The nuclear bomb told us we are the greatest threat to our own survival – and the covid-19 pandemic shows the lessons still to learn, say Anders Sandberg and Thomas Moynihan
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| What Hiroshima teaches us about covid and the future of humanity |
ON 6 AUGUST 1945, a nuclear bomb was dropped on the Japanese port city of Hiroshima. Three days later, Nagasaki suffered the same fate. Three-quarters of a century on, the full human toll is still unclear. In Hiroshima alone, some 75,000 souls were obliterated instantly, with many more deaths in the following months and years.
These are the only times nuclear weapons have been used in war; debates about the rights and wrongs continue.