timeline of the doomsday clock - 1950 onward

In timeline of the doomsday clock - 1950 onward we continue to look at the effects of weapons of mass destruction on the psyche of humans. 

In the first part called doomsday clock we went had a general look at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and at how Eugene Rabinowitch brought together the attempts of many scientific and non scientific minds in a publication that was meant to warn people of the impending doom that was present when the ability to control atomic energy was introduced into the toolbox of human evolution.

In section two we took a look at the early history of atomic science from the 1890's when alpha rays were discovered until the late 1940's when the Soviet Union and the US were playing mind games with atomic weapons of mass destruction in what was the arms race.

This time we enter the timeline of the doomsday clock in 1953.

In 1950 it became evident that the knowledge about atomic energy was presenting global security issues beyond the ability to make war on land. Several top level scientists held top level secrets. Klaus Fuchs, a scientist with the Manhattan Project, admits to having sold such secrets to the Soviet Union. In 1951 other informants are convicted of treason and are executed. By 1954 even Oppenheimer who was made a top executive in the Manhattan Project early on, loses some of his security clearance due to his questionable loyalties. 

The Brits suffer a setback when a nuclear reactor goes critical. 

1952 sees the invention of an hydrogen bomb with superior destruction power of previous atomic weapons and both the US and the Soviets have the technology to build such a WMD. (the soviet unions bomb was not a true hydrogen bomb). 

With this new threat to humanity our chances for survival are once again assessed to be at greater odds by the atomic scientists.

In 1953 the minute hand of the Doomsday Clock moves from 3 to 2. We are according to these brilliant men to be on the doorsteps of being finite things in an infinite cosmos.

However through diplomatic dialogue such as the Pugwash Conference where US an Soviet scientists are allowed to interact the years leading up to 1960 find the nuclear threat diminishing and our survival probabilities are reassessed.

We score well, or as well as we did in 1947. The minute to midnight hand falls back to seven in 1960. 

In the early years of the 1960's much progress was made in restoring some form of civility amongst nations. Treaties were signed to limit the amount of nuclear tests could be made by individual nations but not all tests were terminated. Underground testing of nuclear weapons continued on. By 1963 we were positioned at 12 minutes to midnight. But super powers never seem to rest for very long. Maybe it is something with human pride that progress means doing it better than the next guy and by doing it better usually means that the key to power remains with those who are ahead of the game. 

By 1968 France and China had entered the nuclear war game and while the peace movement was flaring up in the minds of the youth who saw themselves trapped in regional wars in places like Vietnam, India and elsewhere the nuclear threat was again gaining momentum.

Back to 7 on the Doomsday clock scale we went.

The Nuclear-Non Proliferation Treaty of 1969 which allowed for nuclear advancement by nations who signed up if they agreed to forego building atomic weaponry. This same treaty held a condition that those nations who already held arsenals of nuclear weapons would reduce their stockpiles when political conditions were deemed appropriate.

Good for a score of 10 by the end of the 1960's.

In the 1970's the minute hand of Doomsday was reset three times. 12 - 9 - and back to 7.

More war treaties help us get to 12 in 1972

• SALT - Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty
• ABM - Anti Ballistic Missile Treaty

And in 1974 to when the treaties seemed to be only mind games of war that allowed the Super Powers to upgrade their atomic technology instead of reducing the existing arsenal it was back to 9.

By 1980 it was deja vu all over again and back to seven where it all began some 33 years earlier.

The 1980's decade was filled with wars and rumours of wars. Carter pulled the US out of the Olympics in 1981 and Reagan who succeeded him was talking about new world orders ( and aliens). Winning the nuclear war game is more important than ending the mind game of war or the rumours of war called the cold war.

The atomic scientists are onto this rhetoric however and they lessen our chances to 4. Then to 3 in 1984. But in 1988 our world leaders ( wantabee overlords in the making !!!) sign new treaties and we are vindicated slightly - not quite seven but a six nonetheless shows some progress amongst a civilized species.

In the 1990's we simply surpass ourselves ( trying to think in terms of the leaders being the cabal of the collective is hard when they do not always seem to ethically represent the "we the people" concept). But our Doomsday Clock score remains above 10 for the better part of the last decade of the millenium. 

1990 - 10 - 1991 - 17 - 1995 - 14....Just when it looked like we might be out of the Vedic age of the Kali Yuga and entering the golden age of Nirvana the pendulum swings us back into single digits in 1998.

9 - The Vedic Yuga cycles are an Hindu spiritual concept. It just seems to fit with the idea that India and Pakistan were staging Nuclear tests in 1998 which is one reason why the atomic scientists bumped us back into the Kali Yuga. Of course the Russians and the Americans weren't helping out any so who's overlords are we to blame for being misdirected earthlings bent on self destruction.

Interestingly enough, even after the 9-11 incidents in Manhattan when the towers were hit and destroyed in an event that sent tensions on the rise throughout the world the doomsday clock never fell below 7. 

This attack on human life followed by the psychological effects of the Y2K bug which could have but never did cause havoc in the digital realm along with other social issues such as cloning, such as playing with other nuclear realms like spontaneous DNA and stem cells, such as using nanobots inside living biological tissues and inside organisms of all types, leaves a lot of room for open debate about what constitutes threats to the survival of humanity and of the planet. 

It leaves a lot of room for what atomic size problem will move the doomsday clock next.

Many atomic scientists are serious when they talk of the nuclear wars being the least of our problems in the future. 

Will we survive ?

The best that we have is now. For as long as we are mortals no one survives forever in the material realm. And immortality, as far as I know, is still a subject of religion, and of para science, and of mythology.

So far I have looked at the doomsday clock issue from the perspective of known sciences and of a reality that is thought to us through modern day school curriculum.

We teach what we know can be quantified logically as science. Otherwise we teach it as art and poetry. Yes, good ole poiesis. The stuff of mythology and of a realm that exists only in the world of dragons, demons, and angels.

For the next section of this series on the doomsday clock and the timeline of the doomsday clock I propose a venture into the more mysterious and conspiratorial world of lesser accepted sciences.

If I get there before you do then the link is below. Otherwise I have been delayed by a need to do something that will make me a better and more responsible contributor to society.

Thanks for reading.