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Herman Kahn
Sign in to saveAmerican futurist noted for his views on nature of thermonuclear war (1922–1983)
OverviewAI-generated
Herman Kahn was an American mathematician, futurist, and lobbyist. He was educated at the California Institute of Technology and the University of California, Los Angeles. His professional career included work as a physicist, systems theorist, military strategist, and futurologist. He was employed by the RAND Corporation.
Kahn was born in Bayonne and died in Chappaqua. He held United States citizenship and spoke English. His worldview was atheistic. He died of a myocardial infarction in 1983, with natural causes listed as the manner of death.
Synthesized by Vinony from 25 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, VIAF. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Authority record · VIAF
- Lifespan
- 1922–1983
- Nationality
- US, XXU, USA, XX
- Role / Field
- Physicists, Futurologists, Systems theorist, Military strategist, Matematicos, Fizika
- Language
- eng
- Gender
- Male
Recorded by 32 libraries
via VIAF · OCLC
Key facts
- Born
- ( 1922-02-15 ) February 15, 1922, Bayonne, New Jersey , U.S.
- Died
- July 7, 1983 (1983-07-07) (aged 61), Chappaqua, New York , U.S.
- Alma mater
- University of California, Los Angeles ( BS ), California Institute of Technology ( MS )
- Occupations
- Futurist Military strategist Systems theorist
- Known for
- Nuclear strategy
- Notable work
- On Thermonuclear War
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Herman
- Family name
- Kahn
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Bayonne
- Place of death
- Chappaqua
- Occupation
- lobbyist
- Educated at
- University of California, Los Angeles
- Employer
- RAND Corporation
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Religion
- atheism
- Image
- Interview with Herman Kahn, author of On Escalation, May 11, 1965.jpg
Show 7 more facts
- Commons category
- Herman Kahn
- date of death
- 1983-07-07
- date of birth
- 1922-02-15
- cause of death
- myocardial infarction
- manner of death
- natural causes
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- subject has role
- cornucopian
via Wikidata · CC0
~33 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Herman Kahn (February 15, 1922 – July 7, 1983) was an American physicist and a founding member of the Hudson Institute, regarded as an eminent futurist of the latter part of the twentieth century.
He originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems theorist while employed at the RAND Corporation. There, he analyzed the likely consequences of nuclear war and recommended ways to improve survivability during the Cold War. Kahn posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War, for which he was one of the historical inspirations for the eponymous character of Stanley Kubrick's classic black comedy film satire Dr. Strangelove. In his commentary for Fail Safe, director Sidney Lumet remarked that the Professor Groeteschele character is also based on Herman Kahn.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Herman Kahn” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.