War Against Iran and the Found Physics Museum

War Against Iran and the Found Physics Museum

This letter is a lightly edited version of one emailed to physics faculty at the University at Albany, State University of New York (USA), on February 26, 2026, two days before the surprise attack launched by forces of the United States and Israel on Iran without declaration of war or formal cessation of negotiations, after what the mediator in those negotiations called a "breakthrough."

Photo: Statue of Minerva, Roman goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare, as opposed to war as it is too often waged, in anger, greed, religious fervor, or other state of cognitive impairment. The picture was taken October 7, 2025, in the Science Library of the University at Albany, State University of New York, a school where Minerva has been an inspiration to students since the 19th century.

Greetings UAlbany Physics Folk,

I hope you’re all well. I write because of the current situation between the United States and Iran. In the past few days, I’ve noticed several visitors from Tehran to my Found Physics Museum, Albany Branch. The website demonstrates a turnkey structure to celebrate and enjoy physics, an activity inherently suited to promoting international amity or, at least, dialogue. This letter presents reasons we might want to do this and a reason we may be obliged to try.

My personal connections to Iran are extensive. I have a cousin by marriage from Iran and got mocked by an uncle for talking at such length with her mother at the rehearsal dinner for her wedding. My physics grew primarily out of efforts to extend the work of a person from Iran whom you know. There are other Iranian people you know whom I hope myself worthy to consider friends.

I remember hearing at the 2016 MaxEnt Conference in Ghent, Belgium, that the idea had been floated of holding the next year’s conference in Iran and feeling disappointed that this could not occur, owing to politics. I remember the social outing at the 2015 MaxEnt Conference, held up the road from UAlbany in Potsdam, New York, where a scientist asked a driver across the table from me at the barbecue grove what country the driver thought the scientist came from. When the scientist’s home was revealed to be Iran, I remarked to the driver that the things people worry about aren’t the things likely to kill them.

Did I come off as condescending and possibly contribute to the rise of Donald Trump? I didn’t mean it that way, but accurate communication requires a measure of trust, or at least familiarity, that may not have had the chance to develop during my brief acquaintance with the driver, not that I assume anything about his attitudes before or after the conversation. I simply will probably never have known him well enough to understand what he heard when I spoke.

Lest I give the wrong impression, I have many complaints about Iran down thousands of years of history. Many, many complaints. I can’t stress enough how strongly I feel against some of the things that have come out of Iran. On the other hand, I strongly favor some of the other things that have come out of Iran. Frankly, the strength of my feelings in both directions concerning Iran reminds me of how I feel about a few of you.

Maybe there would even be an argument for war against Iran in the absence of nuclear-armed potential allies of Iran. In no case should hostilities against Iran commence without Congressional declaration of war, and in this thermonuclear age, no reasonable person should consider expending United States conventional military power on attacking Iran while North Korea is poised to invade South Korea and China to invade Taiwan.

Does it seem madness to imagine global thermonuclear war occurring because the United States had no conventional warfare options with which to respond to those invasions, prosecuted simultaneously? Did you see the piece in New Scientist entitled “AIs can’t stop recommending nuclear strikes in war game simulations”? Have you noticed that AI is deeply integrated already into military planning? By the way, what was the “discombobulator” deployed in the assault on Venezuela? Do you realize how many people salivate over the prospect of global thermonuclear war as the means to end history and trigger the divine renewal of Earth promised in some sacred texts or to acheive revanchist nationalistic ambitions? Have you looked at United States leaders lately? Have you considered the degree to which strategic thought in the United States is warped by the theology of the 3rd-century CE Iranian prophet Mani? Do you have children?

Ah, but Iran does so much harm in the world. Doesn’t morality demand we kill lots and lots of mostly innocent Iranian people to stop the evil some Iranians are up to?

So, are we going to make war against the United Arab Emirates? The UAE funds slaughter in Africa, but a visit to Vice President Fardin Sanai’s LinkedIn page will show just how entangled the University at Albany is with folks in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The money-grubbing filth that runs this world, whether from the top floor of University Hall at UAlbany or the governor’s mansion on Eagle Street downtown or the cities of Washington, DC, or Abu Dhabi, is what we must oppose most vigorously, not the poor folks in Albany's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception or the city of Tehran who’ve been made dull-witted by excesses of genuine moral conviction.

Iran: At least it’s not Switzerland, right?

What am I proposing? Physicists created the problem of nuclear weapons, so we have a special duty to promote discussion of how human civilization will survive the next ten minutes of history. Besides this, we share, across all cultures from which we emerge, certain characteristics, including a love of God’s creation or whatever you’re pleased to call it.

Let’s simply make brief videos worldwide and post them online to celebrate physics, thereby promoting communication at all levels of society among all nations. There’s no need to refer to me. If you like the idea of “found physics,” please feel free to use the term without attribution. Otherwise, please do your own thing. Here’s the website again, to help generate ideas: Found Physics Museum, Albany

Best wishes,
James

P.S. Maybe Mani was misunderstood. That’s all the more reason to promote conversation. Thanks for your time.