Quote from: ducpainter on December 14, 2011, 03:29:40 PM


How much tinfoil ends up in hats?  

Not enough.

Quote from: ducpainter on December 14, 2011, 03:29:40 PM
It would not be cost effective.

How much tinfoil ends up in hats? 

2.7%

In my current, part-time gig promoting shows for a local performance hall, I learned an interesting fact while working on an Oak Ridge Boys show last year. The original iteration of the Oak Ridge Boys got their start as full-time, professional musicians in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Not all that remarkable, until you learn that at that time - during the Manhattan Project - Oak Ridge didn't officially exist. It wasn't just a secret facility made up entirely of scientists and project workers, but a community of families with churches of several denominations, segregated neighborhoods, and (the part that blew my mind) dozens of full-time, professional musicians. 75,000 people by 1945 in a town that had been home to 2,000 or fewer before 1942, was surrounded by fences and guard towers, and didn't appear on any map, or so Wikipedia tells me.

While I understood a little bit how the Soviets could pull off secret city stuff in an authoritarian system with some of their aerospace & military programs, to me the story of the Oak Ridge Boys and the scope of the Manhattan Project is a testament to just how desperate those times were. WWII touched every family in this country directly, personally and often tragically in a way that, blessedly, is unrivaled in our national experience since that time.

To me, an equally valid question would be not just "could we replicate the Manhattan Project," but "what hellishly dire circumstances could push us to do so?"

Quote from: triangleforge on December 14, 2011, 03:40:20 PM
To me, an equally valid question would be not just "could we replicate the Manhattan Project," but "what hellishly dire circumstances could push us to do so?"

I'd like to hope not to see circumstances that dire but history, if nothing else, proves we will have "something" come around again 

hope we'd be up to the task

Quote from: triangleforge on December 14, 2011, 03:40:20 PM
<snip>  To me, an equally valid question would be not just "could we replicate the Manhattan Project," but "what hellishly dire circumstances could push us to do so?"

Those were my thoughts also upon seeing this thread.  And with today's technology, sixty-something years of exponential science and engineering progress since the original Manhattan Project, I am struggling trying to comprehend what the results would be of such an effort now.   May it never happen.

Old thought but why can't we or why don't we put such an effort into curing cancer, mental illnesses, or renewable energy sources. Seems that positive goals do not strike the same chord as goals forged in desperation.

Why was there a Manhattan project? We needed to be able to kill a whole bunch of folks at once before someone else beat us to it.

Why did we go to the moon? If we didn't do it, the Soviets might. And that was unacceptable.

We could probably land on Mars in the next decade if we found aliens there that needed shot, or the Chinese threatened to get there first.

(And if our monumentally poor economic policies didn't destroy the dollar between now and then.)

"what hellishly dire circumstances could push us to do so?"

Easy. Two words. Zombie apocalypse. Real life "Walking Dead".

Can we do it today?  Yes.  Is it going right now?  I have no doubt the government is working on something for "just in case we need it".

Twenty bucks say they are working on a Death Star.

Quote from: Goat_Herder on December 14, 2011, 04:18:33 PM
Can we do it today?  Yes.  Is it going right now?  I have no doubt the government is working on something for "just in case we need it".

The movies got it all wrong. Mad scientists don't hold nations ransom. No, they work for the governments of those nations.

Quote from: fastwin on December 14, 2011, 04:20:10 PM
Twenty bucks say they are working on a Death Star.

Cloning

Quote from: triangleforge on December 14, 2011, 03:40:20 PM
In my current, part-time gig promoting shows for a local performance hall, I learned an interesting fact while working on an Oak Ridge Boys show last year. The original iteration of the Oak Ridge Boys got their start as full-time, professional musicians in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Not all that remarkable, until you learn that at that time - during the Manhattan Project - Oak Ridge didn't officially exist. It wasn't just a secret facility made up entirely of scientists and project workers, but a community of families with churches of several denominations, segregated neighborhoods, and (the part that blew my mind) dozens of full-time, professional musicians. 75,000 people by 1945 in a town that had been home to 2,000 or fewer before 1942, was surrounded by fences and guard towers, and didn't appear on any map, or so Wikipedia tells me.

While I understood a little bit how the Soviets could pull off secret city stuff in an authoritarian system with some of their aerospace & military programs, to me the story of the Oak Ridge Boys and the scope of the Manhattan Project is a testament to just how desperate those times were. WWII touched every family in this country directly, personally and often tragically in a way that, blessedly, is unrivaled in our national experience since that time.

To me, an equally valid question would be not just "could we replicate the Manhattan Project," but "what hellishly dire circumstances could push us to do so?"

Holy shit, that's incredible!!

The Oak Ridge Boys are still touring?!

Could we do this today?

Totally.

We'd just need to be on a war footing again.

Quote from: Drunken Monkey on December 14, 2011, 05:30:11 PM
Could we do this today?

Totally.

We'd just need to be on a war footing again.

again for how much longer than the last ten years?

seriously, i have no doubt that some day we will find that our scientists worked for X number of years in total secrecy before finally revealing something we would never even think of (Gene Roddenberry and George Lucas excluded.)

Manhattan Project today?

I think Iran is busy working on one as we sleep.