ABSTRACT
In the legend of Faustus, a dissatisfied magician and astrologer grows tired of the limits of human knowledge. He sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and mastery, thus sacrificing spiritual values for material gain and power. Adopting this theme, Alvin M. Weinberg wrote of a pact into which atomic scientists had entered for the benefit of themselves and society. He cautioned that "the price that we demand of society for this magical energy source is both a vigilance and a longevity of our social institutions that we are quite unaccustomed to." 1 Others less optimistic than Weinberg argued that the atomic quandary had revolutionized all political relationships. To Bertrand Goldschmidt, the problem of atomic energy had "outrun human comprehension and control. The problems raised, the orders of magnitude involved and the consequences to which it could lead are no longer on the human scale. . . . Only a completely international solution seems valid, for the whole problem, from its foundations to its furthermost extensions, must be tackled as an entity." 2
