"...one returns to the greatest developments of the twentieth century, to the discovery of relativity, and to the whole development of atomic theory and its interpretation...These things, as you know, forced us to re-consider the relations between science and common sense...They forced us to be prepared for the inadequacy of the ways in which human beings attempted to deal with reality"
There's a deeply philosophical undercurrent here, largely from the consideration that science, the height of mans endeavors via his senses, has developed to such a degree that even the fundamental ways in which we come to understanding of the world, have to be reconsidered in their entirety.
Also, whatisthe relationship between science and common sense, post atomic theory?
At first thought, it might be that science is no longer corroborative of common sense, harkening back to Galileo's argument about relative movement of an object being dropped, and the rotation of the earth, but then one realizes that many times, science went against the common sense of the day, and one generations science, is the next generations common sense, which will naturally be overturned by the following generations science.
However, going more deeply into the nature of atomic/quantum theory, it might be that science is now warning against the common sense du jour, and demanding us to approach it with none of our assumptions, to leave behind [as much as possible] the inadequacy of the ways in which human beings attempted to deal with [and understand] reality.
I think that it hardly needs to be said why the impact is so strong. There are three reasons: one is the extraordinary speed with which things which were right on the frontier of science were translated into terms where they affected many living people, and potentially all people.
The increase in technological capability released by the developments in physics made their way to the "average joe" faster than perhaps any advancements made prior, save for the industrial revolution, however, I'm not certain the magnitude of the industrial advancements come close to those of quantum theory, with the consideration of the release of atomic energy or the storage of information via electrical current, and the subsequent speed of the calculations that could be done via the device doing the storage. The implications of this are also much greater, though, perhaps in their positive aspects only- if one considers the relationship between the industrial revolution and the automobile, and the climate change crisis, the negative aspect of the industrial revolution may in fact be commensurate with the development of nuclear weapons: both have the potential to make the planet uninhabitable.
Another is the fact, quite accidental in many ways, and connected with the speed, that scientists themselves played such a large part, not merely in providing the foundation for atomic weapons, but in actually making them. In this we are certainly closer to it than any other group.
It is actually bonkers, when one considers the ramifications of The Manhattan Project, that the leading mathematicians and physicists of the day were sequestered by the military for building nuclear munitions. Typically we think of these scientists as being left to do their theoretical work, which is then transmitted to the engineers who can instantiate something by applying the theory, but in this case, the scientists, were the engineers.
The third is that the thing we made -- partly because of the technical nature of the problem, partly because we worked hard, partly because we had good breaks -- really arrived in the world with such a shattering reality and suddenness that there was no opportunity for the edges to be worn off.
Szilard gave us the idea of the nuclear chain reaction in 1933, and the Manhattan project began in 1939, and so, the atomic bomb was developed in roughly 12 years. Even if you go back to 1900, where Planck gave us the quantum of action, there's a 45 year gap from machine guns to nuclear weapons, which is incredibly rapid, considering the amount of time it took us to go from arrows to bullets.
As soon as the bomb was completed, it was dropped, and so the scientific/military community of the world woke up and found themselves in an entirely new timeline- sure they were aware that it was being attempted, but upon seeing it exercised so quickly after creation, it probably resulted in some sort of existential shellshock: we can dothatnow.
In considering what the situation of science is, it may be helpful to think a little of what people said and felt of their motives in coming into this job...There was in the first place the great concern that our enemy might develop these weapons before we did, and the feeling -- at least, in the early days, the very strong feeling -- that without atomic weapons it might be very difficult, it might be an impossible, it might be an incredibly long thing to win the war.
Certainly, I can imagine that, giving their own understanding of the possibility of nuclear weapons, how close they were to being realized, and the number of talented German mathematicians and Physicists working for the enemy (Heisenberg, for instance), that the fear of a German nuclear weapon was palpable, and logical.
In fact, apparently this fear was so great that there were plans to kidnap or kill Heisenberg, very serious plans, which were actually put in motion: an assassin was sent to a lecture of his with orders to shoot him in the event of Germany being close to an atomic weapon, as he was obviously an extremely important player in their nuclear program.
Now I have to consider just how many other times the U.S. government has attempted or considered to kill physicists due to fear over the things they might help other countries or factions develop.
Another interesting tidbit is that a lot of the officials from the Nazi party that had certain training and knowledge, in intellectual realms, found quite a nice home in America, and elsewhere, helped by the American government still, which again speaks to the value the U.S. government put on the intellectual storehouse that was the Nazi party/Nazi Germany.
Though it is also worth noting that Germany itself decreased the size of this storehouse by exiling Jewish mathematicians and physicists from professorial duties and research positions, as well as the number of people who emigrated because they found the doctrine of the party repugnant.