Part 4: Human Cost

• Your goal:Be able to explain,

using examples, why suffering is sometimes deemed acceptable.

What is Human Cost?

• The impact of an event on people.• The price in suffering paid to achieve a goal.

Cost Benefit Analysis

• Decision-making tool• Compares costs to benefits

• Is it worth it?

Cost Benefit Analysis

Costs Benefits$12 ticketUnhealthy foodSunburnVomitSore feet$20 souvenir t-shirt$20 ride tickets

Fun with friendsGood foodLive showsFree exhibitsArtGoatsCarnival rides

Going to the State Fair

Acceptable Risk

• Understanding what suffering might result

• Deciding that the benefits outweigh the costs

Cost Benefit Analysis

Costs BenefitsDropping the atomic bomb on Japan

The Nuclear Bomb

The United States ended World War II by dropping nuclear bombs on Japan.

•Where did this idea come from?•What is “nuclear”?•What were its effects?

Where did this idea come from?

•Decades of research in physics and chemistry•Not bomb development

It all came from the idea that matter can produce energy.

E=mc2

Albert Einstein1905

E=mc

E = mc², is based on the fact that the speed of light, c, is very fast and just a small amount of mass, m, can release large quantities of energy, E.

2

Physicists were leaving Europe.

OppenheimerAmericanEducated in Germany

SzilardHungarian JewCame to US in 1938

TellerHungarian JewCame to US in 1935

Why?

Physicists were leaving Europe.Why were such great physicists in Europe?

Why were they leaving?

Why?

Physicists were leaving Europe.Why were such great physicists in Europe?

Why were they leaving?

•Fascism•Communism•Anti-Semitism

Why?

US paid for research.Once it was shown to have the potential to be a significant weapon, the US was willing to spend lots of money on research.

It required LOTS of money, but …

•Some country will discover it soon.•It might be Nazi Germany.•We’d rather have it ourselves.

What is “nuclear”?This is an atom. All matter is made up of atoms.

This is a nucleus. Every atom has a very tiny nucleus.

What is “nuclear”?When an atom’s nucleus is hit, it breaks apart and sends out energy.

LOTS of energy

This nuclear fission can bea chain reaction.

What is “nuclear”?When an atom’s nucleus is hit, it breaks apart and sends out energy.

LOTS of energy

This is a nucleus. Every atom has a very tiny nucleus.

What is “nuclear”?We need energy for everything we do.

This is a great, clean way to do it!

Oh, … and it also makes a pretty powerful bomb

What is “nuclear”?Two incentives for developing nuclear fission:

•A country needs energy.•A country needs weapons.

What did we do?

In 1945, the US was planning an invasion of Japan: Operation Downfall

Starting in Okinawa, it would be long and it would be bloody.

What did we do?

Operation Downfall might cost as many as 1 million American casualties.

US President Truman wanted to minimize American casualties. The atomic bomb made that possible.