From the fantastic blog, Letters of Note.
Circa 1986, Jeremy Stone (then-President of the Federation of American Scientists) asked Owen Chamberlain to forward to him any ideas he may have which would ‘make useful arms control initiatives’. Chamberlain – a highly intelligent, hugely influential Nobel laureate in physics who discovered the antiproton – responded with the fantastic letter seen below, the contents of which I won’t mention for fear of spoiling your experience. Unfortunately, although I can’t imagine the letter to be anything but satirical, I’m uninformed when it comes to Chamberlain’s sense of humour and have no way of verifying my belief. Even the Bancroft Library labels it as ‘possibly tongue-in-cheek’.
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December 17, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Mort Dubois
Isn’t this idea as old as the hills? My recollection is that this was commonly done throughout human history.
December 21, 2009 at 7:44 am
Michael Turner
Indeed, I call Japan’s Tokugawa Period “the world’s longest-running hostage crisis.”