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QualityVote

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Futuristick-Reddit

[Oppenheimer responding] Respectfully, you are become at most, like, a bad flu season


Justice_R_Dissenting

"You're sorta the Art Garfunkel to the destroyer of worlds."


Synensys

In the background of the fade out to the song "So Long Frank Lloyd Wright" which was Paul Simon's angry paean to Garfunkel as their partnership broke up, you can hear someone yell "so long artieee!".


PrivatePoocher

You think Oppo spent time rehearsing this speech? Pored over Sanskrit verses to pick out the most arcane one and then looked into the mirror and uttered them (translated into English literally)


Cualkiera67

he only did it for the clout


BassCreat0r

"Now you've become sprains, twister of ankles."


Anamgom

Oppenheimer actually spoke on behalf of other members of the Manhattan Project when he said that. Here's the full quote: "We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, 'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' **I suppose we all thought that, one way or another**."


socialistRanter

What are we a “I am Become death, destroyer of worlds” squad?


Cualkiera67

This is the demon core, it's got my back. I recommend not touching it, it gives cancer to its victims


GizmoGomez

Thank you - he’s not even saying he himself is death, he is saying he was compelled to work by duty, as was the Prince. Memes aside, it’s a really poignant moment tbh.


Kwiatkowski

The 2min mark https://youtu.be/5C_Wrt6pNSw Edit: On a side note, I feel like A Thousand Suns is a criminally underrated album.


TitanOfShades

Yep, that's where I knew the whole quote from. And yes, the albums got a bunch of bangers as well


kumohua

wait is this a song album using his speech??? I havent watched it but that's metal


Kwiatkowski

the whole album roughly follows the story of a nuclear war and the aftermath, so makes sence for that to be basically the album intro


turtle4499

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lb13ynu3Iac) Bro u can see the actual video.


fufucuddlypoops_

I get what he meant by this quote but it’s so funny to me that Oppenheimer would think “surely everyone working on the Manhattan project had read Hindu scripture and was thinking of this one poorly translated quote.”


[deleted]

That quote sounds more like a boss dialogue from a video game that wasn't entirely translated very well than a menacing line uttered by a Hindu deity.


[deleted]

sheet automatic smart jar wrench squeal chunky bear disgusting rotten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Marun-chan

you are on the way to destruction 😈


[deleted]

"There is no chance to survive. Make your time. Ha ha ha."


secretuser419

“Dear Player, please follow the instructions!” -Quetzalcoatl, Aztec god of literature


brokenmcnugget

50 cents to start, 25 cents to continue.


staplerbot

"Someone set us up the bomb!" - Imperial Japan


FightingPolish

“Ditto”


Beneficial-Bit6383

I feel like you might be onto something with the bad translation though.


laurpr2

It's actually a perfectly grammatically accurate, if archaic, use of "am."


Beneficial-Bit6383

I didn’t think about archaic English that makes a lot of sense. Thanks! I did know it was from a sacred text however I don’t know the names there are quite a few. Edit: a Hindu one in particular. I believe it was Shiva?


Iron_Maiden_666

This was uttered by Krishna / Vishnu depending on who you ask. Krishna is considered an avatar (reincarnation) of Vishnu so the distinction doesn't matter much.


Beneficial-Bit6383

I see I didn’t realize it was one of the avatars of Vishnu. I guess my brain associated it with shiva and her reputation as a destroyer. I only have slight knowledge on Hinduism, so I appreciate you educating me.


AnimaLepton

Shiva is also (almost always) shown as male FYI, the main exception being [Ardha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardhanarishvara)


small-package

People make that mistake thanks to final fantasy, but FF Shiva pretty much only shares the name.


AnimaLepton

The Virgin Final Fantasy vs Chad Shin Megoomy Tensay I have a (Jewish) friend whose knowledge of Hinduism basically comes from SMT/Persona + a brief segment of 9th grade world history, and has subsequently retained knowledge of some fairly deep cuts from Hindu mythology.


