Ethical Aspects of the Development of Atomic Energy

Abstract

WHEN I read the editorial article in Nature of December 21 on “Ethical Aspects of the Development of Atomic Energy” I had not seen “Programme for Survival” by Prof. Lewis Mumford, reviewed in that Article. I have now obtained and read it-with surprise ; for you say “Unconditional co-operation, Prof. Mumford holds, is the price of mankind's survival ; and he sets that as the objective, urgent and imperative, but not to be attained unilaterally or forthwith as Mr. Lionel Curtis is inclined to suggest”. Yet on p. 4, Prof. Mumford writes, “We must think swiftly, plan swiftly, act swiftly”. I am all the more puzzled because the article in Nature had noted that “Prof. Mumford is as insistent as scientific men themselves that we have only a limited time in which to learn the art of control and to prevent the suicidal misuse of scientific knowledge”.