{"id":12742,"date":"2014-06-01T13:30:20","date_gmt":"2014-06-01T17:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etherwave.wordpress.com\/?p=12742"},"modified":"2014-06-01T13:30:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-01T17:30:20","slug":"warren-weaver-planned-science-and-the-lessons-of-world-war-ii-pt-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rational-action.com\/etherwave\/2014\/06\/01\/warren-weaver-planned-science-and-the-lessons-of-world-war-ii-pt-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Warren Weaver, Planned Science, and the Lessons of World War II, Pt. 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The real roadmap for postwar science?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In August 1945, the sense that the war held important lessons for how peacetime science should be organized was dramatically augmented by the atomic bombing of Japan, and the release of the Smyth report<\/span><\/a><\/span>, detailing the massive collective scientific and engineering effort that went into producing the bomb.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an editorial entitled “The Lesson of the Bomb,” published August 19, 1945—a week after the Smyth report’s release—the\u00a0New York Times\u00a0<\/em>immediately spelled out the ramifications. \u00a0It observed, “The Western democracies at least have been rudely awakened to what the ‘social impact’ of science means. Books enough have been written on the subject, but it took the bomb to make us realize that the discussions were not just academic.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Times<\/i>\u00a0noted that scientists had always organized scientific conventions to share their work,\u00a0“<\/i>This time they were organized to solve an urgent problem. They solved it not in the fifty years expected before the war but in three, and they solved it so rapidly because they were organized and competently directed. Why,” the editorial asked, “should not the same principle be followed in peace?” <\/span><\/p>\n

The era of demanding a “Manhattan Project” to solve this or that problem had begun.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The editorial\u00a0went on to note, “There are enormous gaps in our knowledge that need to be filled,” and it\u00a0selected out\u00a0the following “disgraces,” among the “thousands” that existed, that could be cured if only “our niggardliness and blindness” were put aside, and a suitable scientific effort expended:<\/span><\/p>\n