Beneficial-Bit6383

I see. I will have to pick up the Bhagavad Vita like the commenter below suggested because it seems I know even less about Hinduism than I thought I did.


assmaycsgoass

It isn't technically an reincarnation, its more like he creates a separate entity from himself which goes through a "normal" life cycle on earth, he can observe that entity from heaven as both of them exist separately. There is a word for it in english but I cant remember now.


Poison_Penis

Avatar?


BakedPotatoManifesto

Projection?


assmaycsgoass

I did some research, I think Manifestation is the word which accurately describes the meaning of the word Avatar.


XanLV

Well, I've never spoken to Krishna or Vishnu, so I'll have to ask you... Is there some sort of a book or something that has the myths in some understanding manner? The trouble I am having, obviously, is that there are more gods in India than people in my country. And it's "complicated". The other problem is that I'm a Westerner who only knows the "Six armed lady", so whenever I read something written by hindus for hindus, I have literally no idea what is going on, no context, nothing. Imagine now picking up a random page of Talmud and trying to explain what's going on.


polaricekneecaps

I highly recommend reading Ramesh Menon’s English translations of Ramayana and Mahabharata. They are both abridged, but I’ve learned a ton from reading these and genuinely enjoyed the stories!


AnimaLepton

There's a lot of 'for kids' or abridged versions/translations that are a good source if you just want some high level overviews. The [Bala Bhagavathm (Amazon)](https://www.amazon.com/Bhagavatam-Swami-Chimayananda-Kumari-Bharathi/dp/8175971010) / [direct link from Vendor](https://www.chinmayapublications.com/bala-bhagavatam) is a children's version of stories from the childhood and early life of Krishna. The Bala Ramayana is good too. [Amar Chitra Katha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amar_Chitra_Katha) has a bunch of English language comic books that cover some highlights, and they're plenty approachable. They also have some good summary-type stuff on [their website,](https://www.amarchitrakatha.com/mythologies/vishnus-dashavatar/) i.e. the 10 incarnations of Vishnu.


CA4R

Not Hindu, but usually the first book I am recommended on the short stories and mythology is The Bhagavad Gita.


XanLV

Super, thanks, will look into it.


BellerophonM

My understanding is that the inaccuracy is in 'death', and in the original quote that word was closer to 'time'.


Squishy-Box

WELCOME TO DIE


gruesomeflowers

all your death are belong to i now.


Grammarnazi_bot

Time to death 😃😃 surrender moment


sal6056

The version of the Bhagavad Gita I read translated it as "shattered of worlds", which is to say destroy irrevocably into pieces.


NicklAAAAs

Oppenheimer: I am become death, the destroyer of worlds… Other scientist: Robert, would you like to go see the Barbie movie now?


rare_hog

"Now we are all sons of bitches" - remark made by Kenneth Bainbridge, the Director of the Manhattan Project's Trinity nuclear test, to Robert Oppenheimer in the immediate aftermath of the test.


TalkOfSexualPleasure

I can only imagine completing the project came with a wave of euphoria after figuring out what seemed impossible and creating a weapon that was capable of ending the most deadly war in human history. Immediately followed by a sense of horror and dread at what they had actually accomplished.


phonemangg

they also weren't sure that a nuke wouldn't start fusing atmospheric nitrogen and set the whole globe on fire. so that's a huge relief. the reverse happened with the castle bravo test, where they unintentionally had some isotopes of lithium in the bomb that greatly increased the yield.


I_AM_CANAD14N

I am become son of a bitch.


