Omniorthogonal
One of the favorite tropes of SF is the mad scientist. He (always he) represents the disruptive power of modern science to old beliefs, and of modern technology to old ways of life. He becomes crazed with this power, and wreaks havoc with the terror of his discoveries. The very first SF novel, “Frankenstein”, is about him, and Jules Verne cemented the meme with the noble and tragic Captain Nemo. Half of SF movies play on this, whether it’s Dr Morbius in “Forbidden Planet” (1956) with the planet-sized engine
Yet the great recent movie “Oppenheimer” shows how ridiculous this is. J. Robert Oppenheimer was the most famous and influential scientist in the world in the late 1940s. He led the team that created the fission bomb, and so cut short the greatest war in human history. He himself was the very picture of a magus: vastly erudite, tall, skeletal, and with piercing, electric-blue eyes. He dominated every room he was in, and women took notice. His direct scientific contributions were minor, but he knew and had t
Yet the core story of the movie is how he came to ruin when he crossed the actual masters of the country. He knew that the nuclear arms race would be madness, but couldn’t prevent it. He argued for international control of nuclear weapons, and for not taking the vastly expensive and dangerous step towards fusion bombs, and they simply ignored him. When he kept protesting, they made a point of humiliating him. It was slyly done, through innuendo about his leftist connections and his adulterous affairs, and t
Omniorthogonal