NIF.