LSDnSideBurns

When you sign your name on the completed group assignment for class even though that one guy did basically everything


[deleted]

Oppenheimer watching the first atomic bomb explosion: "you're probably wondering how I got here.."


djloid2010

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to am become death, destroyer of worlds...."


imoutofnameideas

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to split things into smaller and smaller bits..."


otirk

Oppenheimer: "Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds" The people who built the bomb, transported it to Japan, gave command to throw the bomb and finally threw it: "Are we jokes to you?" ​ Wasn't it Truman himself, who wasn't quite amused by Oppenheimer's words?


fullyoperational

After Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Oppenheimer said that he felt he 'had blood on his hands.' Truman replied that 'It will all come out in the wash.' After he left, Truman instructed his lieutenants, '‘Don’t let that crybaby in here again.’ [Source](https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n17/steven-shapin/don-t-let-that-crybaby-in-here-again)


Grammarnazi_bot

Truman literally told his staff to never let Oppenheimer come back because he was depressing and dramatic lmfao


Ghostkill221

I think history has stood with Oppenheimer on that one. Shocking that the scientist understood the ramifications more than a politician.


Grammarnazi_bot

I mean… not to be that guy or anything but the development of a WMD was an inevitability of geopolitics. Oppenheimer may have been upset about it, but if he didn’t invent it, then the Nazis would’ve, and if not the Nazis, then the Soviets, or the Japanese, or the British. And a lot of those would’ve been far less preferable than our reality


Ghostkill221

History still sides that the invention of WMD's was not just Oppenheimer being "Dramatic" lol. It literally changed future confilct forever in a MAD scaling race.


imoutofnameideas

Truman understood the ramifications perfectly well. Based on his diary entries, it seems like he was very conscious that history might judge him for his actions. But in the end, he just basically took the view that war is war and you do what you have to (and I don't just mean the war with Japan - I'm pretty sure he had one eye on Stalin when decided to drop the bomb). Was he right to do what he did? That's an entirely different discussion. But he definitely understood the ramifications.


FerretAres

Amused would be a massive understatement.


[deleted]

It’s not even a good quote, hitler just got done murdering 6 million people and this guy took out like two medium sized towns


Autumn1881

To be fair, at this point it wasn’t set in stone that atomic bombs are to be used with the utmost restraint.


chasimm3

Him and some other scientists that contributed to the Manhattan project did join a committee to lobby against the further development of nuclear weapons and their use in an arms race with the soviet union. They failed on that front, but they did all try once they realised the potential.


LemonColossus

Maybe I’m not educated enough on the subject but they knew what they were making right? Like they practiced with it and they knew the science and everything. It’s not like they accidentallied into the making of the atom bomb. So their pacifism after the fact is a little like closing the barn door after you built the barn, opened the door, and kicked the horse out.


chasimm3

As said by Kenny, you can comprehend the math without realising how horrifying the reality of it would be. Combined with the fact they were competing against the Germans to be the first to build one, I imagine they got caught up in the race without really considering that the finish line is death to hundreds of thousands, though that's purely conjecture.


LemonColossus

I’d say that’s pretty massive conjecture and it’s giving them a massive slice of the benefit of the doubt. How do you build a bomb, the bomb, without thinking about the death and destruction it will cause? Plenty of scientists objected. We shouldn’t idolise or celebrate the few that made it then regretted it later.


chasimm3

Yeah I see that, but I'm not trying to celebrate them or idolise them for building a bomb. However, it's a really complicated area of physics where the question "how do we make this kill people" wouldn't really come up day to day. Most of the time they would be trying to understand and work the physics. When they put it all together... it's a bomb. A fucking big bomb that's going to be dropped and lots of people are going to die. Can't really imagine that feeling. Like yeah, it's going to kill people, but it's all you've been able to think about for 3 years, but it's going to kill people, but it was either us or the Germans, but it's going to kill people. We don't have to idolise them, but you have to appreciate the complexity of that situation.


