He was a great guy, and remains an inspiration

Oh, and if you want my full thoughts on the film Oppenheimer — as well as Ukraine and the nuclear taboo, and the AI-nuclear nexus and how we took the wrong lesson from the Cuban Missile Crisis — listen to the podcast! www.samharris.org/podcasts/mak...

Nuclear Weapons Policy Fund - Longview Philanthropy

And *you* can help. The new Longview Nuclear Risk Policy Fund aims to find and fund the most effective ways of reducing nuclear risk. We want to make it easy for you to make a difference. Find out more and donate here: www.longview.org/fund/nuclear...

My main message: we need not accept anything — even nuclear war — as inevitable.
People decide what to do with these weapons.
Collectively, our decisions can make us safer, or put our future at risk.
We have stepped back from the nuclear brink before, and we can do it again.

It’s time for a new atomic altruism Philanthropies are pulling back from programs meant to address the risk of nuclear war — at precisely the wrong moment.

My colleague Matthew Gentzel has written with Christian Ruhl on this need to revitalize nuclear philanthropy in
vox.com:
It’s time for a new atomic altruism
Philanthropies are pulling back from programs meant to address the risk of nuclear war — at precisely the wrong moment.

We urgently need more investment to reduce risks: in public service fellowships, academic research, movement building & tech innovation. On the podcast I could only mention a few groups doing vital work, but there are many, many others.

Despite these dangers, the field of nuclear risk reduction is in a very unstable place. Donors have pulled out, nuclear weapons have lost political salience, and we face a shrinking pool of expertise. (See this excellent article from
@BryanDBender
politico.com/news/magazin...)

How will we manage nuclear deterrence when war moves at machine speed? Cyber risks and advanced artificial intelligence in military systems seem likely to further raise the risk of inadvertent nuclear war.

Why is now so dangerous? With Russia “suspending” participation in New START and China building up its nuclear stockpile, we’re on the verge of a new nuclear arms race. The Ukraine war is being fought in the nuclear shadow. And that’s not mentioning North Korea or India-Pakistan.

Sam Harris | #330 - The Doomsday Machine Sam Harris speaks with Carl Robichaud about the ongoing threat of nuclear war.

It was a pleasure to talk to Sam Harris on Making Sense podcast about ongoing nuclear threat. We’re in a uniquely dangerous time, and it’s more important than ever that we try to tackle these risks. Full episode unlocked here: www.samharris.org/podcasts/mak...

So true. The central drama is over policy decisions, not personal grudges and humiliations. Strauss and others wanted Oppenheimer neutralized because they thought his ideas were dangerous.
I think the policy debates at the heart of the conflict will be lost on most viewers, which is unfortunate.

Giving Up A Myth The film "Oppenheimer" reveals a split between specialists and the general public.

What we take away from “Oppenheimer” depends a lot on what we bring to it. @cherylrofer.bsky.social has written a short, very interesting essay about insider versus outsider perspectives on the first theatrical film in 34 years to dramatize the birth of the Bomb.

When First Foreign Reporter Arrived In Hiroshima--and Then Kicked Out of Japan Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including “Atomic Cover-up,” the recent award-winning “The Beginning or the End: How Hollywood—and America—Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the...

Wilfred Burchett, an Australian war reporter, was first to report on radiation sickness from the Hiroshima bombing. "I write these facts as dispassionately as I can in the hope that they will act as a warning to the world."
H/T Greg Mitchell https://shorturl.at/jBZ01

Thanks for the invite