Infinite optimism of Edward Teller

Washington Times ^ | Thursday, September 18, 2003 | Brendan Conway

[JohnHuang2]

When Edward Teller died last week at age 95, newspapers catalogued milestones in the prominent career of the physicist and public servant who gave us the H-bomb. The Washington Post called Teller "a man of intellect who was deeply involved for decades in the great public issues of his day."

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, September 18, 2003 Quote of the Day by JulieRNR21

[wideminded]

I once attended a lecture by Teller in which he proposed that technical secrets pertaining to national security be kept secret for only two years. Apparently he was optimistic enough to believe that we could maintain our edge with just a two-year lead time on new ideas.

I was surprised that someone I thought of as very conservative would make such a proposal. His idea was that the other side is always able to come up with similar technical solutions within a couple of years on their own anyway. This lecture was in the mid-1970's.