CNS Seminar by Martin E. Hellman: How Risky is Nuclear Optimism?

In Commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis a Special Lecture by Stanford University Professor Emeritus Martin Hellman

?How Risky is Nuclear Optimism??

Speaker

Martin E. Hellman

What is the risk of nuclear deterrence failing and civilization being destroyed? If that risk were 0.2% per year, a child born today would have roughly one chance in six of being killed during his or her 80-year life expected life - equivalent to playing Russian roulette with a gun pointed at that childs head. Just because some say “nuclear weapons have kept us safe for sixty plus years” does not mean nuclear deterrence is safe. This talk explores the applicability of quantitative risk analysis to addressing the critical question: “How safe is nuclear deterrence”?

Martin E. Hellman is Professor Emeritus of Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. Before joining Stanfords faculty in 1971, he taught at MIT and was on the research staff at IBMs Watson Research Center. Hellman is best known for his invention, joint with Diffie and Merkle, of public key cryptography - the technology that provides secure communications over the Internet. His many honors include induction into the National Academy of Engineering and the National Inventor?s Hall of Fame. His current project involves the application of risk analysis to a potential failure of nuclear deterrence.