Some Sociological Consequences of Atomic Power

Abstract

FUNDAMENTALLY, the sociological study of atomic power is only a special case of the sociological study of innovation. The history of any one novel idea has, of course, no determinative value so far as any other new configuration of ideas goes. There are nevertheless some general principles of innovation, based on an analysis of innovation as a mental process and on consideration of the experience of prior inventions among diverse social groups.1 The application of certain of these principles to atomic power can serve two purposes. First, it can replace the aura of mystery and glamour which in the last few years has too frequently substituted for a more rigorous frame of analysis. Second, it can prevent the kind of unwarranted speculations about the far-reaching changes in social organization which are likely to be logical derivations of any consideration of nuclear development based principally on unbridled imagination and wishful thinking.