Does anybody else feel sorry for Einstein?

Question

In a sense he gave the people of the world the key to the doors of Armageddon. He did not turn the key but he forged it and handed it to the people that had the power to turn his creation into the most destructive force that man has ever controlled, the nuclear bomb.

He lived long enough to witness the destruction that his brain-child brought down on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and saw the tests carried out by the United States, beyond the point of being able to stop it.

Think of what he must have felt...
Think of the guilt.

Answer 1

Einstein actually felt guilty. He was reported to have said that if he knew in advance the effects of the relativity theory (nukes), he would have "made cuckoo clocks for a living."

Answer 2

Einstien was not soley responsible for the concepts behind the atomic bomb. In fact, for the longest time, he could not be convinced that it was possible, and he singed the famous open letter to the president only grudgingly. It has been said that if Einstien had not come along, it would only have been perhaps another ten years at the most before someone else discovered special relativity.

It should also be noted that the laws of special relativity do not explicitly state the famous mass / energy equivalence. E=mc^2 was first published in a follow-up paper about some special applications of the laws.

So, he can hardly be blamed for initiating the atomic era.

Interestingly, it is also suggested that without Einstien, we would still be waiting for someone to come up with the theory of General Relativity, an altogether more shocking and important discovery.

Answer 3

Einstein was a brilliant thinker, and he described the physics behind the matter-energy relationship that makes nuclear weaponry possible, but he did't give us the key to it; that was done without him. Enrico Fermi is more the one who did that than Albert Einstein.

Please remember that the mass-energy relationship Einstein developed was only a small part of what he did; relativity is much larger, and frankly the largest thing he did (in my opinion) was his finalizing most of the physics of the photoelectric effect.

As much as nuclear energy has revolutionized human activity, I think the photoelectric effect has done far more: its results include:

Digital cameras
Solar power
Photocells
Scanners
Photocopiers

and probably a lot of other things I can't think of at the moment. If I pity him (and I don't), it would be for his being remembered more for the lesser contribution than the greater contribution--or for being blamed for harm he really didn't make possible, and not getting any credit for the great good he did make possible.

Did he feel guilt? I don't know. Again, if I write a prescription for an appropriate medication, in a proper dose and in a logical amount of doses, and a patient combines that with something else to purposely commit suicide, I feel regret that they did it, but I did no wrong. (Particularly with benzodiazepines and barbiturates, I've had patients combine a handful of doses with a fifth of hooch, despite being told not to.) Regret? A sense of loss? Yes. Guilt? No. Since I figure Einstein was brighter and more insightful than I am, I have to figure he'd see through that, too.

Just my opinion, of course

Answer 4

There is potential to corrupt the original purpose within any well-intentioned invention. No, I don't feel sorry for him because (1) he is not around to feel the destruction that is probably unavoidable at this point and (2) he and his family were compensated very well just like the people who are willing to sell out their own people today for prestige and whatever else they can gain personally. If it wasn't him, it would have been someone else. This goal has been brewing for a long, long time. He may not have intended it that way, but that's how it's turned out. Besides, what could he possibly have expected to happen?

Answer 5

Dirac, deBroglie, Heisenberg, Bohr, nameless other physicists, then a kazillion engineers who turned the theory into hardware. No one person can be shouldered with it all and each shares whatever history judges. Science always has been, and always will be, perverted for destruction. That is no reason to stop it, and you are not suggesting that in the post. The best any scientist or engineer can hope is that the benefit/cost ratio of their life work is >>1.

Answer 6

Don't feel sorry for him what he knows will be eventually be known by somebody else its what we call discovery. Someone out there with enough brain cells active another Destructive or Salvation idea will come about, that would carry us to another generation of criticizing how awful it was to discover something destructive. While its already been there for someone just needs to figure it out. I think they should start with Anti-gravity think of the possibilities. by the way am just bored...

Answer 7

I don't think that he created the bomb...the theory for it was known before Einstein.

I think Oppenheimer was more responsible. I also find that he had extreme arrogance, saying he was the "Now I have become death" along with his fake crocodile tears. (see short video below)

If he felt so bad about it, he would have never have led the project. He loved every minute of the fame. Teller was even worse.

Answer 8

I agree. He helped create it, but didn't invent it. But: Think about this. He did not tell Roosevelt to consider it. He did not write the letter, he was just forced to sign it. He even told Roosevelt NOT TO MAKE THE BOMB. He knew it would end the world. But they made it anyway. Sure, I feel sorry for him in this aspect, but if I were him, I would not feel guilt, but anger.

Answer 9

I am proud of Einstein. He built the worlds most powerful force its Hitler who made it destructive force. If you use the same froce for generation of power you can light-up many houses instead for destroying the same.

Answer 10

He was also offered the title of president for the united states, but he turned it down. Had he accepted, maybe his creation wouldnt be used for evil today!