Sixty-eight years ago today, the nuclear physicist, Robert Oppenheimer, uttered our title quote from the Bhagavad Gita on watching the world's first atomic bomb explode in the New Mexico desert. In the quote, Vishnu, the supreme god in Hinduism, speaks of his incarnation as Shiva, the Destroyer or Transformer.
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| Shiva as Lord of the Dance [of life] India, ca 1000 |
No one at Trinity Site that day really knew what would happen. To a few of our nation's brightest nuclear experts, the word "nothing" came to mind, not even a explosion. Others were concerned that the chain reaction from a successful ignition would continue unrestrained with the potential of destroying the planet. Our planet and its world would survive that day, but both would be changed forever for both good and evil.
Today, the Atomic Age seems almost an afterthought as the Information Age rushes us toward technological singularity and a new age of being. On the other hand, when mushroom clouds in the desert were new, the subject filled the air with more than fallout...
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