That's a good example of a different kind of intelligence. Impulse control is solely governed by emotional intelligence, whereas people that exceed in any other areas have very poor control of their emotions and thus impulses:
  • Einstein is well known for being emotionally and physically abusive to his wives to an horrifying degree, entirely driven by unconstrained circumstantial whims.
  • Feynman had routine attacks of rage, violently attacking his wife and destroying furniture at reach for the sole reason of feeling bothered by her whenever she tried to say a word.
  • John Nash was abusive to his wife out of hubris.
  • Oppenheimer was prone to sudden violent impulses, once jumping over and trying to choke a friend for a joke he made.
Oppenheimer was also a Russian spy lol
There is an inverse correlation between IQ and violence. Violent criminals tend to have low IQ.
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I seriously doubt it, such an emotionally unstable person can't be trusted for such an intense task, which is also a permanent state: he couldn't stand a joke, I don't think he could stand the 24/7 death threat of being a traitor to the most powerful nation of the world on THE most delicate possible matter ever. On top of that, he never suffered any grim consequences other than ostracism when he tried to counter the MAD doctrine. Had the services had the slightest suspicion on a true involvement of his on such activities he would have faced the same fate Turing did.
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Oppenheimer lost his security clearance. Teller spoke against him.
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I know he was distrusted for his political inclinations, and the final straw was his fervent anti MAD stance, but had he been found acting as a spy he would have been immediately prosecuted on all fairness, there was no reason at all for letting him live, with all of the knowledge (and internal knowledge) he already had, if he was suspected of being a spy. It would have been extremely dangerous.
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