What if Einstein had not sent the letter to Roosevelt?
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Abstract
The 20th century was unique in known human history for a number of reasons. It holds a brutal human suffering with two planetary wars with unparalleled levels of destruction and genocides of a dramatic scale. It was the century of the explosion of science and its expression in technologies inconceivable in previous times, moving Humanity to new frontiers, well illustrated by the walk of human beings on the Moon. It was the time of the emergence of disruptive social and cultural movements, the time when we found the finitude of the planet that shelters it. Just as was the time of Humanity to acquire the ability of self-destruction through the atomic bomb release of the energy stored in the depths of the atom. The process that led to this includes a crucial element, a letter signed by Albert Einstein to US President Franklin Roosevelt. This essay elaborates on the circumstances that led to the writing of such letter and on what might have happened had it not existed.
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