Where would you set the hand?

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Mar 9, 2005
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#1


The doomsday clock was invented in 1947 by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists following the use of atomic weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The minute hand is positioned to reflect the volatility of the current nuclear situation and has changed several times in accordance to this volatility. It started at 7 minutes to midnight and has since then moved back and forth constantly;

1949 - 3 minutes to midnight - Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb
1953 - 2 minutes to midnight - Soviet Union and U.S. both test bombs within 9 months of each other
1960 - 7 minutes to midnight - Increased scientific cooperation and public understanding of the dangers of nuclear weapons sets the clock back
1963 - 12 minutes to midnight - Soviet Union and the U.S. sign the partial test ban treaty
1968 - 7 minutes to midnight - France and China acquire and test nuclear weapons
1969 - 10 minutes to midnight - The U.S. Senate ratifies the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
1972 - 12 minutes to midnight - The United States and the Soviet Union sign the SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
1974 - 9 minutes to midnight - India tests a nuclear device (Smiling Buddha), SALT II talks stall.
1980 - 7 minutes to midnight - Further deadlock in US-USSR talks.
1981 - 4 minutes to midnight - Arms race escalates, conflicts in Afghanistan, South Africa, and Poland add to world tension.
1984 - 3 minutes to midnight - Further escalation of the arms race under the U.S. policies of Ronald Reagan.
1988 - 6 minutes to midnight - The U.S. and the Soviet Union sign treaty to eliminate intermediate-range nuclear forces.
1990 - 10 minutes to midnight - Fall of the Berlin Wall, success of anti-communist movements in Eastern Europe, Cold War nearing an end.
1991 - 17 minutes to midnight - United States and Soviet Union sign the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.
1995 - 14 minutes to midnight - concerns about post-Soviet nuclear proliferation of weapons and brainpower.
1998 - 9 minutes to midnight - Both India and Pakistan test nuclear weapons in a tit-for-tat show of aggression.
2002 - 7 minutes to midnight - Little progress on global nuclear disarmament; United States rejects a series of arms control treaties and announces its intentions to withdraw from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty; terrorists seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

Do you consider 7 minutes to be accurate? Or do you consider the threat of nuclear weapons either greater (closer to midnight) or lesser (further away from midnight) than the current position?
 
Mar 9, 2005
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#3
So you'd set the hand to 3 minutes to midnight? Damn, thats pessimistic of you! Still, you might not be far off.
 
Mar 9, 2005
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#9
California Bear said:
i'd set it right up your ass hutch because we're all fucked
Aw, how nice! It's arse by the way, I don't have a donkey.

I'd probably put it back at 8 or 9 minutes myself - there is definitely a chance that a nuclear weapon will be used soon, but considering the current situation I don't think the chance is that high. Sure, 'terrorists' might get hold of a suitcase nuke or some such device, but Russia isn't going to start anything, nor is England or France - maybe India and Pakistan might decide it's time to finish their squabbles, and China and the US present another small possibility, but the current situation is nothing compared to the cold war and the Cuban missile crisis.