Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

#330 - The Doomsday Machine

13 snips

Aug 16, 2023

Topics discussed include the ethics of dropping atomic bombs, the history and future of nuclear proliferation, cyber vulnerabilities, the war in Ukraine, growing tensions between the U.S. and China, artificial intelligence, and the role for private citizens in mitigating nuclear risk.

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INSIGHT

Hidden Costs Of The Manhattan Project

Oppenheimer's story omits many victims and production harms, revealing a collective failure of imagination about nuclear consequences.
Carl Robichaud urges we remember downwinders and cleanup legacies when assessing nuclear history.

INSIGHT

Black Saturday's Narrow Avoidance

Black Saturday during the Cuban Missile Crisis was the closest the world came to nuclear catastrophe.
Multiple simultaneous errors that day show brinkmanship myths and the fragility of nuclear stability.

ANECDOTE

Submarine Captain Who Almost Launched Nukes

During Black Saturday a Soviet submarine captain authorized a nuclear torpedo, but a superior officer refused to launch.
That single decision prevented a potential nuclear escalation that day.

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Sam Harris speaks with Carl Robichaud about the ongoing threat of nuclear war. They discuss the film "Oppenheimer," the ethics of dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the false lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the history and future of nuclear proliferation, the logic of deterrence, cyber vulnerabilities, the history of de-escalation, the war in Ukraine, war games, the nuclear taboo, growing tensions between the U.S. and China, artificial intelligence, getting to nuclear zero, the role for private citizens in mitigating nuclear risk, the Longview Nuclear Risk Policy Fund (https://www.longview.org/fund/nuclear-weapons-policy-fund/), and other topics.

Carl Robichaud co-leads Longview’s program on nuclear weapons policy. For more than a decade, Carl led grantmaking in nuclear security at the Carnegie Corporation of New York, a philanthropic fund which grants over $30 million annually to strengthen international peace and security. Previously, Carl worked with The Century Foundation and the Global Security Institute, where his research spanned arms control, international security policy, and nonproliferation. Robichaud holds an MPA in public policy and international affairs from Princeton University and a BA from Wesleyan University. He is a 1999 Thomas J. Watson fellow and a 2003 Harold W. Rosenthal fellow for international affairs and security at the Stimson Center and the Council on Foreign Relations. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Elsie Kagan, a painter.

Website: https://www.longview.org/fund/nuclear-weapons-policy-fund/

Twitter: @carlrobichaud

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