On Thermonuclear WarHerman Kahn, Evan Jones
On Thermonuclear War
by Herman Kahn, Evan Jones · first published 2017
12mentions
1recommended by
7HN commenters
2014–2024first – last mentioned
14% recommend86% neutral
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2014–2018The worlds of Herman Kahn
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi
Recommended by 1 · mentioned by 21 recommend · 2 mention1 recommend · 21 recommend
2022–2023The bomb
Kaplan, Fred
Recommended by 5 · mentioned by 65 recommend · 6 mention5 recommend · 65 recommend
2018–2026The Doomsday Machine
Daniel Ellsberg
Recommended by 19 · mentioned by 2919 recommend · 29 mention19 recommend · 2919 recommend
2010–2026The dead hand
David E. Hoffman
Recommended by 17 · mentioned by 2117 recommend · 21 mention17 recommend · 2117 recommend
2013–2026Command and Control
Eric Schlosser
Recommended by 100 · mentioned by 135100 recommend · 135 mention100 recommend · 135100 recommend
…hole. Could be fun to see how far you can get with unclassified sources, for various peculiar values of “fun” until you turn into a character from Strangelove yourself. The classic starting point is On Thermonuclear War, 1960, Kahn. Now that I think of it, Kahn died in the early 1980s. If he reincarnated immediately, he’d be in his mid 30s. How old are you, landfish? Is that you, Kahn? For everyone else, repeat…
on “Nuclear war is unlikely to cause human extinction?” ↗…RAND was enormously influential in US and world politics and technology in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. People who worked at RAND included the nuclear strategist Herman Kahn, who wrote a horrifying book On Thermonuclear War and become one of the models for Dr. Strangelove (in that movie it's called the BLAND Corportation), Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked a copy of the Pentagon Papers secret history of the Vietnam War he found…
on “Ask HN: What is a think tank? What is the history behind such a thing?” ↗…shelves, waiting to be read. "Command and Control" by Eric Schlosser, "Raven Rock: the story of the U.S. government's secret plan to save itself" by Garrett Graff for a historical, US-centric overview. "On Thermonuclear War" by Herman Kahn for a more technical, if somewhat outdated, analysis. "The Bomb" by Fred Kaplan, "The 300" by Daniel Wasserbly, and "The Dead Hand" by David Hoffman.
on “Ask HN: Best resources to learn about nuclear war risks?” ↗…until the 1980s. Whether the film merely anticipated or actually inspired the weapons management system isn't clear. American Cold War strategist and generally charming sprite Herman Kahn's 1960 book On Thermonuclear War inspired Kubrik. https://archive.org/details/onthermonuclearw00kahn/page/n5/m...
on “E-6B Mercury airborne command just went active on east/west coasts” ↗One of the co-authors here is Herman Kahn, the nuclear strategist. He wrote On Thermonuclear War in 1960, which made him one of the models for Dr. Strangelove - some of the lines in the movie are direct quotes from that book. Later he became a utopian (or dystopian) futurist - when he wrote a book…
on “Techniques of Systems Analysis (1957) [pdf]” ↗Herman Kahn was most famous as a nuclear strategist -- he wrote On Thermonuclear War in 1960, which made him one of the models for Dr. Strangelove - some of the lines in the movie are direct quotes from his book. Later he became a utopian (or dystopian) futurist - when he wrote a book…
on “Herman Kahn's Utopia – 1968 documentary clip (3 min video)” ↗"... But one source was Kahn. Strangelove’s rhapsodic monologue about preserving specimens of the race in deep mineshafts is an only slightly parodic version of Kahn. There were so many lines from “On Thermonuclear War” in the movie, in fact, that Kahn complained that he should get royalties. (“It doesn’t work that way,” Kubrick told him.)" https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/06/27/fat-man
on “Techniques of Systems Analysis (1957) [pdf]” ↗…some of the dialogue in “Dr. Strangelove,” came from the work of Herman Kahn of the RAND Corp., an Air Force-funded California think tank. Kubrick read Kahn’s work carefully, especially his influential On Thermonuclear War (1960). General Turgidson’s upbeat assessment of the outcome of an all-out nuclear exchange directly paraphrases Kahn’s analysis. https://www.armscontrol.org/print/1715 (Apparently he does mention von…
on “The Unparalleled Genius of John von Neumann” ↗…historically used them as a bargaining chip or trump card. Employing them, on the other hand.. To add to more Nuclear War / Strategic Theory info is another RAND fellow, Herman Kahn[0][1], and his book On Thermonuclear War [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn [1] https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/06/27/fat-man [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Thermonuclear_War
on “The Vela Incident (1979)” ↗He was at least partly based on Herman Kahn[0], author of the book "On Thermonuclear War" [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman_Kahn
on “Dr Strangelove at 60” ↗…scam or a power trip right out of Foucault. So no wonder a state rep from the Bronx will insist that we subsidize off-track betting to save jobs. In this classic book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Thermonuclear_War Kahn points out that if the cities of the US were destroyed we could reconstruct them in 40 or so years based on resources from the countryside. If it was turned around the city people just die.
on “Cells have more mini 'organs' than researchers thought” ↗I believe On Thermonuclear War, 1960, by Kahn alone, must be that book.
on “Techniques of Systems Analysis (1957) [pdf]” ↗