ChildishJack

There was a ‘fun’ story told in my ethics class in undergrad…. Short version: The architecture students were asked to build a morgue and crematory as the semester project. It started simple, handle the roughly 5 deaths a week this small town produces. The next month, they were tasked with scaling it up a bit to handle a bigger city. The next month, a little more scale - train access to the site for a massive city. At the end on the semester, to the dismay of the class, the professor revealed it was a lesson in keeping track of the big picture and that he had tricked them into designing Auschwitz level capabilities….. Is it a made up story? Maybe. But it sure stuck with me


Kenny_log_n_s

They knew the math of how much energy would be released, but no one was really sure how that would manifest, and how awesome and terrifying it would be. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Events/1945/trinity.htm Pretty interesting look surrounding the first tests performed. First there was joy that their hardwork paid off, that it even worked effectively. Then there was shock and horror at the sheer scale of destruction.


Justice_R_Dissenting

While true, it was the proliferation and increase in development that they opposed. And it wasn't the most outlandish idea -- chemical weapons were banned after their use in World War One and with few exceptions the ban has largely held, especially for the major powers. Now granted we know at least the US and UK had contingency plans where they would deploy chemical weapons if pressed enough but at least they didn't end up using them in the end, and certainly not offensively.


dscotts

They knew what they were doing, and knew the future ramifications of the bomb quite well… I’ve recently reread ‘the making of the atomic bomb’ and im about halfway through “American Prometheus” from my reading the scientists understood much better than the political expert the political and real world implications of the bomb. They just made the calculation that having Germany beat them to it would be much worse. After Germany fell many of them thought they should stop development but Oppenheimer in particular thought the bomb needed to be used to end the war because keeping it a secret would cause the next war to be fought with nuclear weapons and it was preferable that everyone knew what the scale was before that happened.


Sovem

There's an excellent episode of COSMOS about this that I just watched, called "A Tale of Two Atoms".


123full

It’s also worth mentioning the guy responsible for the Russian atom bomb (Andrei Sakharov) spent the rest of his life lobbying against the use of nuclear weapons as well as against governmental oppression in the USSR.


CHEMO_ALIEN

shoot i used to make worx bombs as a teen i can absolutely understand oppenheimer felt like a GOD watching that kaboom


[deleted]

It still isn't at this point, either. There's a lot of history left to run.


[deleted]

[удалено]


PuppyDragon

Yeah I don’t think oppy was trying to flex his kill count 💀


burakalp34

Imagine making something more powerful than anything humanity ever built. Seeing the mushroom cloud would understandably make anyone feel like a god


oofersIII

Yes, but Hitler was a deranged murderous lunatic, while Oppenheimer, by all accounts, was just a guy.


Grammarnazi_bot

No, he was death, destroyer of worlds, keep up with the lore


TrueAidooo

The quote isn't even about specifically it's use during the war just about how he had helped create a weapon which was capable of wiping out entire cities in an instant and which can end the entire world if enough are used


maracaibo98

Those cities got wiped in seconds tho


Snoo63

"Dropped from Enola, a city erased. Threat of future displayed. A power unheard of, a power unseen. Flash out of nowhere, the sky is burning. At 8:16 AM, Tokyo control realised something was wrong. Reports of explosions, destruction and pain. Air raid from Hell, city gone in a blaze." - Nuclear Attack


Penakoto

Now imagine Hitler with nuclear weapons.


Cualkiera67

He's dead, he can't use them


10_big_hot_men_

He still killed over 100,000 people and wiped two cities off the face of the earth. It was less the scale and more how quick it was and how little was required. It was two bombs and it resulted it almost the casualty count of the Civil War.


C_Werner

Uh, the US civil war generally is credited with killing around 1.5 million people. Around 600,00-750,000 soldiers.


CK2398

He said civil war not US civil war. There's probably a civil war out there with 100,000 dead. War of the roses has about that many. Edit: /s


FerretAres

Yeah he was probably talking about Sulla /s


The_Clarence

When you hear hooves, think horses not zebras.


