Exorcising Ghosts in the Age of Automation: United Nations Experts and Atoms for Peace

Abstract

This paper evaluates the outlooks and goals of those who helped to put Eisenhower's "Atoms for Peace" into action at the international level, as experts working with the United Nations, particularly through the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It highlights of the failure of UNESCO to play a leading role in the scientific assessments of Atoms for Peace, and focuses upon the role of social scientists in the formation of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The social scientists believed that the major challenges to society would come from industrial automation, of which atomic technology was only one part. They downplayed negative effects of atomic technology, embraced the Eisenhower administration's drive to export the peaceful atom, and tried to prepare the lay public for it by reducing its fear. The paper discusses the concepts of public irrationality and technological accommodation.

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