“Scientists on the Manhattan Project continued developing the atomic bomb even after it was clear that there was no need to” by shawnghu

Note: I'm not a WWII history buff, so if there's any significant misinterpretation of relevant history here, I welcome corrections in the comments.

In December 1944, Joseph Rotblat, a physicist working on the Manhattan project, resigned. He had reasoned that Germany had most likely abandoned its bomb project, and so his initial reason for working on the bomb was no longer valid. He would later ask himself:

Why did other scientists not make the same decision? [...]there were many scientists for whom the German factor was the main motivation. Why did they not quit when this factor ceased to be?

According to him, conversations with the other scientists suggested the following reasons (emphasis mine):

The most frequent reason given was pure and simple scientific curiosity—the strong urge to find out whether the theoretical calculations and predictions would come true. [...]

Others were [...] persuaded by the argument that many American lives would be saved if the bomb brought a rapid end to the war with Japan. Only when peace was restored would they take a hand in efforts to ensure that the bomb would not be used again.[...]

Still others, while agreeing that the project should have been stopped [...]

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Outline:

(04:25) Adverse epistemic environments

(05:16) Beating a dead horse

(05:47) Appendix: Some nitpicking about whether it was in fact clear that Germany didn't have a bomb

(06:31) Appendix: Some other provocative quotes from the Franck report

(08:09) Appendix: More quotes

(09:53) Past discussions of the matter on LW

The original text contained 7 footnotes which were omitted from this narration.

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First published:
October 1st, 2026

Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/CjZJLXRMDdbgAH3iG/scientists-on-the-manhattan-project-continued-developing-the

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.