 ntroduction
The Bertrand Russell Research Centre is offering an
electronic
version of an edition-in-progress of Russell’s first
anti-nuclear
writing.
The electronic version has a range of hypertext capabilities
woven
into the traditional Collected Papers structure of headnote,
chronology,
text, annotation, textual notes, bibliographical index, and
sometimes
illustrations. Maroon-coloured passages link to bidirectional
annotations; green
passages, to bidirectional textual notes. It is hoped this
feature will prove both inobtrusive and useful.
Russell’s paper “The Atomic
Bomb” (published as “The Bomb and
Civilization”)
was written in 1945. The editor of this paper, which is
scheduled to
be in Volume 24, is Kenneth
Blackwell.
Let him know of any errors. A conventional view of the headnote,
paper and
apparatus as
they are to be printed in the edition is available in
PDF
format. This view is searchable, saveable, and
printable.
This article, as Dr. Blackwell states in the
headnote,
is Russell’s first response to the news of the devastation
caused
by the
first atomic bomb. Though written hurriedly, and in a frantic
moment of
history, it announces themes that will dominate Russell’s
political
programme
for years to come. The article announces the urgency of the search
for
a structure of world peace, and it reiterates his faith in
scientific progress
and his hope that the United States will assume leadership in
creating
the global structures that are necessary for the survival of the
human
race. Russell’s mood is one which combines the composure of
the
sage and
the panic of the prophetic Cassandra. As a man of science he wishes
to
reassure the public concerning the scientific achievement. He
advises his
readers that “The atomic bomb embodies the results of a
combination
of genius and patience as remarkable as any in the history of
mankind”,
that the men whose work made this bomb possible were for the most
part
“both high-minded and public spirited”, and finally
that
we should
not look upon the bomb as a punishment “for impiety in
inquiring too
closely into the hidden secrets of nature”. On the contrary
he
reaffirms
his faith that “Science is capable of conferring enormous
boons.”
But the panic is equally vivid. Russell is
clearly convinced
that now that the weapon has been unleashed, a war for the
possession of
uranium is almost inevitable. Even before the war has ended,
Russell is
convinced of the outbreak of rivalry between the wartime Allies,
the United
States and the Soviet Union. He is convinced that another war is
inevitable.
After proposing and then dismissing the alternative of a Hobbesian
contract
in which all the nations of the world surrender their power and
constitute
a world government, or the next best solution, an American putsch
in which,
armed with the only available atomic weapons, the government of the
United
States will set up a world government by force (a programme which
he advocated
since the closing stage of the First World War), he ends with the
hope
that after the next world war “some one Power will emerge
with
such preponderant
strength as to be able to establish a peaceful hegemony over the
rest
of the
globe.”
Louis Greenspan (1934–2018)
Past Director, Russell Editorial Project
 able
of Contents
Headnote
Chronology
“The
Atomic Bomb” (1945)
Annotation
Textual Notes
Bibliographical Index
he Atomic Bomb (published as
“The Bomb and Civilization”, 18 Aug. 1945)
It
is impossible to imagine a more dramatic and horrifying combination
of
scientific triumph with political and moral failure than has been
shown
to the world in the destruction of Hiroshima. From the scientific
point
of view, the atomic bomb embodies the results of a combination of
genius
and patience as remarkable as any in the history of
mankind. Atoms are so minute that it might have
seemed impossible to know as much as we
do about them. A million million bundles, each containing a million
million
hydrogen atoms, would weigh about a gram and a half. Each hydrogen
atom
consists of a nucleus, and an electron going round the nucleus, as
the
earth goes round the sun. The distance from the nucleus to the
electron
is usually about a hundred-millionth of a centimetre; the electron
and
the nucleus are supposed to be so small that if they could be
crowded together
it would take about ten million million on end to fill a
centimetre. The
nucleus has positive electricity, the planetary electron an equal
amount
of negative electricity; the nucleus is about 1850 times as heavy
as the
electron. The hydrogen atom, which I have been describing, is
the simplest
of atoms, but the atom used in the atomic bomb is at the other end
of the scale.
Uranium, the element chiefly
used in
the atomic bomb, has the heaviest and most complex of atoms.
Normally there
are 92 planetary electrons, while the nucleus is made up of about
238 neutrons
(which have mass without electricity), 238 positrons (which have
positive
electricity and very little mass) and 146 electrons, which are
like positrons
except that their electricity is negative. Positrons repel each
other,
and so do electrons; but a positron and electron attract each
other. The
overcrowding of mutually attracted and repelled particles in the
tiny space
of the uranium nucleus involves enormous potentially explosive
forces.
Uranium is slightly radio-active, which means that some of its
atoms break
up naturally. But a quicker process than this is required for the
making
of an atomic bomb.
