Abstract
Riding with Oppie
The article on J. Robert Oppenheimer (March/April 2004 Bulletin) brought back fond memories of my own encounters with the scientist. As a 20-year-old undergraduate, I was a Signal Corps-trained electronics specialist, and (though not in uniform) a corporal in the Special Engineering Detachment of the Corps of Engineers. I held the civilian rank of “junior physicist.” My group leader in the Instrument Division at the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Lab assigned me to be a liaison to various Manhattan Project sites. I was to train people on the use and maintenance of nuclear detection and measurement instruments developed by our group. I made many trips, including several via the Santa Fe Railroad to and from Lamy, New Mexico–about an hour's drive from Los Alamos.
On my first trip to Los Alamos, while I was reading on the train after lunch, a gentleman came up to me and asked if I was James Schoke. A little shaken, I replied in the affirmative, and he quietly introduced himself as Dr. Robert Serber, an assistant to Dr. Robert Oppenheimer. He said Oppenheimer made it a point to have a list of the locations of all Project personnel on the train. Then he invited me to join a group of them at 4 p.m. in Oppenheimer's bedroom compartment for wine, cheese, and conversation. Wow! I couldn't believe my good luck.
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When the time came, I nervously found my way to the designated car and was introduced to about eight men, all much older than I, standing in and around Oppenheimer's compartment. As the wine and cheese were dispensed, we discussed everything from poetry (some recited by “Oppie,” who invited me to use that name), to philosophy, to the progress of the war. Naturally there was no reference to scientific work of any kind, or where we had been, or where we were going. A similar event took place on another of my Los Alamos excursions. Both episodes were unforgettable. Although I thought about it at the time, I couldn't bring myself to ask Oppie for something in writing, or to take a photo of the group–for fear of security violations.
In these two meetings, a young nobody in the scientific community was made to feel an integral part of the team by this brilliant, erudite man, as he demonstrated his humility, charisma, leadership, and thoughtful consideration of fellow workers. Oppenheimer was a real mensch.
Boca Raton, Florida
Build soldier-bots
Paul Rogers's article “Not so Fast, Not so Far” (May/June 2004), about the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-sponsored desert race for robotic ground combat vehicles, was enlightening. Of particular interest was the $1 million prize offered to the team that completed the course the fastest. Anger flashed through my mind as I wondered why the Defense Department was willing to spend so much on that race while so many of our troops in Iraq have had to buy their own protective vests because the military doesn't have the money to provide enough to go around.
Then I turned to Catherine Auer's “Special Snacks for Super Soldiers” and nearly flipped out. Her description of DARPA's goals for its warfighters–expanding memory potential, augmenting cognition, eliminating the need for sleep, figuring out how a soldier can go three to five days without food while staying in top condition, and accelerating healing–are indeed futuristic sounding. I wonder if anyone has told DARPA that the easiest and cheapest way of accomplishing those goals would be to actually construct robot soldiers.
Using robots would eliminate the need to accelerate healing. One goal accomplished right off the bat! Robots would need to occasionally slug down a can of oil to keep their moving parts from seizing up (that takes care of the food goal) and would need to come in from the field periodically for preventive maintenance.
Computer programmers and analysts should be able to expand memory potential and augment cognition. Of course, there is the possibility that one or more of these robots could suffer shorts in their circuitry that might cause them to turn against each other. That really wouldn't make a great deal of difference though, since they're all robots anyway.
If we're going to spend the defense budget on science fiction, we might as well go all the way.
Williston, Florida
Saving Vanunu
After 16 years working for the release of Mordechai Vanunu, I finally met him after his April 21 release and talked with him over three days. I was certain to find him in a fragile and exhausted state after his almost 12 years of total isolation. I was astounded to meet a man who was not depressed but who radiated charm, a smile, a good sense of humor, a clarity of purpose, and the will to pursue the struggle against nuclear weapons. I remember that Sam Day wrote about Vanunu's case in the Bulletin several years back, and we regretted not having him with us that day.
Update
Last year, Greenpeace distributed decks of its “Nuclear Poker” playing cards to delegates at the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Preparatory Committee meeting in Geneva. The cards, a takeoff on the U.S. military's “Iraqi Most Wanted” deck, were intended to raise awareness of nuclear disarmament issues. They were a smash hit. At this year's PrepCom meeting, Greenpeace reprised its game theme with 10 mini-puzzles.
“Who owns nuclear weapons and how many? Those governments which have been leading the search for weapons of mass destruction in other countries might need particular help unjumbling where to find them,” Greenpeace said about the games. Nine puzzles feature photos of nuclear weapon state leaders, their foreheads emblazoned with the number of nukes in their arsenals. (See the Russia puzzle, above.) North Korea is included in the club, and the tenth puzzle features a black silhouette and asks, “How do we stop the next one?”
On June 1, the Justice Department released details on its case against Jose Padilla, alleged would-be dirty bomber. But the department shows no intention of releasing Padilla, a U.S. citizen, who has been held for more than two years without a trial. “The government contends Padilla falls under a special exception to the Constitution, but a host of legal scholars feel otherwise,” as Lewis Z. Koch reported in “Dirty Bomber? Dirty Justice” (January/February Bulletin).
Israel set a rare record with its inhumane treatment of Vanunu while he was in prison and by imposing severe restrictions on his movement and actions after his release. It will be looked upon as a new violation of fundamental human rights to keep Vanunu in Israel and not take any measures to protect him against open threats to his life.
The International Vanunu Committee
Oslo, Norway
Marching against war
On the chilly morning of March 20, a bus carrying 49 peace advocates rolled out of Groton, Massachusetts, and headed for a demonstration in New York City. The youngest participant in our bus was 11 years old, the oldest, 72.
We arrived around noontime and joined the huge crowd, assembled over several blocks uptown of 23rd, where prerecorded speeches blared from large speakers. Later in the afternoon, as we marched 24 blocks, the usual chants and slogans (“PEACE! NOW!”) rang through the air.
The demonstration was to mark, among other things, the one-year anniversary of the war on Iraq and to demand an end to the U.S. occupation. But many people were marching for many different causes. A selection from the sea of signs: “Books Not Bombs,” “Money for Jobs, Not War,” “No Blood for Oil,” “Not Our Boys,” “RIP My Civil Liberties,” “End U.S. Occupation of Iraq,” “Not in Our Name,” “Enough.” The speakers railed against certain incumbents, and against occupations and oppressions around the Earth–Haiti, Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, and others.
Barricades lined the streets; the sidewalks were off limits. When the mayor appeared with a small entourage parading along Madison Avenue's sidewalk, preceded by a cameraman walking backward, dozens of New Yorkers happily saluted him with boos.
There were too many police officers to count, but I saw no trouble. (“If you are arrested or see someone arrested call National Lawyers Guild,” the orientation leaflet distributed by protest organizers said ominously in boldface type.)
I am grateful to the city for lending its streets to thousands of demonstrators, allowing those who have no platform to voice their worries and hopes in an open forum.
Hollis, New Hampshire