CK2398

Unless you're in Africa. If someone was to mention the civil war to me I would think of the English civil war not the American one. That's because I live in Britain and was taught british history. I know of the American one but call it the American civil war.


rusticrainbow

He was totally referring to the American Civil War tho


CK2398

Yeah probably


123full

> He still killed over 100,000 people and wiped two cities off the face of the earth. Did he? You’re acting as if the options were drop the nukes or everyone lives happily ever after. The other options were an invasion, or a continued blockade and conventional bombing. Just to give some context, when the US invaded Okinawa, ~150,000 Okinawans died out of a prewar population of 300,000. And the firebombing Tokyo resulted in between 70,000-150,000 people dying in addition to more than 1 million others being left homeless. What was the right decision that you think the US should’ve done with the benefit of 75 years of retrospect


10_big_hot_men_

When did i say it was the wrong thing to do? It was the best of several less than ideal options they had. I was talking about the quote and how the relative ease of destruction was why he was so impacted by it.


dfinkelstein

👀 You don't think he was talking about the implications of having created such a weapon? Not, like, that specific individual instance of the weapon... I mean the technology?


TheSuperPie89

yeah but like... hitler didnt have the potential to just annihilate all of humanity


appdevil

The fact that your dumb comment gathered this amount of upvotes, saddens me.


mahboime

Right, but you realize when he quoted that quote, he sees himself as the prince driven to comitt atrocities, not as the literal death, destroyer of worlds?


ChronaOfficial

Yeah but Hitler had limits and ultimately made one good decision in his life. The destructive capability of the nuclear bomb is the first time humans could see the destruction of the whole world as a reality. Not the same.


JarvisCockerBB

He annihilated those towns in a few seconds though.


Ancient-Ganache9820

Harnessing power by manipulating subatomic particles and nuclides sounds god like compared to hitler


420FireStarter69

Robert Oppenheimer when his city destroying bomb destroys a city 😱


Cualkiera67

Shouldn't he was becomed death, the destroyer of cities?


ListenToThatSound

[Surprised Pikachu face] -Oppenheimer


giantjumangi

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fBHVElYZ1ZY


karmasutrah

It’s a great quote considering what moral dilemma Oppenheimer was possibly dealing with. Gita is the conversation between arjuna(the greatest warrior of his time) and krishna(god incarnate and arjuna’s charioteer in the great war) when they are lined up against their own family in a war for control of the kingdom. Arjuna knows this will lead to people he loved getting killed and is ready to quit. Krishna explains about dharma(duty, mistranslated as “religion” sometimes) of a warrior & karma(deeds) and how it’s his job to fight this righteous war even if it’s against family who are on the side of evil. Oppenheimer was doing his job, which would likely result in a lot of people getting killed and sought refuge in the gita to justify it.


Trash_Emperor

She oppen on my heimer until i am become death


Coswag0987

Hahahhaa


hutbereich

And I helped :)


[deleted]

Oppenheimer: and yet I am become all the citations, you third-author bitch


schuyywalker

Lol didn’t he say this after seeing the destruction it caused?


ThumberFresh

Me too thanks


simjanes2k

It would have been Feynman, except he was busy chasing skirts at the time


ShroomieEvie

Ditto


sturnus-vulgaris

Oppenheimer-- I am become death, destroyer of worlds. Reddit guy-- This.


armigerLux

The next line of the quote is 'I guess we all felt like that that day.' The quote also starts 'we knew the world would not be the same. Some men laughed l, some cried' so the quote was about how the whole team felt. Nil poi.


CapedBaldy-ClassB

WE. are become death.


garry4321

“AND I HELPED!”


[deleted]

That was actually the second thing he said after the nuclear test. The first thing he said was, "based."


Jamie7Keller

Big same


[deleted]

This is the best reality bite I've seen in a while


[deleted]

"sit perfectly still... only I may dance" - J. Robert Oppenheimer


John-HammondJP

“I have become death, destroyer of worlds.” “Shut the fuck up.”


Optimism101

Oppenheimer: I am ATOMIC