Rutherford
found out, about thirty years ago, that little
bits could be chipped off
an atom by bombardment. In 1939 a more
powerful process
was discovered: it was found that neutrons,
entering the nucleus of a uranium atom, would cause it to split
into two
roughly equal halves, which would rush off and disrupt other
uranium atoms
in the neighbourhood, and so set up a train of explosions so long as
there
was any of the right kind of uranium to be encountered.
Ever since the beginning of the
war, the Germans
on the one side, and the British and Americans
on the other, have been working on the possibility of an atomic
explosive.
One of the difficulties was to make sure that it would not be too
effective:
there was a fear that it might destroy not only the enemy, but the
whole
planet, and naturally experiments were risky. But the difficulties
were
overcome, and now the possibility which scientists have foreseen
for over forty years
has entered into the world of practical politics. The labours of
Rutherford
and Bohr,
of Heisenberg
and Schrödinger,
and a number of other distinguished men, the ablest men of our
time, and
most of them both high-minded and public-spirited, have borne
fruit: in
an instant, by means of one small bomb,
every vestige of life
throughout
four square miles of a populous city has been exterminated. As I
write,
I learn that a
second
bomb has been dropped on Nagasaki.
The prospect for the human race
is
sombre beyond all precedent. Mankind are faced with a clear-cut
alternative:
either we shall all perish, or we shall have to acquire some slight
degree
of common sense. A great deal of new political thinking will be
necessary
if utter disaster is to be averted.
For the moment, fortunately,
only the
United States is in a position to manufacture atomic bombs. The
immediate
result must be a rapid end to the Japanese war, whether by surrender
or by extermination.
The power of the United States in international affairs is, for the
time
being, immeasurably increased;
a month ago,
Russia and the United States seemed about equal in warlike
strength, but
now this is no longer the case. This situation, however, will not
last
long, for it must be assumed that before long Russia and the
British Empire
will set to work to make
these bombs for themselves.
Uranium has suddenly become the most precious of raw materials, and
nations
will probably fight for it as hitherto they have fought for oil. In
the
next war, if
atomic
bombs are used on both sides, it is to be expected that all large
cities
on both sides will be completely wiped out; so will all
scientific
laboratories
and all governmental centres. Communications will be disrupted, and
the
world will be reduced to a number of small independent agricultural
communities
living on local produce, as they did in the Dark Ages. But
presumably none
of them will have either the resources or the skill for the
manufacture
of atomic bombs.
There is another and a better
possibility,
if men have the wisdom to make use of the few years during which it
will
remain open to them. Either war or civilization must end, and if it
is
to be war that ends, there must be an international authority with
the
sole power to make the new bombs. All supplies of uranium must be
placed
under the control
of the international authority,
which shall have the right to safeguard the ore by armed forces. As
soon
as such an authority has been created, all existing atomic bombs,
and all
plants for their manufacture, must be handed over to
it.
And of course the international authority must have sufficient
armed forces
to protect whatever has been handed over to it. If this system were
once
established, the international authority would be irresistible, and
wars
would cease. At worst, there might be occasional brief revolts that
would
be easily quelled.
But I fear all this is Utopian.
The
United States will not consent to any pooling of armaments, and no
more
will Soviet Russia. Each will insist on retaining the means of
exterminating
the other, on the ground that the other is not to be
trusted.
If America were more
imperialistic
there would be another possibility, less Utopian and less
desirable, but
still preferable to the total obliteration of civilized life. It
would
be possible for Americans to use their position of temporary
superiority
to insist upon disarmament, not only in Germany and Japan, but
everywhere
except in the United States, or at any rate in every country not
prepared
to enter into a close military alliance with the United States,
involving
compulsory sharing of military secrets. During the next few years,
this
policy could be enforced; if one or two wars were necessary, they
would
be brief, and would soon end in decisive American victory. In this
way
a new
League of Nations
could be formed under American leadership, and the peace of the
world could
be securely established. But I fear that respect for international
justice
will prevent Washington from adopting this policy.
In view of the reluctance of
mankind
to form voluntarily an effective international authority, we must
hope,
and perhaps we
may expect, that after the next world war some one Power will
emerge with
such preponderant strength as to be able to establish a peaceful
hegemony
over the rest of the globe. The next war, unless it comes very soon,
will
endanger all civilized government; but if any civilized government
survives
and achieves supremacy, there will
again be a possibility of ordered progress and of the
utilization of
science for happiness rather than for destruction.
One is tempted to feel that Man
is
being punished, through the agency of his own evil passions, for
impiety
in inquiring too closely into the hidden secrets of Nature. But
such a
feeling is unduly defeatist. Science is capable of conferring
enormous
boons: it can lighten labour, abolish poverty, and enormously
diminish
disease. But if science is to bring benefits instead of death, we
must
bring to bear upon social, and especially international,
organization,
intelligence of the same high order that has enabled us to discover
the
structure of the atom. To do this effectively we must free
ourselves from
the domination of ancient shibboleths, and think freely,
fearlessly,
and
rationally about the new and appalling problems with which the
human race
is confronted by its conquest of
scientific power.
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